Southeastern Museums Conference Request for SEMC Program Proposals October 8 - 10, 2018 Jackson, MS

SEMC 2018 Program Committee Co-Coordinators

Heather Marie Wells, (Co-Coordinator), Digital Media Specialist, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, Phone: 479-418-5755, HeatherMarie.Wells@crystalbridges.org

Heather Nowak, (Co-Coordinator), Panama City Beach, FL, Phone: 205-356-3002, henowak1114@gmail.com

DEVELOPING A PROPOSAL

Your role as a presenter at the annual meeting assures a conference that meets your needs. This form is used in developing ideas for sessions, workshops and related activities. Help in developing your proposal is available by contacting SEMC's Central Office or Program Committee Coordinator.

Good sessions come from a variety of inspirations: your experience, questions you would like to discuss, a good session you heard elsewhere, a poor session you’d like to improve upon. You do not need to be an expert to organize a session. You learn about the topic as you find the experts. Explore your idea with friends and colleagues. How do they see this issue? What interests them? Can they suggest resources for developing the session? Case studies and sessions that are simply descriptive - this is what we did and this is what happened - are often unsatisfying, i.e. boring.

People are looking for nuts and bolts instruction or an analysis of a problem or issue. The annual meeting is the perfect opportunity to introduce a theoretical or philosophical framework for the problems we face daily. Sessions present the opportunity to include differing perspectives. Focused controversy enlivens the process.

SEMC welcomes the insight of new voices from our region's wealth of institutions, as well as, from outside the field. Ask friends and colleagues for suggestions, including those important questions: Have you heard them speak? Were they good? Think about expanding your session vertically as well as horizontally. Instead of three curators, use a scholar, a curator and an audience member. Include people who come to the issues with different concerns and perspectives. Include people from different types of museums.

Chairing a session requires work. You are responsible for confirming the speakers’ registration and communicating to them the goals, format and content of the session. Bring participants together in advance in person or by a conference call. It is your responsibility to develop a coherent and well-organized session.

Please note that the Request for Program Proposals form can be accessed and filled out on the website and emailed back to SEMC.

FORMAT

Panels are the most used format, but often not the most effective, particularly if they leave no time for discussion. Other formats are much more expressive and more appropriate to your topic and audience. Try dividing the time and using multiple formats.

Hands On. Give small groups a problem to solve or a case to discuss. End with a discussion of the process.

Debate. Deal with controversy head on. Get quick thinkers with well-developed ideas.

Roundtable. Recruit thoughtful people who will begin the discussion and then open the floor.

Town Meeting. Ask a question or raise an issue and let the audience do the debating. Requires a firm but open moderator.

Marketplace. Recruit 10 participants who will bring props and create a browsing area. Select one focus (like programs for seniors) or a broad brush (the 10 tricks every exhibit designer needs to know).

Guest speaker. Find a true expert everyone wants to hear and allow time at the end for comments, questions, and discussion.

Panel. If you must have a panel, bring a watch and warning cards or use only two speakers plus a chair. Be ruthless about time limits and give the audience a chance to ask questions and raise other issues.

Workshop. Opportunity to discuss a topic in a more in-depth format, 2 ½ hours. Hands-on workshops are very popular. SEMC charges no administrative fees for workshops offered during the annual meeting. However, if there are fees connected with the workshop, the moderator must address those fees in an attachment to this program proposal outlining the fees and the cost per attendee and the minimum number of attendees needed to cover the costs.

POLICIES

1. SEMC members do not receive a fee, free registration, or travel reimbursement for their participation in SEMC annual meetings. Be certain that every presenter understands this policy. Presenters who attend ONLY their session do not have to pay a registration fee; if they want to attend anything other than their session they must pay the registration fee.

2. No travel expenses for presenters will be reimbursed.

3. All non-corporate regular track program sessions and workshops must be chaired or moderated by SEMC individual members or institutional delegates. All southeastern regional museum professionals who plan to moderate and present must be SEMC members at the time of submission and during the annual meeting.

4. A Corporate-track session includes SEMC individual members or institutional delegates and one or two corporate members as speakers. A non-corporate member must chair or moderate a corporate-track session. Corporate sessions include non-corporate museum professionals. Corporate participants must be Corporate Members at time of program submittal and during the annual meeting.

5. Corporate participants who are current exhibitors also have the opportunity to present without museum representation. Commercial sessions are for topics related to the commercial assistance of museums. Commercial session participants must also be members as explained above.

6. A Program Committee 'shepherd' will be your liaison and contact person. The Shepherd will contact you for information necessary for room set-up, preparation of text for inclusion in the preliminary program, speaker information and specific audio-visual needs.

7. SEMC does not offer reimbursement for supplies, copies or materials.

SEMC Proposal Deadline, Wednesday, January 31, 2018	Jackson, MS October 8 - 10, 2018

Session Title:

Format:

Debate	Hands On	Marketplace	Roundtable

Town Meeting	Panel	Other

Does this session have a maximum group size? If yes, how many?

Session, 1.25 hours	Workshop, 2.5 hours	Other

Audio Visual Needs:

Screen	LCD projector Package	Laptop Computer

Flip Chart/Markers	Other

(Please note that if you request something not on the list above there may be an additional charge. We encourage moderators and presenters to bring their own equipment.)

Target Audience: Choose 1 – 3

Administration	Education	Museum Store	Volunteers

Collections	Exhibits	Public Relations	Fundraising

Conservation	Marketing	Trusteeship	other (describe below)

Curatorial	Development	Membership

Visitor Services	Technology

Career stage:

Entry level

Mid-career

Senior level

All levels

Museum's budget:

Under $250,000

$250,000-$1,000,000

Over $1,000,000

All budget sizes

Sponsor:

Check here if sponsorship has been confirmed by the Professional Network/Affinity Group chairperson.

Note: Sponsorship by a Professional Network or Affinity Group is not a requirement for proposing a session.

Submitter:

Name, Title:

Institution:

Address:

City, State, Zip Code:

Telephone:	Cell Number:	Email Address:

Museum professional: with less than 5 years of experience with 5 to 20 years of experience

with 21+ years of experience (SEMC wants to serve museum professionals at all levels of experience.)

Chair: (if different than submitter)

Name, Title:

Institution:

Address:

City, State:

Phone, e-mail:

Direct communication about this proposal to the: Submitter Chair

Session Description:

What questions, issues, or problems will the session address? Who will be interested in this session? What is the expected objective?

Participants:

Name, title, institution, address, phone, e-mail, level of experience (an additional typed list may be attached). Please include a brief statement explaining what each person brings to the session or why he/she was recruited. If specific participants are not yet identified, please characterize who would be recruited - for example: director of a small rural art museum who has recently completed a capital campaign - so that Program Committee members can help you to identify possible participants.

Museum professional: with less than 5 years of experience with 5 to 20 years of experience

with 21+ years of experience (SEMC wants to serve museum professionals at all levels of experience.)

Send completed proposal emailed or postmarked by January 31, 2018 to:

Susan Perry, Executive Director, SEMC, PO Box 550746, Atlanta, GA 30355-3246;

Email: sperry@SEMCdirect.net