SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE - DON'T WASTE A MINUTE

Happy New Year and best wishes for 2015! If one of your resolutions is to be sensible about money, why not take advantage of our conference's Early Bird Deadline (Friday, January 9th)? Open Source: Jewish Museums + Collaborative Culture will be a lively gathering for learning, exchanging ideas, networking and socializing. Consult the conference brochure for all of the exciting details on the March 8-10 program, and be sure to register this week. Two other key deadlines: Conference fellowship applications are due January 15th, and the deadline for the CAJM rate at the Marriott Marquis is February 12th.

NEW BEGINNINGS IN 2015

Dear CAJM Members, 

This January is the official beginning of my role as CAJM's new Executive Director, and I am honored to be starting 2015 with such an important and exciting professional challenge ahead.While I have been deeply involved in CAJM for more than a decade as a volunteer, there has never been a more interesting time to work with CAJM members on their goals, questions, challenges, and opportunities. 

As someone who worked with collections and exhibitions in Jewish museums for 17 years, I have a passion and excitement for Jewish museums, their value and potential. I also know the value CAJM can have for an individual or an organization--from networking to resource sharing, to opportunities for professional development and leadership. 

Most of all, CAJM provides a vista onto the field, and a community and forum to explore common issues. So much is changing in the North American Jewish museum scene with audiences, technologies, and communities that CAJM is ready to examine its role and ask new questions with those working in the field day to day. As we continue to strive for best museum practice, we also turn to a new set of challenges in "next practice"--to further activate the potential for community engagement and relevancy for today's audiences. 

In addition to our national conference, you will be seeing new opportunities to connect, explore, and grow with us in the year ahead. I look forward to getting to know you all better, as CAJM moves forward in new ways with its members. 

Please feel free to reach out to me at cajmexec@gmail.com, and I hope to see you all from March 8-10 for our much-anticipated conference in the Bay Area. 

 ~ Melissa Martens Yaverbaum

MORE ON AEJM CONFERENCE

The current newsletter of the Association of European Jewish Museums includes a report on the November 15-18 conference by Canadian museum specialist Reesa Greenberg. (To left, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett leads a curatorial tour of the POLIN core exhibition.) It also announces the next Advanced Curatorial Education Program (A-CEP), which is scheduled to take place at The Jewish Museum London from February 15-19. 

NING WITH US

In advance of the conference, be sure to sign on to CAJM's user-friendly social platform, a place for chatting, posing questions, and sharing photographs, articles, accomplishments, or impressions. Go to http://cajm4u.ning.com/ and let us know what you're working on, thinking about, or looking forward to as the new year begins.