By Jason Jones, Executive Director, Western Museums Association

A few short months ago, I was delighted to connect with so many of you in Edmonton at the Western Museums Association’s 2017 Annual Meeting. The joint international museum conference, a partnership with the Alberta Museums Association truly reflected our mission of “transforming the museum field through collaboration” and I hope you enjoyed many deep discussions throughout the Annual Meeting. THANK YOU for being part of the WMA Community!

WMA’s membership is comprised of a diverse group of museum professionals. If you haven’t already, please take a look at our 2017 Annual Report, which celebrates the WMA Community, highlights our educational programming, and provides insights into our current membership. As you will see, WMA includes members from a wide variety of disciplines, career stages, and museum types. The multifariousness of WMA’s members is one of our greatest assets and an aspect of the organization that I deeply value.

Looking forward into 2018, I invite you to use WMA’s Blog, Multimedia Forum and social media channels as resources for your professional development and also as an opportunity for dialogue on pertinent issues in the museum field. Planning is well under way for our 2018 Annual Meeting taking place in Tacoma, WA on October 21- 24. The theme of the 2018 Annual Meeting is INSPIRE. We will focus on the ways museums inspire action, change, and unity — a culmination of sorts of our last few gatherings. Together in 2018 (and beyond!) I trust that we will continue to push the boundaries of the museum field and work together to be agents of change in our own communities.

Yours in museums,
Jason B. Jones
Executive Director
Western Museums Association