Minutes of the 53rd meeting of the Museum Council, 2 November 2006, 11:30-13:00, Laufásvegur 12, 101 Reykjavík
Present were: Ólafur Kvaran, Karl Rúnar Þórsson, Anna Guðný Ásgeirsdóttir and Rakel Halldórsdóttir.
1. Comments were made to the minutes of the 52nd meeting. The minutes will be signed at the next meeting.
2. Report of the Managing Director. The Nordic Museums Committee under the auspices of the Nordic Council of Ministers will be closed at the turn of the year after 10 years of operation. A meeting on 9 November in Copenhagen aims to establish a new network of contacts between public museum institutions in the Nordic countries. ÓK, RH and Eiríkur Þorláksson, an expert at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, will attend the meeting on behalf of the committee. Committee salary. The Minister of Finance has requested an assessment by the Remuneration Committee of the committee salaries for representatives of the Association of Icelandic Local Authorities and the Association of Icelandic Museums and Collectors on the Museum Council, where the current council has been operating for almost a year. Furthermore, the request for a review of the committee salaries has been reiterated. Seminar. The Museum Council has begun planning a seminar with Gísli Sverrir Árnason on November 15th at 12-13 in the lecture hall of the National Museum of Iceland. At the seminar, Gísli Sverrir will present the results of his master's thesis in public administration, which is entitled District Museums in Iceland and examines the reorganization of museum affairs in the country with district museums. Aviation Heritage Committee, which was appointed by the Minister of Education to examine issues in the field of Icelandic aviation heritage, is currently completing its work and will submit a report with its recommendations to the Ministry of Education. RH is an employee of the committee, but MH chairs it. Working group on the development of master's and diploma programs in museology at the University of Iceland is working on raising funds for the project. Support has been sought from various sources. RH is leading the working group. Museum Council consultation meeting on the educational role of museums was held on November 19th and 20th. The meeting was well attended by museum education staff and was a success. A working group on planning and preparing the meeting is working on a report on the results of the meeting. RH is leading the working group. Applications to the 2007 Museum FundThe application deadline for the 2007 Museum Fund was November 1st. A considerable number of applications have been received.
3. Budget Committee – grants for museum work. The Museum Council discussed the budget committee's grants for museum work and the method that has been used by the State Museum Conservation Committee, but the head of the Museum Conservation Committee is the budget committee's advisor on the allocation of grants from the budget for projects within the scope of the Museum Conservation Committee, which are not discussed by the committee. The Museum Council agreed to request that the chairman of the budget committee establish a similar system regarding the budget committee's grants for museum work, which are not discussed by the Museum Council. The Minister of Culture was instructed to send the chairman of the budget committee a letter to this effect.
4. Iceland's name change – resolution. The Museum Council discussed the use of the Icelandic name suffix for institutions in museum work and other cultural institutions. It was agreed to send the Minister of Education a resolution proposing that a policy be formulated by the Ministry of Education on authorizations for the use of the Icelandic name suffix in the name of institutions in the field of museum and/or cultural work. The authorization will only be granted in the case of an institution that has been formally granted a national role in the institution's field of work. The Minister of Education was instructed to send the Minister a letter.
5. Message from the management company Sarps. The Museum Council discussed a submission by the Sarp Management Company requesting the Council's confirmation of Sarp as a recognized registration system according to Article 10 of the Museums Act No. 106/2001. The matter received positive discussion but could not be resolved as one of the three Museum Council representatives at the meeting is the chairman of the Sarp Management Company's executive board and therefore did not participate in the discussion. There was therefore no majority. The matter is pending resolution at the next meeting.
6. Natural History Museums – application for a project grant from the Icelandic Museum Fund 2006 for a registration system for natural history museumsThe case has been postponed in recent meetings as the requested information from the Ministry of Education has not been received. The case was postponed again.
7. Next meeting and other mattersThe next scheduled meeting is November 30th.
Other issues:
A new regulation was introduced No. 896/2006 on the National Museum of Iceland.
About museum registration issues
It was agreed to begin planning a conference in February 2007 on the registration system and registration issues of museums. The Executive Board was tasked with continuing to work on the matter.
The KRÞ reported that around the same time, the Association of Icelandic Museums and Museum Owners would be holding a refresher course on the same topic, i.e. registration issues in museums. The KRÞ submitted a proposal for possible cooperation between the Museum Council and FÍSOS on this matter. The Executive Director and the KRÞ were instructed to continue working on the matter.
There was no further discussion and the meeting adjourned at 12:45/RH