WMA President Aldona Jonaitis

Dear WMA members-

The WMA Board just met up in Portland for two days of planning sessions at the Doubletree Hotel, site of this fall's 75th meeting of the Western Museums Association.  The Board Meeting followed the Program Committee meeting that had met the two days before.  The Board Meeting was a truly wonderful meeting, for several reasons.

One, and perhaps of most immediate importance, is that we ended 2009 in the black.  We avoided the significant deficit we feared and thus are stable financially now and for this coming year.  Thanks for your support!

Two, we have been able to run the organization on a purely volunteer basis for several months.  Memberships are coming in, the conference is shaping up brilliantly, and the website is functioning well.  Let me once again thank our dedicated board for their work in keeping WMA going.

Third, we engaged in a good brainstorming session on the future of WMA.  A major result of this process was our decision to reinvigorate our efforts at reaching out to the state associations as well as other museum affiliated groups in order to learn how we can serve them better.  That will be a major goal this coming year.  We will need your help and your feedback.  And I look forward to the involvement of many WMA members in this effort.

Please visit this website frequently over the next months, as we post more information on our conference as well as our service to the museum community.

Warmly,

Aldona Jonaitis

President, WMA Board