Last night we sent the following bulletin by FAX to AAM institutional
members.  Mail will go out over the weekend to those institutions without
FAX machines.

                                                March 27, 1997

An Important Message to AAM Institutional Members

Dear Colleague,

        Next month in Philadelphia, Gen. Colin Powell will convene teams
from all over the country in a "Summit for America's Future," endorsed by
Presidents Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter and Ford. Its themes are
community, voluntarism, and children, and one of its goals is to generate
"commitments" to create "safe places for children to learn and grow."

        We immediately realized that this could be a great opportunity for
museums.  Fortunately, although the organizers did not at first think to
reach out to the cultural community, they were willing to listen to us.
Although delegates have already been sele cted, they now welcome input
from institutions that can both be safe places and impart skills and
perspectives to help children recognize and even create safe places of
their own.

        Because the summit will be national news, and because an organized
followup is already being planned, it can offer an opportunity for your
museum and the field as a whole to publicize its services, meet potential
collaborators, and establish creative par tnerships.  The commitments you
can reasonably make that support both the summit and your mission could
bring important visibility in your local community as well.

        AAM has volunteered to get the message out to the field.  We would
like to collect examples of "safe places" that already exist, of planned
programs, and of any programs or policies that you might want to institute
in response to the call.  Obviously, it 's up to individual institutions
to decide what is practical.  Examples of commitments might be:

        to change hours of operation to make sure you're open when you're       needed;

        to institute a free day for families;

        to institute a family membership program;

        to develop a teen docents program; to work with the PTA to design
and implement after-school programming that families want and will use;

         to participate in and/or host Head Start and Americorps programs
and other collaborative programming;

        to put parents on museum Boards; etc.

        Commitments can also be made in terms of a numerical goal, such as
increasing the number of volunteers or of children served.

        Any lists that we generate will be made available to summit
organizers and to the press.  If you would like to provide such a
commitment, please send a description to AAM's Government Affairs office
at the address or FAX listed on this letterhead.  If y ou have any
questions, please contact Andy Finch in the Government Affairs office at
202-289-9125.

        We are currently negotiating with the summit organizers for the
possibility of a museum director to address the summit, representing both
AAM and the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.  If we
are successful, she will also be able to a ddress our annual meeting in
Atlanta.

        Information on the summit is available on the internet at
http://www.citizenservice.org.  The March 17 issue of Time and current
issue of Chronicle of Philanthropy also carry stories on the summit.

                                        Sincerely,



                                        Edward H. Able, President & CEO