Pre-Conference Workshops

Meeting Skills and Creative Process

A two-part workshop will provide participants with skills that will make the meetings they must attend more productive. Staff, volunteers, and board members can benefit from an understanding of how meetings can be better and what they can do to make them so. A short skit demonstrating common counterproductive meeting behavior will be followed by discussions and demonstrations of techniques such as brainstorming and mind-mapping.

–George Thomas, Museum Consultant
–Arunas Oslapas, Professor, Western Washington University
Sponsored by the Heritage Resource Center

Barns & Farmsteads: Saving our Farming Heritage

Farmers, farm organizations, local community leaders, preservationists, and museum professionals will learn about the challenges facing the family farm and hear ideas of how to protect this legacy. Following a morning of general sessions, the workshop will break into tracks focusing on technical preservation issues, impediments and incentives to preserving the family farm, and the role museums can play in identifying and celebrating local rural heritage.

–Mary Thompson, President, Washington Trust for Historic Preservation
Sponsored by the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation

AAM Museum Accreditation

Are you curious about the American Association of Museums' Accreditation Program? Have you ever wondered "What is in it for my museum?" Do you think AAM accreditation is only for large museums? Is your organization committed to excellence and high professional standards? Kim Igoe and Tom Livesay will share their knowledge and experience, and they will explain the process by which your institution can achieve AAM accreditation.

–Kim Igoe, Director, Museum Advancement and Excellence, AAM
–Tom Livesay, Director, Whatcom Museum / Chair, AAM Accreditation Commission
Sponsored by the American Association of Museums

Welcoming Reception

WMA Board of Trustees Meeting Open to all WMA members

(Dine with friends and colleagues)