held ac the "Rattlesnake Club" in Dectoit. Hosted by 

 Council ptesident Walter Keating, the evening was a 

 gteat success. 



February 22 



■ Program Historic Metropolitan AME Church was 

 the destination of a bus trip sponsored by the Anacostia 

 Museum. Church historian Horace G. Dawson dis- 

 cussed the history of this church which served as a sta- 

 tion on the Underground Railroad. 



February 23— March 3 



■ Public Program In conjunction with the opening of 

 the America's Smithsonian exhibition in Los Angeles, The 

 Smithsonian Associates premiered the Smithsonian Voices of 

 Discovery program, which included 103 presentations by II 

 Smithsonian scholars on diverse topics including modern 

 art, African American folklore, Japanese lacquer an and 

 prints, gems and minerals, civil rights, aviation history, 

 the rainforest, astronomy, and women in politics. 



24 February 



■ Education Outreach Two Learning is a Family Ex- 

 perience (LiFE) programs were conducted this winter, 

 on February 24 and March 16. LiFE, an outreach initia- 

 tive to communities underrepresented in the sciences, 

 involves NZP staff working with selected schools in 

 Washington, DC. The program provides curriculum 

 materials and an in-class presentation which is followed 

 by a visit to the Zoo that includes students and their 

 families. At the Zoo the whole family experiences tours 

 and demonstrations at animal houses and listens to talks 

 by scientists and curatorial staff. Evaluations of this pro- 

 gram have indicated that it is very effective in conveying 

 some of the more complicated tasks the Zoo undertakes. 



February 25—29 



■ Conference The Office of Protection Services hosted 

 the National Conference on Cultural Property Protec- 

 tion, an annual professional meeting focusing on 

 museum, library, and archive security. The theme for 

 1996 was Preparing for the Future: Learning from the Past. 



March 



■ Mediation The Office of Equal Employment and 

 Minority Affairs collaborated with the 31st Judicial Dis- 



trict of Virginia in the mediation of four cases, resulting 

 in approximately $12,000 in process cost saving. 



March 



■ Publication Flyer, the newsletter for the National Air 

 and Space Museum's membership program, debuted. 

 The National Air and Space Society, initiated in June 

 1995, has grown to more than 6,000 members. 



March 



■ Lecture Series As part of its continued educational 

 programming focusing on ancient Nubia, the National 

 Museum of African Art sponsored a lecture series entitled 

 "Who Were the Ancient Nubians." The series, which 

 drew the largest lecture audience in the museum's history, 

 explored issues raised by "The Ancient Nubian City of 

 Kerma, 2500-1500 B.C.," an exhibition of objects on long- 

 term loan from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 



March 



■ Special Event The Office of Equal Employment and 

 Minority Affairs planned and hosted the Institution's 

 first Ditector's Roundtable, a highly successful seminar 

 which has become a staple in educating managers and 

 supervisors on the nature of complaints, areas experienc- 

 ing the greatest incidence of complaints, and methods 

 for improving the processing of complaints. 



March 



■ Regional Consortium Smithsonian Institution 

 Libtaries became a Founding Member of CIRLA, the 

 Chesapeake Information and Research Library Alliance, 

 a consortium of six regional research libraries formed to 

 promote library service and cooperative activities. 



March 2 



■ Outreach The Naturalist Center of the National 

 Museum of Natural History welcomed visitors to a new, 

 tempotary facility in Loudoun County, Virginia. The 

 center — which encourages tens of thousands of students 

 each year to use its hands-on collections of natural his- 

 tory specimens, books, and scientific equipment — 

 received a 1996 Smithsonian Educational Outreach 

 Program grant to work with Loudoun County teachers 

 to promote object-based learning. The Naturalist Cen- 

 ter will teturn to the Mall upon completion of the 

 Museum's Discovery Center. 



29 



