Our Roundtable discussion was a huge success.  It gave everyone time to discuss matters important to them.  What made this type of Roundtable so successful was that everyone was equal - everyone was listened to.  All attendees had the opportunity to talk and share.  The AAMV acknowledges that each and every one of you has knowledge and experience that can be extremely helpful to others.  If the old saying that two heads are better than one is true – think of what almost 100 can do!  Given this opportunity, you were able to share and learn with others, creating both innovative and useful ideas.  One attendee said to me “I have been attending the AAM for many years and this, by far, was the most useful and helpful session that I ever attended.”

       Shortly, you all will be able to see the results of these discussions.  I apologize for the delay in putting them on our website.  We are currently designing an area to publish the results.  We hope that the AAM will allow us to make this an annual event and if they do, we will be able to put them up more quickly in the future.

       We do not want to forget our other session, Leading the Corps: New Approaches to Docent/Volunteer/Intern Programs with Debbie Young, Director of Volunteer Services, Children's Museum of Indianapolis; Deb Fuller, Docent, Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art; Jacqueline Close, Volunteer Coordinator, Denver Museum of Nature and Science and Diane Arkin, Lecturer and Adult Program Coordinator, National Gallery of Art.  This was also a well attended and hugely successful session with very experienced and knowledgeable presenters.  Thank you all!

       We had a record number of attendees at our Annual Meeting and Luncheon this year.  That was due to our guest speaker, Rika Burnham, Head of Education at The Frick Collection.   Her talks are always inspiring to not only docents, but to all volunteers and staff that work with volunteers.  Thank you Rika for a wonderful presentation!