AASLH Small Museums Committee Scholarship
 
The American Association for State and Local History will hold its Annual Meeting and Online Conference in Austin, Texas from 6-9 September 2017. This year's theme – I AM History - examines the personal, communal, and organizational journeys that lead to vibrancy, authenticity, social change and sustainability.

Unfortunately, many working in our nation's small museums feel as if we can only dream of attending this meeting. In a perfect world, boards would grant every request to fund our professional development. Institutions of modest means, however, may not have the resources to help us become effective stewards of our community's memory.

Websites, listservs, and social media constantly offer new sources of technical and psychological support, but nothing is better than the face-to-face fellowship of sharing survival strategies. Every year, increasing numbers of Annual Meeting sessions address issues specifically affecting small museums. These sessions can be as practical and wide-ranging as training, marketing, and strategic planning. Other sessions focus on creative ways to forge and re-energize relationships with the surrounding community.

Now in its eleventh year, AASLH's Small Museums Committee is offering scholarships to any AASLH members who are full-time, part-time, paid, or volunteer employees of small museums. Each scholarship will cover the cost of the conference registration and the Small Museums luncheon. Any remaining funds may be used to offset travel and/or lodging expenses.

To qualify, the applicant must work for a museum with a budget of $250,000 or less. They also must be either an individual AASLH member or work for an institutional member. Application forms are available at http://www.aaslh.org/SmallMuseums

The deadline for applications is 9 June. The committee will email award winners by 26 June. For questions, please go to http://community.aaslh.org/small-museums-scholarship  or contact Bruce Teeple, Small Museum Scholarship Subcommittee Chair at [email protected]