Maureen Burns, Co-chair
Jeanette Mills, Co-chair
Education Committee
January 31, 2003
Annual Report 2002
Current
Charge (if applicable)
To engage in research, build accessible resources, and share information about
educational and professional development opportunities for the VRA membership
by remaining in contact with appropriate members of related professional organizations
and educational institutions. To regularly solicit information from the VRA
membership about interests and educational concerns in order to develop supportive
programming at the annual conference and as other opportunities arise.
Accomplishments
At the St. Louis conference Education Committee meeting, a number of excellent
ideas for future conference workshops were discussed. Jeanette Mills worked
with Karin Whalen, Lynda White, and in collaboration with the workshop instructor,
Kathryn Deiss, to develop these ideas into the two workshop proposals that
were accepted into the Houston program, entitled "Dealing with Difficult Behaviors"
and "Influencing Skills for Positive Outcomes."
In early December, the Education Committee sent a letter to each VRA Chapter Chairperson, both electronically and through the post (it is worth noting that some mentioned they did not notice the e-mails and the letter was what caught their eye), announcing the availability of funds for Chapter leaders to attend workshops at the VRA annual conference in Houston. Although encouraged to consider the two leadership workshops planned by the Education Committee, the Chairpersons were informed that if other workshops better met local needs the Committee was willing to be flexible. If the Chairperson wanted to share the funds with co-officers or other Chapter members, it was acceptable as well. The successful applicants were notified by January 3rd before the VRA conference registration opened. The following is a summary of the successful applicants (in alphabetical order) and the workshops that were of interest to them:
|
Jane
Darcovich Karen
Kessel Randi
Millman-Brown Jeanette
Mills Past Mark
Pompelia Naomi
Weiss Betha
Whitlow |
The Education
Committee was concerned that there were no applications from the following
VRA Chapters: Great Lakes, Greater New York, Greater Philadelphia, and Mid-Atlantic.
The Philadelphia Chairperson responded, but was having a difficult time identifying
a local member who was interested in the workshops and planning on attending
the conference. Fearing that the holidays and the tight deadline may have
prevented Chapter officers from applying, the Education Committee decided
to extend the deadline to mid-January. Each of the officers in these Chapters
were contacted via e-mail or the telephone resulting in these subsequent awards
(in alphabetical order):
|
Ayesha
Abdur-Rahman Carol
Campbell Astrid
Otey Susanne
Ridenour |
Therefore, it appears at this time that all the funds provided by the VRA Board for local leaders to attend VRA Houston workshops will be used, but the Education Committee will follow-up on the uncertainties. Recipients understand that the funds will not be released until after they provide the VRA Treasurer with proof of their attendance and receipts for their expenses (in some cases the funds do not cover the full expense of the workshops and in others it provides a little more that can be used towards other registration and conference expenses). They were also informed and will be reminded that they are to share the information that they obtain at these workshops with their regional VRA members.
To improve
communication amongst the Education Committee members, Jeanette Mills set
up a listserv at vraed@mailman.u.washington.edu. On the communication front,
it was also decided that each of the Education Committee members would take
responsibility for one of the VRA Regional Chapters in order to start a dialog
and to obtain feedback on educational issues. Below is a summary of the assignments
(in alphabetical order). This has not yet begun, but we hope to start in the
near future.
Great Lakes/Jeanette Mills
Greater New York/Jenni Rodda
Greater Philadelphia/Carolyn Lucarelli
Mid-Atlantic/Joy Robinson
Midwest/Betha Whitlow
Northern California/Leah Theis
Pacific Rim/Margo Ballantyne
Southern California/Maureen Burns
Texas/Susan Sanders
Upstate New York/Marcia Focht.
Leah Theis created a website for the VRA Education Committee at the following URL: http://www.aapvrf.cornell.edu/education/index.htm. Although still in development, it presently has the committee charge, a list of committee members, our mid-year report, and an education feedback form to obtain ideas from the VRA membership.
Karin Whalen compiled the feedback from the Education Committee on the draft core curriculum for the Summer Institute for Visual Resources that is being proposed by the ARLIS/VRA Joint Task Force on Education and provided it to that group for consideration.
Margo Ballantyne is presently compiling workshop ideas for the Education Committee to consider and discuss at their meeting in Houston. It appears that most of the members of the committee will be able to attend.
Carolyn Lucarelli is compiling the Education Committee's discussion, questions, concerns, and comments on the Strategic Plan and will provide a summary to the VRA Executive Board at the beginning of March.
Goals
Continue Education Committee discussion of VRA Strategic Plan and forward
feedback to the VRA Executive Board at the beginning of March. Discuss emergent
issues with the VRA Executive Board to further clarify the Education Committee's
mission.
Expand upon the Education Committee website by adding reports and other information related to educational resources for the development of visual resources professionals. Start a process for regularly gathering information about regional and national educational activities offered by allied organizations and make this information available to the VRA membership via the website. Notify VRA-L of the education feedback form on our committee web site and encourage such feedback before the Houston conference.
Since allocating the national conference workshop funds was more difficult than expected, the Education Committee will discuss ideas for process improvement and expanded communication with Chapter chairpersons. Along these lines a future workshop themed "How to Find and Take Advantage of Funding Opportunities" is being considered as a possibility for future Education Committee sponsorship. Continue to solicit and discuss ideas for national conference workshops and start working on the 2004 proposal.
Now that each Education Committee member has been assigned a regional chapter to work with, one of the first steps will be gathering feedback from each of them in preparation for committee meeting in Houston. Another goal of this improved communication is to help gather information about existing regional educational opportunities for VRA members. A master list of library, museum studies, and collection management educational opportunities will be compiled and made available on the Education Committee website. Chapter chairpersons will also be encouraged to invite members of allied organizations to participate in chapter activities and to plan joint meetings that combine like-minded professional groups.
Continue contact with allied organizations in the hopes of developing collaborative programs and invite representatives of these organizations to attend the VRA conference and meeting of the Education Committee in Houston. These organizations include, but are not limited to, the Museum Computer Network, the American Society of Archivists, the American Library Association, and ARLIS/NA.
Board
Action Requested
Discuss the Education Committee's response to the VRA Strategic Plan (forthcoming
in March) and provide feedback to questions and concerns.
Review and clarify this committee's purpose and charge.
Consider extending the appointment of Maureen Burns and Jeanette Mills as Co-chairs of the Education Committee for one more year.
List of
Members of Committee/Chapter/Task Force (cite names and note officers' titles
only)
Margo Ballantyne
Maureen Burns, Co-chair
Marcia Focht
Carolyn Lucarelli
Jeanette Mills, Co-chair
Joy Robinson
Jenni Rodda
Susan Sanders
Leah Theis
Betha Whitlow
Karin Whalen, Liaison to the VRA/ARLIS Joint Task Force on Education
Respectfully submitted,
Maureen Burns,
Co-chair
Jeanette Mills, Co-chair