Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections March 2020 - 19

Society Reports
Managers of Australasian Herbarium
Collections - Councils of Heads of Australasian Herbaria
The Annual General Meeting of Managers of Australasian
Herbarium Collections (MAHC) was held in Darwin, Northern Territory, hosted by the Northern
Territory Herbarium, August 20-22,
2019. The 18 participants represented
Australian (12 institutions) and New
Zealand (4) herbaria, the Atlas of Living Australia, and the Herbarium Information Systems Committee (HISCOM)
of the Council of Heads of Australasian
Herbaria. All managers of Australasian herbaria were invited
to participate in MAHC and attend meetings, and virtual
meeting options were available for those who could only
participate remotely. Topics of discussion included Nagoya
Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing and the development of standardized documents for compliance, developing
herbarium best practice guidelines for Australasia, monitoring
of changes to Australasian biosecurity regulations, collection valuation, exhibition loan policies, unique identifiers
for authorities, increasing access of collections and images
through the Australasian Virtual Herbarium, and integrated
pest management and disaster management. The final 2019
teleconference was held December 18, and communications
were ongoing during recent environmental disasters occurring
in the region, including record bushfires, flooding, and extensive hail and dust storms. No Australasian collections were
damaged during this period, with only minor inconveniences
experienced at some herbaria such as a roof leak, fire alarms
activated from bushfire smoke, and dust covering work space
surfaces. One of the regional MAHC members threatened by
recent fires experienced no fire damage which was a testament to their planning and their recently completed building.

The Paleontological Society
The 2019 meeting of The Paleontological Society (PS) was held during the
Geological Society of America (GSA)
meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, September
22-25.
The next meeting of the Paleontological
Society will be held during the Geological Society of America (GSA) meeting
in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, October 25-28, 2020.
For more information on the Paleontological Society go to:
http://www.paleosoc.org/
Respectfully submitted,
Jessica Cundiff, SPNHC representative to PaleoSoc

Members of MAHC are seeking approval to attend the
SPNHC & ICOM NATHIST meeting in Edinburgh, UK,
in June 2020. Several changes to collections management
personnel have occurred within Australasian herbaria over the
past six months. Contact information is updated regularly in
Index Herbariorum.
Respectfully submitted,
Shelley James, SPNHC representative to MAHC-CHAH

March 2020 * 19

http://www.paleosoc.org/ http://www.allpackco.com/

Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections March 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections March 2020