**President’s 2018 message**

Dear valued members and friends of ARCS,

Thank you so much for a wonderful 2017. Through your support we were able to have our best year yet, and we hope you found value in our conference in Vancouver. Our biennial conference had a record number of attendees, with over 770 professionals in attendance - and session materials, including videos, are available to members on the ARCS website. http://www.arcsinfo.org/programs/2017-vancouver-conference/online-program

Additional highlights from 2017 include:

-Care of Photography Workshop in New York, a one-day program for staff charged with the care of photography collections. Check out the workshop highlights online. http://www.arcsinfo.org/programs/2017-photography-workshop

-“Territorios inexplorados: Retos en el rigistro contemporáneo de colecciones” in Mexico City, a two-day seminar on contemporary collections in Mexico. http://www.arcsinfo.org/programs/2017-seminar-in-mexico-city

-Monthly #ARCSChats on the first Tuesday of each month.

-Networking Socials in New York, Nashville, Vancouver, and Amsterdam.

-In partnership with Connecting to Collections Care, hosted the webinars “Ethical Issues in Collections Management”, “Why do we need this? Insights and Hindsights from Deaccessioning” and “What is this? Solving Problems Found in Collection”. https://www.connectingtocollections.org/

-And we also joined forces with AAM-Collections Stewardship on a mentorship program - find out more on our website. http://www.arcsinfo.org/programs/registrars-and-collections-specialists-mentoring-program

Thank you also to our 2017-2018 sponsors, whose financial support is invaluable in making the work of ARCS possible. http://www.arcsinfo.org/support-arcs/in-support-of-arcs

ARCS Commitees are  actively working on 2018 and 2019 programming, and more information will be available online soon.  

In 2018, ARCS will focus on two major initiatives:

-Updating our website, to better deliver resources and information to you

-Creating a long-range strategic plan, to develop further learning opportunities and services to ARCS members

Please keep an eye out for surveys and other ways that you as a member can contribute to these projects. Your input is vital in ensuring that the work of ARCS is successful. 

We hope to hear from all of you in 2018. Please feel free to send me an email with your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions at [log in to unmask].

Danielle Hall Bennett

ARCS President

**#ARCSchat Tonight!**

Preparing for disasters haunts the minds of many registrars and collections specialists these days in light of the recent hurricanes that struck Houston, Florida, and the Caribbean in addition to the two catastrophic earthquakes in Mexico. Chakira Santiago, Chief Registrar at the Museum of History, Anthropology, and Art at the Río Piedras campus of the University of Puerto Rico (@chatere) will join us tonight at 8 pm EST to discuss disaster preparedness and share her experiences managing her collection through Hurricane Maria. Plan to come away with actionable advice on how to galvanize your collections' safety in the face of catastrophe.

**Correction - Courier Training Toolkit**

We would like to make a correction to a previous story about the Courier Training Toolkit.  This invaluable resource was developed through a collaboration of The Dutch Registrar’s Group, the Nordic Registrar’s Group and the UK Registrar’s Group. You can find it here. http://nederlandseregistrarsgroep.nl/information.html