Sign-Ups for 2025 Member Communities are now open! MMA Member communities are groups of MMA members that meet virtually on a regular basis around a professional development topic. All members are invited to join one or more of the member communities based on your interests, professional development needs, and job responsibilities. Member communities are a wonderful way to network and connect with colleagues, share ideas, troubleshoot, brainstorm, and learn new skills to add to your professional toolkit. 

We currently have five member communities: Productivity and Time Management, Historic House Museums, Membership and Development, Exhibit Professionals, and Volunteer-Led Museums. 

The Productivity and Time Management member community is open to any member interested in learning about and sharing resources to increase productivity and maximize time management skills. This group welcomes all perspectives in regard to productivity and time management skill building. 

The Historic House Museums member community is open to any member who works in any capacity at a historic house museum. With a unique work environment, this group focuses on sharing ideas, resources, and experiences to help each other with issues and topics unique to historic house museums. Members working in roles in any aspect of running a historic house museum are invited to join, as topics are all inclusive. 

The Membership and Development member community is open to anyone who has a role in membership and/or development at their institutions. Whether it is your primary role or just one of many, members are invited to join in on the discussion to share resources, ask for advice, share tools and feedback, and discuss new ideas or trends within the field. 

The Exhibit Professionals member community is specifically for members whose primary role is in exhibition development and/or design. To join this group, exhibits must be your primary work focus. Members of this group come together to share knowledge relating to design, accessibility, interpretation, and visitor experience to create the foundation for high-quality exhibitions at their institutions. Their focus is to learn from each other, support each other, and discuss emerging topics and trends in exhibit work. 

The Volunteer-Led Museums member community is specifically designed for members who maintain and operate museums led by volunteers. Topics discussed in this group focus on the roles and responsibilities that are often handled by trained museum staff in bigger museums that are critical to the success of all-volunteer museums with fewer resources and less training. Discussions focus on idea and resource sharing, troubleshooting and brainstorming, and sharing decisions or providing updates on projects in which they seek peer feedback. 

Click here to learn more about the member communities and to read each group's purpose statement. 

All groups use Basecamp to connect and communicate and have monthly check-ins via Zoom that focus on a new topic each month. Recruitment and planning meetings are taking place August-October, and the monthly check-ins will run November-May. There will be opportunities to learn more about the member communities and to meet some current members at the annual conference in Kalamazoo this October. There will also be the opportunity to start new member communities on topics not currently represented—keep an eye out for updates on how to start that process in the near future.
 
The only requirements for joining a member community are that you must be a current MMA member, and you must commit to attending the monthly Zoom meetings at the scheduled time as often as possible. Participation is the key to success in a member community! 

To join an MMA Community, please complete this form by October 31, 2024. We hope you will consider joining a member community for the 2025 season!