BARCS: The Origin Story
The inaugural BARCS meeting, August 2015
In April 2015, I sent out the first survey to test the registrarial waters of the Bay Area to see if a group was ready to be born. The idea had come to me at the CAM 2015 Conference when an audience member asked a speaker what they were going to do with their master’s thesis research. It got me wondering what I was going to do with mine - which was focused on the rise of the profession through better understanding and collaborations. I had recently moved to the Bay Area and didn’t know anyone in the museum world. As I met with registrars and collection managers, I asked if there was a local group that existed for this crowd, as other areas I lived had collections-based groups. Alas, there was not! Until the CAM conference, though, it never crossed my mind that I could be the one to start it. But two months later, with the help of others in the museum world, I was sending out a survey to everyone I had met and a couple months later our first meeting took place at the Asian Art Museum. With nearly 40 people there, the numbers spoke for themselves. BARCS was needed! From that first meeting, a path was laid out...but this was only the beginning.
Our volunteer founding board was formed last Fall and they have been busy since Day 1. With events being organized almost every month, from informational sessions to social meetups, and a highly active social media presence through Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, we are all about providing both learning and networking opportunities to our members. But this isn’t all we do! We have a website under development, a local listserv that will be ready to launch soon and so many more avenues to help the Bay Area collections field on the horizon. While this year has brought about the beginning of BARCS, I know the best is still yet to come! I would like to thank the board for all their efforts in this last year and send a huge thanks for all those BARCS members that come to our events and follow us on-line. Without all of you, BARCS would have no bite!
Lisa Rowan, Founding President
