Over 700 museum leaders from the southeast will meet in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (celebrating its 250th anniversary), from October 19-23, 2004 for SEMC’s annual meeting entitled “HOT TOPICS”. In today’s economic climate, museums of all sizes and types have to be aware of what those hot topics are. It is important for museums to have a plan to address sensitive issues in governance, collections planning, programming and staff policies and procedures.

The Co-Chairs of the SEMC 2004 Program Committee members are: Carrie Taylor, Monticello’s Collections Manager and Bill Long, Arkansas State Parks’ Museums Coordinator. The committee has met in Winston-Salem to review and discuss more than 55 program proposals. If you have submitted a proposal and have not heard about the status, please contact Carrie at (434) 984-9832, ctaylor@monticello.org or Bill at (501) 682-3603, bill.long@mail.state.ar.us.

The Local Arrangements Committee Chair is Dr. Beverly Sanford, Executive Director of SciWorks, one of our host institutions. Others include Historic Bethabara Park, The Museum of Anthropology at Wake Forest University, Old Salem, SECCA, The High Point Museum, and Reynolda House Museum of American Art.

After reading last year’s overall evaluation forms’ comments, the SEMC Program and Local Arrangements Committees are changing three major parts of the annual meeting. For those who need to leave Friday afternoon, all sessions, resource expo, and silent auction will end mid-afternoon so they can return to their homes for a full weekend.

Another change that is that the Friday evening event will be offered on Tuesday evening. Attendees will have the opportunity to begin the meeting with a networking party at SECCA and the Reynolda House. Other evening events will include Old Salem on Wednesday evening and SciWorks along with the awards ceremony on Thursday.

The third change is that no keynote speaker will be scheduled for Thursday morning. Instead, more two part sessions will be offered during that day.

A new idea for the annual meeting will be a gallery crawl offered from 1-5 on Wednesday to visit those institutions not hosting an evening event – The Museum of Anthropology at Wake Forest University, Delta Fine Arts, Historic Bethabara Park, and the High Point Museum – to name just a few. The post-conference trips are still being offered on Saturday and ideas being discussed are Asheville and The Biltmore Estate; the North Carolina Zoo; Mount Airy (boyhood hometown of Andy Griffith; and the Yadkin Valley Vineyards.

The Resource Expo, formerly called the Exhibit Hall, will be bigger than ever with more than 70 booths. Other sections will include, SEMC/NCMC silent auction and the 2004 SEMC Publication Design Competition Award Winners’ area.

The Directors’ Luncheon Speaker will be Steve Zades, a former Twin City advertising executive director and currently an advertising consultant. One project he will talk about is a new book he coauthored with Jane Stephens entitled Mad Dogs, Dreamers and Sages: Growth in the Age of Ideas, which explores the ideas and breakthroughs of the “mad dogs” and dreamers of today’s business and museum worlds trying to pinpoint the sources of innovation in a variety of fields.

The host hotel is the Adam’s Mark Winston-Salem downtown at 425 Cherry Street. Room rates for the annual meeting are $99 (Single-Quadruple) + 13% tax. To make reservations, please call (800) 444-2326. Please let the reservations department know that you are attending the SEMC annual meeting so you get the reduced room rate.

Please join us for any or all of the following reasons - to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Winston-Salem, NC; to network with colleagues and friends from around the south; to participate in a wide range of seminars and workshops organized by experts in the museum field; to attend 3 exciting evening events; to visit a new and improved Resource Expo; and to stay through Saturday and learn more about the area.