With apologies to the list for another message from me so soon:

I want to bring to your attention the upcoming summit in Philadelphia on
voluntarism, community, and children.  The official title is the
Presidents' Summit for America's Future -- it is chaired by Colin Powell
and endorsed by all living Presidents from Ford to Clinton.

In any case, they are asking for "commitments" toward five goals,
including

        providing safe places for children to learn and grow.

We -- that is, AAM -- have told the organizers that we would ask museums
to make such commitments, because we believe that this goal is very much
a part of most museums' missions, and because we believe that the summit
offers an excellent opportunity for museums to make others in their
communities aware of their resources, whether for formal relationships
with schools or other types of programs.

We understand that museums are not going to re-write their strategic
plans in the next few weeks for the sake of a p.r. opportunity.
Nevertheless, we believe that this is an excellent chance to make people
aware of what yo if you get the chance're already doing and what you plan to
do, and what you would like to do .

This week's edition of Time Magazine carries an article on the summit,
and on a sidebar titled "Stepping Right Up" it says "the American
Association of Museums will provide safe places for children to learn and
grow through special programs in museums and in schools."

Obviously AAM isn't providing the programs, but this point can be a bit
too fine for reporters!

In any case, if anybody has examples of commitments to this goal that
their institution has made or plans to make, I would very much appreciate
hearing about it.

Andy Finch
AAM Government Affairs
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