BPG Column from the November 2007 AIC Newsletter

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2008 Annual Meeting

The response to BPG's call for abstracts for the 2008 AIC annual meeting has been tremendous. Program Chair Alexis Hagadorn received over 25 abstracts covering a wide variety of issues, including the AIC meeting topic of Creative Collaborations. We have tried to fit in as many as possible with 16 talks over one-and-a-half days. Concurrent sessions of the Library Collections Conservation Discussion Group (LCCDG) and the Archives Conservators Discussion Group (ACDG) will fill another half day. Additionally, BPG has been working closely with the Electronic Materials Group (EMG) on a joint session that we hope will be interesting and relevant to our members. This joint session will consist of talks by AIC members and an invited guest lecturer.

BPG's business meeting will take place during breakfast; the breakfast will be subsidized by BPG making the cost to our members nominal. Our reception will be generously sponsored by Preservation Technologies L.P. and Bob Strauss which will allow us to waive the usual charge for BPG members. Although free, you will still need to sign up for a ticket on your meeting registration form. For our evening event, assistant Program Chair Yasmeen Khan has secured the Colorado History Museum as a reception venue. We hope to see everyone there for a lovely evening.

Budget and Reserve Funds

Both the 2007 and 2008 budgets were approved with expenditures larger than revenues as a way to spend down our reserves. However, starting with the 2009 budget, we will need to move back to a balanced budget. The costs for audio visual equipment and coffee breaks at the annual meetings continue to escalate, which is an additional factor that will affect the budget. Additionally, although we had an ambitious specialty group program at last year's annual meeting and a very full schedule for the coming year, we may need to cut back our programming in the future. I hope to have a better idea of estimated costs for the 2009 annual meeting after the Internal Advisory Group meeting in November. In the meantime, Treasurer Jennifer Hain Teper and I will be working over the course of this year to create a proposed budget that will allow us to maintain our programs while decreasing our expenses.

AIC/BPG Website

The BPG membership approved a one-time donation of $3,000 toward the cost of updating the AIC website. In the meantime, BPG's webmaster Bruce Bumbarger, has been working to update the look and navigation of the current BPG site. We are adding new pages, updating information and incorporating historical information to make the site as complete and useful as possible. The work is ongoing so not everything will be available immediately. Please let us know what you think.

Questions, comments and suggestions are always welcome!