Milwaukee, Wisconsin will be site for the Association of Midwest Museums and
the Wisconsin Federation of Museums annual conference from November 5-8,
2003.  The conference promises to be a great meeting of the minds (on a
great lake!) with dynamic speakers, sessions, and evening events.

Our conference theme is "Building the Museum", both physically and
metaphorically, and currently we are looking for speakers who can develop or
contribute to a panel, session, workshop, or roundtable.

We have developed an extensive list of topics or themes we would like to see
submitted to the conference planning committee.  The complete list and call
for proposals can be requested from Dawn Scher Thomae ([log in to unmask]) and
soon at www.midwestmuseums.org.  If you know of someone who could speak on
any of these topics please contact me (Dawn) at the e-mail address above.

Here are the AMM/WFM top 50

Broad topics:
*University and college museums
*Tribal museums and cultural centers
*Museums and controversy
*Corporate history museums and archives
*Non-traditional/profit "museums" in the midwest
*Museum consultants: thinking outside the box

Collections/Curation/Conservation
*The changing role of the curator
*The challenges of caring for living collections
*Caring for your historic house
*Collecting today for tomorrow
*How to build a teaching collection

Development/Fundraising/Advancement
*Museums and corporate sponsorship
*Membership programs: successes and failures
*Strengthening your museum's financial future

Education/Programs
*Girl Scout and Boy scout museum programs
*Great tours!
*Literacy activies in museums
*After school programming
*Program development, implementation, and evaluation
*Discovery Rooms- Are they still out there?
*How does educational programming build/support museums?
*After the grant( how to keep a program going)
*Object based learning

Exhibits
*Writing effective labels
*Integrating evaluation into exhibit development
*Changing exhibits in a more timely manner
*Traveling exhibits

Facilities Management/Security
*Planning for and surviving construction

Governance/Management/Administration
*Planned giving

Marketing
*Learning from profit ventures
*Branding and imaging
*The front line: Is your museum a welcoming place?

Outreach/Audience
*Visitor evaluations on a limited budget
*Basic evaluation techniques (101)
*How to get (and maintain) repeat visitors

Partnerships/Collaborations
*Building stronger relations with your community
*Working with advisory groups
*Cultural organizations and local government collaborations

Professional Development/Museum Studies
*Building staff
*Mentoring at the mid-level
*Museum Studies Programs session on student programs and projects in museums

Retail
*The Bottom Line:  The key to a successful museum store
*On-line museum stores

Small museums (see other subject headings)
*Small museums: Wisconsin forum
*Strategic planning for small museums

Technology
*Developing and maintaining museum web sites
*How can technology foster growth of a museum?

Volunteers
*How to solve the concern of aging volunteers?
*Building a volunteer base
*Children and teens as volunteers

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