December Meeting Minutes

ECPN MEETING MINUTES

December 16, 2010

Conference Call Attendees:
Ryan Winfield

Karen Pavelka

Amy Brost

Heather Brown

Rose Daly

Ruth Seyler

Stephanie Porto

I. ECPN November meeting minutes approved unanimously

II. Angels Project (Ryan)

a. Site selection in progress. Send ideas to Ruth Seyler. One idea is to use CAP (Conservation Assessment Program) applications, because those sites self-selected for assistance. Decision to come early 2011. Amy and Ruth can work together on publicity as needed; AIC generally handles press releases and media relations for the annual meeting and Angels Project. ECPN members should forward media contacts to Ruth.

III. 2011 AIC Meeting – ECPN Poster (Heather/Amy)

a. Heather received abstract updates from Rose. Amy will create the poster following the ‘2011 Poster Guidelines’ document, using the committee charge plus bullets about initiatives in each area. Amy will reach out to Morgan Gilpatrick, AIC Communications Director, for AIC logo and design guidelines.

b. Coordinators will provide a couple of bullet points about their initiatives to Amy for the poster, along with any print-quality images they might have. Rose will notify Carrie and Amber about bullet points.

c. Images will include a few “actions shots” and/or photos to identify ECPN members. Some images from ECPN and AIC Flickr pages may be used.

IV. 2011 AIC Meeting – ECPN Dinner (Heather)

a. Group determined that McGillin’s Olde Ale House was the best choice. Dinner to be informal, drop-in style, 6-10 pm on Friday. Talks end at 5:30 that day, so 6 pm is ideal.

V. 2011 AIC Meeting – ECPN Business Meeting (Rose)

a. Business meeting will take place 5:30-6:30 pm on Tuesday. No food needed. Rose will explore whether Skype or audioconferencing could be used to involve more people, but Ruth advised that the hotel will charge for this.

VI. AIC Website, CoOL and Student Research Database (Ryan)

a. The AIC website is in transition, and CoOL is being transitioned to AIC servers from Stanford, the long-time host. Per Ryan, hold the discussion about the possibility of hosting the Student Research Database as part of CoOL until after the transition. Since CoOL requests go through Nancie Ravenel, Carrie could speak with her about this possibility.

VII. Mentoring Program (Ryan)

a. This program is still in the early stages, with the first group of matches recently completed (15 mentor-mentee pairs). Prior to that, there was a small test group. The program has run for one year so far.

b. The following deadlines were added to the webpage by Ryan: 3/1, 6/1, 9/1, and 12/1. All the data collected from the online application flows into a spreadsheet that can be used to manage the matching process. Currently, mentor requests exceed mentor applications, but Rose and Ryan are able to make inquiries with potential mentors when a prospective mentee applies.

c. A survey is being developed to measure the effectiveness of the program. Anecdotal feedback indicates that some matches have been very successful, while some did not generate a sustained connection. Survey results could be used to help promote the program online and in the newsletter (“Success stories”)

d. Developing FAQ’s for mentors and mentees could also be helpful.

VIII. AIC News Articles from ECPN (Amy/Heather)

a. Topic #1 – ECPN at the 2011 AIC Annual Meeting (Amy). Deadline is February 1 for March issue. Include Angels Project if determined.

b. Topic #2 – Mentoring Program (Heather). Deadline is April 1 for May issue. Will be a good time to promote applications by the 6/1 deadline.

IX. OSG Wiki

a. Amy brought a request from Rachael Perkins Arenstein, e-Editor, to find out how to involve ECPN in expanding the OSG Wiki. Ideas included:

b. Reach out to training program heads, so they can inform their graduate students of the opportunity to publish on the Wiki and help their peers

c. Reach out to institutions that have fellowships in objects conservation (Straus at Harvard, NMAI, Cleveland, Detroit, Atlanta, etc.) so they can inform fellows

d. Promote the idea in ECPN materials and add Wikis to the committee charge

e. Promote the idea at ECPN activities at the 2011 AIC Meeting

f. Need to ensure quality control on the Wikis, and with cooperation from training program faculty, could vet student work for inclusion.

g. Amy will get back to Rachael with this list of ideas. Find out if Rachael will do the actual posting or if institutions would post directly to the Wiki. Also, ask Rachael to put a request out to the specialty groups to find out which ones are interested in involving students and post-graduate fellows in creating Wiki content.

h. Stephanie Porto (ECC liaison and chair of the RATS specialty group) mentioned that she would be interested in students contributing content to the RATS Wiki.

X. Outreach Update (Heather)

a. Everyone praised the “10 Tips” series on the blog. Very substantial.

b. Rose suggested that the next series on the blog could be the “Top 10” things to know about private practice. Heather suggested profiles of people in private practice who give their own top 10 list, and perhaps have someone from each specialty, since the needs are so different. Each person profiled might also be willing to share a “Resources” list for their specialty, to help other conservators starting out in the same specialty and procuring supplies, which could accompany the blog post.

c. Heather/Rose to explore rolling ECPN Flickr page into AIC Flickr page.

d. Heather to draft AIC news column about the Mentor Program.

XI. Communications Update (Amy)

a. Flier text is complete and was reviewed on a prior call. Ryan provided Morgan Gilpatrick’s contact information. Amy to follow up to ask about logos and design guidelines, and then lay out the flier as letter-size PDF.

b. Amy suggested the flier format with detachable wallet card might be good for the 2011 AIC conference bag, or as a take-one at the poster.

c. Amy to provide a draft of news column about ECPN at the AIC meeting for the next call for review (due date Feb. 1)

d. Upon receipt of design guidelines and coordinator bullet lists/images, Amy will lay out the poster.

XII. Portfolio Review Sessions (Rose)

a. It would be ideal to offer portfolio reviews at the 2011 AIC meeting, perhaps two representatives from each school, one showing the pre-program portfolio and one showing the graduate-level portfolio. Portfolio reviews are an opportunity for both pre-program and graduate students.

b. Rose and Amber are following up with the graduate programs to see if any students will volunteer to present their portfolios. Need a good distribution of students from the various programs, as well as examples of both types of portfolios.

c. Compile and distribute links to students’ online portfolios, so pre-program and students-in-training can learn from them.

Next conference call 1 PM EST, Thursday, January 21, 2011.

Respectfully submitted,

Amy Brost