Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections September 2017 - 4

President Report - Linda S. Ford
Following our successful 32nd Annual
Meeting in Denver, Colorado, USA,
the new organizational year of the
Society for the Preservation of Natural
History Collections had a very active
start. The SPNHC annual meeting
held from 18 to 24 June was hosted
by the Denver Museum of Nature
& Science and the Denver Botanic
Gardens. The theme of the meeting
was "The Next Generation in Best
Practices," ensuring stimulated and
provocative conversations regarding
the various new challenges that collections face. Kelly Tomajko and
the Local Organizing Committee did a fantastic job preparing and
facilitating the program, including multiple concurrent sessions and
11 topical workshops on relevant and important collections topics.
The success of their efforts is evidenced by 439 participants from
11 countries.

"Looking forward, we welcome Marcia Revelez as Managing Editor of the Society;
Amanda Lawrence and Deborah Paul as newly elected
Members-at-Large; Dan
Young as the SPNHC representative of the Entomological
Collections Network (ECN);
and Catharine Hawks as the
SPNHC representative to the
Heritage Emergency National
Task Force (HENTF)."
In Denver, we recognized several of our members and colleagues
with special awards. The Local Organizing Committee for SPNHC
2017 and members of iDigBio both received the SPNHC Special
Service Award, and the cabinet-design company Delta Designs LTD
received the SPNHC Vendor Recognition Award. It was the first
time for the new Vendor Recognition Award to be presented. This
award was initiated to recognize long-term support of the Society
by a commercial organization. SPNHC's Special Service Award to
iDigBio makes explicit this Society's appreciation for the special
efforts made by iDigBio members to ensure the success of an
important SPNHC activity such as digitization, which is an integral
4 * SPNHC Connection

part of present-day natural history collections. A letter of appreciation was written on behalf of the Society by current SPNHC
President Ford, Past President Bentley and President Elect Thiers.
The iDigBio letter is in this SPNHC newsletter.
In the Denver plenary session, I had the pleasure as President to
present a talk titled, "SPNHC & Best Practices: United in History
& Integrated for the Future." In preparing for this presentation, I
was inspired by the mounting evidence that over the past 32 years,
our international scope, our multidisciplinary approach and our active pursuit of best practices has been a formula for success for the
Society. Today, the best practices established for objects and their
associated data have become a fundamental part of the day-to-day
care of natural history collections. As evidenced by its historical
achievements and professional development, the Society's proven
best-practice strategies, propagated and practiced by a dedicated
membership, illuminates how well-poised SPNHC is for the next
generation of best practices.
At the council meeting in Denver, a new Members-at-Large (MaL)
proposal was approved. The new protocol allows for the MaL to
be informed of the Society's activities, ensures the active involvement of the SPNHC committees in defining MaL tasks, clarifies the
Society's expectations of the MaL, and assures the dissemination
of the achievements of the MaL as they conduct their duties and responsibilities. The Executive Committee will fully implement these
protocols in the new organizational year.
At the end of July, as a member of the Steering Committee for the
Biodiversity Collections Network (BCoN), an RCN funded through
NSF BIO, I attended a strategy workshop in Washington, DC. The
committee was brought together to scope out workshop proposals that serve to promote and develop a community of practices to
help advance and sustain digitized biocollections and to make them
available to researchers, educators, informed decision-makers and
the public. The meeting was very successful and members will be
hearing more about BCoN soon.
I would like to thank those who completed terms of service or
stepped down this past organizational year. Julian Carter and Melinda Peters completed their service as Members-at-Large. Those
who stepped down included Chris Johnson as Managing Editor of
the Society; Kelly Tomajko as Member-at-Large; Marcia Revelez
and Kelly Tomajko as the North American Vender Liaisons on the
Conference Committee; and Floyd Shockley as the SPNHC representative of the Entomological Collections Network (ECN). I especially wish to acknowledge and thank Christine Johnson, who in the
last three years as Managing Editor, has done a great job maintaining connections and procedures, and especially for reinforcing
SPNHC's professional image through its publications.
Looking forward, we welcome Marcia Revelez as Managing Editor
of the Society; Amanda Lawrence and Deborah Paul as newly elected Members-at-Large; Dan Young as the SPNHC representative
of the Entomological Collections Network (ECN); and Catharine
Hawks as the SPNHC representative to the Heritage Emergency
National Task Force (HENTF). I look forward to working closely
with all of them in what's shaping up to be a very productive year!

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections September 2017