Presidents letter

Dear Members of IATM,

I want to wish you a wonderful start to this new year and every success in your endeavours. This past year we were able to come together at the conference here in Ottawa and enjoy Canada’s capital city and our time together. The conference featured a number of interesting presentations that we hope to put online for your access and a number of visits to the Science and Technology museums here in the city and in Montreal, Quebec.

This year we will be hosting the conference in Berlin, Germany. We are once again endeavouring to create a program that is both dynamic and pertinent to the challenges we face as Transport, Postal and Communication museums. This year our theme is sustainability. We will discuss collections, programming, curatorial and financial sustainability. The objective for this year is to create a conference that is dynamic, relevant and participatory. We have been tuning the conferences over these last years to address your needs and to provide a platform for engagement and exchange of expertise rather than the usual format of presentations and papers.

Each year we host the conference in a new country in order to introduce new museums to the value of being an IATM member. This year we at the Board felt that Germany would be a good central hub for easier access from a higher number of countries. We truly believe that supporting a conference each year is the best way we can continue to bring value to the members of the association. The inherent value of being able to meet with peers and the chance to try out new technologies and share ideas is priceless and one of the best investments of time and money. To enlarge the access for members we have introduced a new pricing model for the conferences to allow a number of participants to join from each museum. In this way we hope to have not only the major decision makers but some of the developing staff as well.

I would be remiss if I didn’t once again bring forward the merits of our Skillsbridge program. This program allows for the interchange of personnel from member museums for specific projects through a bursary of up to 5,000 euros. I can’t sing its praises enough having accessed it for our conservation staff here in the past. It proved to be a game changer for our staff in dealing with volunteers on rail conservation but can be used for any number of programs or issues. Please take a moment to visit your association’s website for details and to access some of the previous examples of projects which are now online.

In closing I would like to thank you for your continued membership and I hope to see many of you in Berlin in September. Please look for our upcoming survey on what you would like, expect from your association and what you would like to see at the conferences that would be of significant relevance. It is an honour to work for you all.

Sincerely,

Stephen Quick

President International Association of Transport and Communication Museums