By: Jacqueline Cabrera

Over the past 9 months a group of 12 American museum professionals have been working on the formation of a new international organization focused on registrars and collections specialists. This new organization is called The Association of Registrars and Collections Specialists (ARCS).

The mission of ARCS is to represent and promote registrars and collections specialists nationally and internationally, to educate them in the professional best practices of registration and collections care, and to facilitate communication and networking.

Our “constitutional” board meeting took place on June 9-10, 2012, in Chicago, Illinois.  At that gathering we finalized our incorporation, made plans for the future, and voted in our first board and officers of ARCS. Over the summer we focused on our application for non-profit status and our Founding Benefactors campaign. Our Founding Benefactors Campaign closed on September 4. It was extremely successful. The support we received from vendors in all areas was amazing.

We are currently seeking a website developer for our future website which will include news of upcoming events, conferences, workshops, and professional development events etc.   There will also be a member’s directory, job postings, related resources, and other features to serve our members.

We plan to hold one large conference every two years, alternating with the European Registrars Conference. In the alternate years we will offer smaller workshops, webinars, and other learning and networking opportunities for our membership. We will include programming and learning opportunities for all who care for collections of all sizes and types everywhere.  The first ARCS conference will be held October 31 – November 3, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

ARCS hopes to serve the membership of the Western Museum Association (WMA) by having a presence at their Annual Meetings and by collaborating with The Registrars Committee Western Region (RC-WR).   This collaboration will strengthen the professional programming and networking opportunities for museum professionals in the western United States as well as in the Pacific Islands, British Columbia, and Mexico, which are also served by WMA.

ARCS will open its membership in October 2012. A membership form will be available on our temporary website (www.arcsinfo.org).  To receive information about our new organization please joins us on Face Book and Linked In.

Jacqueline Cabrera
ARCS Secretary & Founding Board Member
WMA Board Member
Associate Registrar for the Getty Villa