A Rising Tide:
Sustainable Practices, Green & Beyond
The Western Museums Association 2009 Annual Meeting
October 25 - 29, 2009 San Diego, California

Like a rising tide, the feared consequences of climate change have made sustainability the social movement of our time. But sustainable practices don’t just apply to the environment. All museums face the challenges of sustaining collections, audience, relevance, financial strength, staff and volunteers, donors and members, the board, and, ultimately, sustaining their very future. Whatever the challenge, sustainability requires balancing the needs and demands of the present with those of the future, and the choices can be difficult.

Gathering at ocean’s edge in sunny San Diego, we’ll explore how museums across the West are embracing the opportunities and challenges of sustainability in all its forms. How are museums assuring that expanding collections continue to be preserved, accessible and interpreted in the future? What strategies are being employed for cultivating tomorrow’s audiences? How are museums assuring that they remain relevant, and for whom? Is a large endowment the answer? What is the role of new media, the web and technology? What are the best practices for sustaining a vibrant work force?

The good news is that a rising tide lifts all boats. We all benefit when we share and learn together – come get lifted with your colleagues in San Diego!

Propose a session and be a part of the tides of change.


Program Committee Chairs

Ed Prohaska
Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Enterprise Development
Monterrey Bay Aquarium

Rosalind Bedell
Volunteer and Human Resources Director
Nevada Museum of Art

PROPOSAL GUIDELINES

A Rising Tide: Museums Embrace Sustainable Practices is the theme of the 2009 annual meeting of the Western Museums Association (WMA) which represents art museums, historical societies, science centers, natural history museums, children's' museums, zoos and botanical gardens. The headquarters hotel for the annual meeting is the Catamaran Hotel in San Diego.

The annual meeting is planned and organized by a group of your peers from within and outside the WMA. All annual meeting sessions are proposed from the field and are reviewed by a Program Committee comprised of about 25 professionals representing diverse museums and other organizations from throughout the region. The Program Committee is interested in sessions that address a wide range of subjects and the needs of our museum community-large or small, urban or rural, old or new.

We invite you to submit proposals for lively, thoughtful and interactive sessions that explore aspects of this year's theme as they relate to the work you and your organization do. Examples of topics include:

- examples of best practices in museums; reflections on successes and failures; explorations of professional courage; articulations of our core values as museums; how we cope with change and advances in technology; how we rejuvenate ourselves and our staff.

- examinations of who we are, whom we serve, and what it means to be authentic in our work.

- strategies for museums to build their potential to be effective, meaningful organizations and to sustain themselves, their communities, and their society.

Conference sessions may be structured in anyone of the following ways, or by another means of delivery that is well thought out and described:

Panel or Dialogue: Breakout sessions are 90 minutes in length with a maximum of three speakers. A session generally features a moderator that briefly introduces the topic and presenters that formally address it in some detail (sometimes the moderator also serves as a presenter). The session concludes with a general question and answer period. The Dialogue session also uses a moderator, but differs in that presenters are limited to brief remarks, a responder summarizes the topic, and the audience is engaged in a 40-minute dialogue on the topic. Ideally, sessions include speakers from a variety of museums and disciplines to provide a broad discussion and different perspectives on the topic - keep in mind that delegates attending the conference are from a variety of museums and disciplines. You may frame your session as a case study, a demonstration, or project report, but keep in mind that your session must be relevant and of interest to delegates not in your specific area. For instance, a case study could include a respondent to provide an objective outside perspective on the project you are presenting. You must also build time into your session to ensure that your presenters will engage with the audience and provide time for questions.

Roundtable: A facilitated discussion on a pre-selected topic. The emphasis is on participant discussion - there are no presentations given, except the facilitator should introduce the topic.

Preconference Workshop: Hands-on, participatory style sessions, presented the day preceding the conference, generally full or half day. Due to the resources required to develop these workshops, they are, with few exceptions, sponsored by an affiliate organization like a standing professional committee or another membership organization that will help to bring in a constituency. We generally cannot make exceptions to this policy, however you may contact the WMA office to discuss any ideas you may have. Preconference workshops are scheduled for Wednesday, October 25th only. The costs of the workshop are paid in a separate registration fee by the delegate. Please contact WMA for additional policies regarding these workshops.

All proposers are strongly encouraged to consider a range of ethnic, geographic, gender, and size/type of institutional representations in the development of their sessions. We are interested in broad and meaningful perspectives. Generally, sessions without broad perspectives are unlikely to be accepted.

The proposal should ideally provide a 75 -100 word description (approximate is OK) of the session - the number of words corresponds to the text we would include in a program, so you are being judged here on your ability to clearly, enthusiastically, and efficiently describe the point of your session. The description should include the focus of the session and the goals to be achieved. Include a clear and concise session title (creative titles are OK but should be accurately descriptive). If necessary, additional supplementary information may be described after the shorter description and may include any additional explanatory information if you feel the committee might gain a greater understanding of your session content and purpose (understand that the committee has very limited time to review this extraneous material.)

An initial list of speakers that you want to be considered on your panel must be included. You must indicate any contact you have made with potential speakers in developing your session to give the committee a better idea of how fully formed your session is. At this point, these speakers are not confirmed - because the session has not been accepted yet - please communicate this in your discussions with potential speakers if you contact them at this stage-they will only be contacted by the committee if (1) the committee accepts them as a speaker on your session, and (2) we notify you that your session is accepted. VERY IMPORTANT: during the program committee's review process at their November meeting, the committee will frequently suggest alternative speakers in attempting to help you broaden your session, or for a variety of other reasons and may require changes in order for your session to be accepted. If speakers that you have contacted are not acceptable to the committee it is your responsibility to communicate with them to let them know the status of your proposal and the status of their participation. We only send communication to confirmed panelists on accepted sessions later in the process.

The more fully developed and clear your proposal, the more effectively the Program Committee will be able to understand and evaluate it. This process is competitive and underdeveloped proposals will be less likely to attain a high score with the committee. The individuals serving on the 2008 program committee have been chosen for their experience in the field, the respect of their peers, and their broad network of contacts, and they reserve the right to make changes to your session proposal or your speaker list if they feel it will strengthen the quality of your session. Committee members are happy to work with you on any changes they propose. Your cooperation in working with the committee on changes is required to secure acceptance for the program.

POLICY ON FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FOR PARTICIPANTS IN THE CONFERENCE The Western Museums Association does not provide remuneration or travel reimbursement to moderators or speakers participating in conference sessions. The WMA is a non-profit association that supports professional development in the field, and we welcome participation from those individuals interested in making this professional
contribution to their peers. The willingness of so many individuals to give their time and expertise to this effort ensures that the conference continues to be affordable to the widest possible audience. In exchange for this service to our field, presenters are provided with a discount on their conference registration if they desire to attend the entire conference. Their registration is waived if they are only attending the day of their presentation.

POLICY ON CONSULTANTS AND FOR-PROFIT SERVICE PROVIDERS PROPOSING SESSIONS We encourage session proposals from company representatives and private consultants. However, we do have some policies and advice specific to your proposal so that your participation in our meeting will be most effective:

(1) Your session must address an issue or topic in an objective manner. If you are attending the meeting for the purpose of promoting your products and services we provide an alternative venue for you to achieve this in our exhibit hall, or through advertising in our program. Please review our current Corporate Guide for this purpose. During your session, it is OK for you to present your work, but it must be done in a manner that addresses a broad context and that avoids specifically endorsing your business. If you are unsure of how to accomplish this, please feel free to contact the WMA office with your questions and concerns to help develop your proposal.

(2) In most cases, the preference is for you to serve as a speaker, with a museum professional as moderator (preferably not a client) with few exceptions.

(3) In no case should your session include only yourself and only your clients. Delegates attending your session would not feel that an objective session is being presented. If you have difficulty finding additional panelist outside your client list, you are strongly encouraged to indicate on your session form if you want the program committee to help with suggestions of additional panelists knowledgeable about your topic.

(4) No payment of professional fees will be paid to any consultant or for-profit service provider for facilitating or presenting in a session or workshop. It is expected that all annual meeting participants are donating their time and expertise to the program.

WHEN WILL WE CONTACT YOU? The Program Committee will review session proposals in November 2008. If your session makes the first round of accepted sessions, we'll send you an email in early December, and a committee member assigned to your session will contact you directly to follow up with committee recommendations. At this point you will be asked to (1) submit a list of confirmed speakers, and (2) submit any clarification of details in your session description, including a rewrite of the description for final copy. This material will be due in the WMA office in late January 2009 (date to be determined), just prior to the second program committee meeting. This meeting is for a final vote on the sessions that have resubmitted. The majority of sessions under consideration at this meeting are normally accepted, however some sessions may not make the cut due to continued concerns of the committee or other reasons and will be dropped from the program. For this reason we must ask that you consider your session only preliminarily accepted until notification of your final session status no later than Feb 15, 2009 (please also communicate this with any speakers you have discussed the session with.)

Proposers whose sessions have not been accepted in the first round will be contacted in December by email. However, if you have not heard from the committee by January it is unlikely that your session has been accepted. Sometimes e-mails, faxes and even mail go astray, so we encourage you to contact the WMA office if you have not received any notification by early January 2009.

HOW DO WE SCHEDULE THE CONFIRMED SESSIONS? The Program Committee develops a session schedule at the second program committee meeting in January. Efforts are made to balance the offerings throughout the conference, and to avoid scheduling sessions at the same time with similar topics or speakers presenting in multiple sessions. Because of the complexity of scheduling 40-50 sessions, and to ensure the ideal schedule for the purpose of creating the most enticing and relevant conference program, we are unable to accommodate individual speaker's request to present on a certain day or time. When we ask you to confirm speakers in December for final submission, we will ask them to confirm that they are able to speak on any of the conference days - October 26, 27, 28 for sessions, and October 25 if it is a preconference workshop. You and they will receive the finalized schedule by February 15, 2009 with your session confirmation notification.