San Diego Highlight - Murals at Chicano Park: Founding of Mexico City, Tony de Vargas, Vidal Aguirre, Felipe Adame. The painting on the ceiling of the kiosk illustrates the foundation myth of Tenochtitlan/Mexico City.

June is busting out all over! *humming*

June...Can you believe it? I know that most of us have been pretty distracted the first half of this year, but I admit I'm pretty excited for the second half. Why? Because the preliminary program for the annual meeting in San Diego, CA October 25-29, A Rising Tide: Sustainability, Green & Beyond,is out in print - did you pick up your copy in Philly at AAM in April/May? If not, you probably received one in the mail a week or so ago. No?  Ah, well maybe your membership listing whether institutional, individual, or corporate isn't updated. Drop me a line and I'll send you one - pronto! Or you can download the .pdf from the WMA website homepage (www.westmuse.org).

Obviously your plans to attend the annual meeting include obtaining a copy of and reading through the preliminary program so that you can plan your travel, schedule, workload, & some chill time with colleagues that week. But even those of you who doubt whether you can make the meeting will find the preliminary program of value.

Every year  I get several requests for past preliminary and final programs; the most recent request was for a preliminary program from 1990! (Yes, we had a spare copy in the archives.) Most of these requests are from researchers. They often want to know what the cutting edge issues of the day or who the experts were, then. Sometimes institutions are placing an RFP and need the name of a company.

Often folks who know they can't attend a meeting will try to mitigate that loss by contacting specific presenters or institutions in order to ask questions or get copies of presentations/materials. Others will use the progam as a personal trip planner, "I couldn't make the meeting, but I was going [there] a few months after with family...I wanted to see what my colleagues had!"

Whatever the reason, make sure that you get your copy asap. Don't forget early bird registration deadlines are approching! There are lots of ways to participate in San Diego - exhibit, attend, advertise, sponsor, donate an auction item, and even speak! This might help you to get support from your museum for travel and registration...check out the New & Notable call for entries (http://www.westmuse.org/san%20diego%20new%20ways.html).

Located in San Diego's beautiful Balboa Park, the Timken Museum of Art houses the world-class Putnam Foundation Collection of European old masters American art, and Russian icons.

I can't wait to welcome you to the annual meeting in San Diego. It's going to be a great conference on all the levels that WMA is known for - a manageable size both in numbers of people and site; an intimate yet diverse group of leaders, thinkers, and processors; a beautiful location and offsite venues; many and varied ways to network and be heard; and numerous opportunities for gaining knowledge, insights, and experiences. It's WMA, of course.

Elida Zelaya, Executive Director