Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections September 2020 - 9

Society Reports
Travel Grants Mentorship
Programs

Elise LeCompte chairs the subcommittee on Travel Grant Mentorship
Programs. In order to assist in funding
the 2020 annual conference, $3,000
was moved from the Travel Grants fund
since no grants were awarded for the
2020 conference.
Elise and her team will be announcing
the 2021 Travel Grant program soon
to provide opportunities for upcoming
grant recipients for travel to the joint
AIC-SPNHC conference next May in
Jacksonville, Florida.

General Mentorship

Mentorship continues to be a high priority of the PDC given
the continued support from many SPNHC members for a
broadened approach to mentoring opportunities. There was
ample discussion surrounding the topic of mentorship within
SPNHC including options for mentor training, how mentees
are linked to potential mentors, and potentially expanding
mentor opportunities to all members of SPNHC, not just
those who attend conferences. This continues to be an active
area within the Professional Development committee, and
discussions are ongoing.

Wiki

The committee has begun updating the Professional Development wiki site. The site has been updated to reflect the current
committee chairs and useful links to professional development resources. Discussions are ongoing as to how best
the wiki can be complementary to and in conjunction with
services provided by other committees. Discussions at this
year's committee meeting focused on how the new normal of
virtual interactions can aid in connecting members with professional development resources across the globe. Connecting interested individuals to existing "how-to" videos, and
encouraging existing members to develop their own videos
or FAQ sheets to be shared on the wiki site, are some of the
ideas the committee is looking at pursuing.
As always, if any member of SPNHC would like to work on
any of these projects, please contact Jeff Stephenson or Nick
Drew. We value and appreciate your volunteer efforts on
behalf of SPNHC and your colleagues.
Respectfully submitted,
Nicholas Drew and Jeff Stephenson, Co-chairs

Publications Committee
Not reporting.
Mariel Campbell, Chair

Recognition and Grants Committee
The Recognition and Grants Committee
is charged with promoting and reviewing awards made by the Society, including member service recognition, vendor
recognition, and the Faber Innovation
grant.
Three awards were presented at the
ABM at the SPNHC 35th Annual Meeting. Two Special Service awards were
made to: the 2020 Virtual Conference Organizing Committee (Liath Appleton, Andy Bentley, Emily Braker, Mariana
Di Giacomo, Phaedra Fang, Elspeth Haston, Shelley James,
Talia Karim, Amanda Lawrence, Paul Mayer, Rebecca Newberry, Cindy Opitz, Deborah Paul, Dorit Wolenitz & Breda
Zimkus); and the SPNHC Ad Hoc Finance Committee (Ruth
O'Leary, Lisa Palmer and Sue McLaren).
The Faber Innovation Grant was awarded to Dr. R. Christopher Tacker at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, North Carolina. The title of his project is
Pyrite Disease and Clay Minerals: The Threat to Natural
History Collections. The Faber Grant provides the successful
applicant funding to address issues related to the management, care, conservation, or use of natural history collections.
Because we could not hold an in-person conference this year,
we did not award any travel grants.
Announcements for the various SPNHC awards and the Faber
Innovation Grant are included in this newsletter and will also
be announced via NHCOLL-L. Members are encouraged to
apply for the collections-related innovation grant and to suggest fellow members for awards to recognize their service to
the Society.
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara M. Thiers, Chair

Web and Social Media Committee
The Web and Social Media Committee has been expanding.
We now have a social media team headed up by Lynn Jones,
and a new jobs board editor, Jennifer Lanman. I am looking for someone to manage the events calendar, and another
person to help manage our online resources (articles, books,
September 2020 * 9

Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections September 2020

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