Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections March 2018 - 7

Society Reports
on July 4, 2018.
The Field Museum hosted a meeting in October 2017 to kick
off planning for the 34th annual SPNHC conference in Chicago. Representing SPNHC were Barbara Thiers, Conference
Committee chair and president-elect; Kelly Tomajko, chair of
the LOC for the 2017 Denver meeting, and Elise Lecompte,
chair of the LOC for the 2015 Gainesville meeting. Tim
White, chair of the 2012 Yale conference attended remotely.
We met for two days to transfer SPNHC conference knowledge to the Field Museum staff who make up the LOC for the
meeting, which will be held May 25-31, 2019, at the Chicago
Hilton near the Museum. The proposed theme for the meeting
is "Making the Case for Natural History Collections."
SPNHC has accepted the offer from the Edinburgh Botanic
Garden and the National Museum of Scotland, to host the
35th annual SPNHC conference in July 2020, and planning
for this conference has begun. We are currently looking for an
offer to host the 2021 conference.
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara M. Thiers, Chair

Conservation Committee
Food in Museums

The Food subcommittee submitted an
accepted session proposal to the AAM
2018 annual meeting entitled "Can one
food policy unite us all?" that will be
presented in Phoenix, Arizona in May.
This roundtable session aims to prepare
museum professionals in all departments to create and maintain institutional food and beverage policies that
work for everyone. Participants will
discuss a food-based event scenario that
challenges multiple viewpoints, and
share their conclusions with the larger
group, figuring out a way for museums
to have their cake and eat it too. Join us
in Phoenix!

Preservation Environments

The committee will write a summary of recent museum
industry standards for preservation environments with additional information on the unique temperature and relative
humidity needs of natural history collections.
Respectfully submitted,
Rebecca Newberry and Fran Ritchie, Co-chairs

Elections Committee
Elections Online (http://www.electionsonline.us/) was used again exclusively
this year. The fee from Elections Online
was $363.28.
Positions filled are President Elect, Secretary, and two Members-at-Large. The
successful candidates are:
PRESIDENT-ELECT - Debra Trock,
California Academy of Sciences
SECRETARY - Cindy Opitz, University of Iowa Museum of
Natural History
MEMBER-AT-LARGE - Talia Karim, CU Museum of
Natural History
MEMBER-AT-LARGE - Fran Ritchie, American Museum
of Natural History
There were five nominations for President-elect, and two
agreed to stand. There were two nominations for Secretary,
and two agreed to stand. There were eight nominations for
MAL, and five agreed to stand.
The election started with an email message sent to all members on a voting list (provided to Elections Online based on
the Treasurer's most recent membership list as of November
2017). At the close of the election on December 31, 2017, the
total number of returned ballots was 253 or 38.80% of the
eligible members-a decrease of 13.32% from the previous

Resource Display Unit

The committee is currently working on the next generation
of the RDU, including a digital template for basic materials
information, with the ultimate goal of adding to the SPNHC
wiki; decision-tree posters to help museum professionals
understand how to choose the best materials and resources
for collections; physical material samples for the SPNHC
Membership booth; and customized material and vendor lists
for different world regions.
March 2018 * 7

http://www.electionsonline.us/ http://www.electionsonline.us/

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