I would like to extend this discussion to the AAM
> > conference sessions. Are there others who find little new in most of those
> > sessions?
...>
> As for the conference, .... Some sessions are valuable, but mostly when they bring
> in outside speakers to provide new or different perspectives.
>But I'm not sure if the conference can ever achieve consistently high
> quality sessions when the speakers are unpaid and research/scholarship
> is not encouraged.  The result is the typical "here's a program I did
> and how I did it" session.....
> Max A. van Balgooy
> mailto:[log in to unmask]

Hi!
IMO re. AAM meetings:
realistically, content needs to be (1) basic for newcomers to both the
field and the annual meeting (2) midlevel in both job experience and
meeting attendence and (3) for those experienced in both areas.  This is
not an easy chore.  However, I agree that there seems to be little/none
of the #3 catagory and less and less of the #2.

I don't have a problem with speakers being unpaid and personally would
give up if there were only "scholarly" papers.  I think that there's
nothing wrong with a "this is what I did and how I did it" IF it is
accompanied by a "and this is how you can do something similar".
Without both parts I think it's too often self serving.

Sessions that only say how well-financed/great/clever/innovative/unique
etc. the speakers/institutions are and how they used these resources to
such great advantage - too often the case - are a waste of my time.  I
feel like it's fluff, often for someone's vita, certainly not for
session attendees.

My other pet peeve about AAM Ann. Mtg. is that the concept of small
museum is some place with a budget of a million or two - maybe that's
unfair, is it 500,000?  My budget is tiny in comparison and I do the
same things that the "big kids" do, with lots of less staff and lots of
less money.  And my budget is big in comparison to many museums in Texas
(and elsewhere)that are operated strictly on a volunteer basis.  It
seems like they (and often we) don't really exist in the AAM scene.  I
feel that small museums and the Small Museums Association are paid short
shrift but I think the small museums are really the backbone of museums
across America and should be represented on the speakers' dais.
Multiple perspectives achieve depth of understanding.

ok, personal rant and rave is finished.
Linn