Notes from the 2009 IM Section Meeting at the NAI Workshop
Fourteen NAI members attended this year’s annual Interpretive Media Section meeting held during the NIW in November in Hartford. We hold this meeting to bring section members up-to-date on recent changes and to provide a forum to discuss members’ questions and suggestions.
Election changes
The IM Section elections process has changed so that every year two positions on the leadership team will be open. There are four positions: Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer. We hope that continuity of leadership will be provided by staggering positions open for election, rather than electing a new slate of officers every two years.
In 2009 a new Vice Chair and Secretary were elected. Dominic Cardea, Chief of Interpretation at Haleakala National Park is the new Vice Chair, and Cheryl Ford, retired NPS Interpreter and Program Director of the White Mountain Nature Center, is returning as Secretary.
Spark, the new IM website
Marc Blackburn, IM Chair, outlined changes to the IM website, now called Spark, and the section newsletter. All members are encouraged to contribute articles. Several attending members volunteered to contribute and will be contacting editor Maraya Cornell.
Members expressed an interest in creating a forum or blog that would allow the interpretive media community to interact with each other in a more immediate fashion. It was suggested that the section website might have the capability to include a forum. Another way to keep in touch might be forming a Facebook group. Marc will contact the national office to see if the IM Section can have a presence on the NAI Facebook page.
Attending members also expressed a desire to see links added to the website that would connect to resources for interpretive media professionals, particularly resources on programmatic accessibility and evaluation. The leadership team will continue to explore how the website can be used to keep all members involved with their peers in NAI and with those in the field.
Training
Marc Blackburn spoke about the importance of training as a way to increase the visibility of the IM section as well as a way to raise revenue. However, unlike regions, it is difficult for a section to secure training venues except at the National Workshop. One suggestion was that the IM section sponsor a two day pre-workshop on podcasting for the upcoming National Workshop in Las Vegas. Marc and Dominic Cardea will coordinate an effort to put together a proposal for this. If the two day workshop is not approved, there is a possibility of breaking it up into components for a series of shorter sessions.
