Minutes of the 56th meeting of the Museum Council – allocation meeting 2007, 1 February 2007, 10:00 – 13:30, National Museum of Iceland, Suðurgata, 101 Reykjavík.
Present were: Ólafur Kvaran, Jón Gunnar Ottósson, Karl Rúnar Þórsson, Sveinn Kristinsson, Margrét Hallgrímsdóttir and Rakel Halldórsdóttir.
1. Allocations from the Museum Fund 2007Applications to the Museum Fund and allocations from the fund in 2007 were discussed. Operating grants from the Museum Fund in 2007 were approved. Regarding operating grants, the following was decided:
Operating expenses 0-4.99 million – grant 1 million.
Operating expenses 5-9.99 million – grant 1.5 million
Operating expenses 10+ million – grant 1.6 million
Two or more museums run together – strength 1.5 of the category in which the main museum falls.
Operating expenses 5-9.99 million – grant 1.5 million
Operating expenses 10+ million – grant 1.6 million
Two or more museums run together – strength 1.5 of the category in which the main museum falls.
Regarding project grants, the importance of receiving a formal response from the Ministry of Education and Culture regarding the Museums Council's request for justification for verbal instructions from the Ministry that the Council freeze grant funding for a project to develop a registration system for natural history museums in the country until the Icelandic Museum of Natural History was established as the main museum was discussed. Justification had not been received before the allocation meeting despite the Museums Council's repeated request to that effect.
Project grants from the Museum Fund 2007 were approved. It was agreed to wait with a decision regarding an application for a project grant for the development of a registration system for natural history museums.
It was agreed to request a report from the Association of Maritime Museums on the utilization of grants for the collaborative project of maritime museums. The collaborative project received grants from the Museum Fund in 2003 (300 thousand ISK), 2004 (600 thousand ISK) and 2005 (900 thousand ISK), a total of 1.8 million ISK.
It was agreed to request detailed information on the status of registration and reports on the estimated completion of the registration effort from all museums that have received grants for registration from the Museum Fund.
2. Next meeting and other matters.
The proposed date for the next meeting was February 20th.
The proposed date for the next meeting was February 20th.
Other issues:
NODEM conference in Iceland 2008:
Karl Rúnar Þórsson presented the matter. The organizers of NODEM (Nordic Digital Excellence in Museums) have requested that the next NODEM conference be held in Iceland in the spring of 2008.
FÍSOS does not have the capacity to handle the project alone and KRÞ wanted to explore the Museum Council's attitude towards the council's participation in the project. Further information was requested about NODEM's activities and it was agreed to discuss the matter in more detail at the next meeting.
Collection review:
The importance of conducting a professional audit of museums was discussed. It was agreed that the Museum Council would conduct a comprehensive audit of the activities of 2-3 museums annually. The audit would be conducted according to a standard form. The Director was tasked with designing a standard form for museum audits, as well as conducting audits.
There was no further discussion and the meeting adjourned at 1:30 PM/RH.