The Small Museums Association (SMA) is celebrating its twentieth anniversary with its annual Winter Conference in Ocean City, Maryland on February 24 – 26th, 2004.  This conference brings together more than 200 museum professionals from a wide range of institutions each year, primarily from the southern Mid-Atlantic region.  The conference aims towards improving professionalism within the small museum community by providing a unique and comfortable environment for individuals and institutions with diverse experiences to meet and learn from each other.  Conference sessions typically provide practical, relevant discussions and examples for small museums and institutions with limited budgets.

This year, the Winter Conference seeks to recognize the changing face of the Small Museum through the theme of “Standards.” This topic addresses the difficulties of small museums to meet the increasing demand for accountability, professionalism and best practices in all aspects of the non-profit world.  Small museums, and organizations with limited budgets, have been rising to the challenge in innovative ways that demonstrate the creativity and dedication of the small museum workers. We hope to highlight the achievements of the broad range of experience among small museum professionals.  The conference theme has been chosen to provide a platform to engage the small museum community in a discussion as the Small Museums Association moves to create a set of museum standards specifically for this audience.

We invite proposals for conference sessions surrounding the following subjects:

Collections/Exhibits
Education
Administration
Development/Fundraising

Individuals from the museum/historic preservation community who would like to present at this dynamic and friendly conference are invited to submit proposals to the address below.  A small honorarium is available.

Kristen Harbeson, SMA Speakers Coordinator
c/o USS Constellation Museum
Pier 1, 301 E. Pratt Street
Baltimore, MD  21202

(410) 539 1797 ext. 442

Or via e-mail to: [log in to unmask]

Individuals with questions regarding the Small Museums Association or its conference, or have suggestions for topics they would be interested in learning about at future meetings, can contact the organization at the same address.

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