Listen here!

The WWI exhibition development team is searching for a small to medium size round or rectangular wooden dining table (or the like) to be used in an interpretive space within the exhibition, which will run for a year from March 2015-March 2016.

It is likely that the table will be covered with a tablecloth so marking and stains may not be a problem. As hundreds of members of the general public will sit at the table looking through photo albums and other paraphernalia, it will need to be sturdy and have all four legs in good working order.

If you think you have a suitable table that you can loan the exhibition team for an entire year — perhaps something that is out in the back shed — please send an
image with rough dimensions to Trudy Woodcock at Trudy.woodcock-outram@tmag.tas.gov.au or get in touch via the details below:

Trudy Woodcock | Acting Exhibition Manager
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery | Department of State Growth
19 Davey Street, Hobart TAS 7000 | GPO Box 1164, Hobart TAS 7001
Ph (03) 6165 7071 | Fax (03) 6211 4112 | Mobile 0404 423 437

Following the AGM held on 25 September 2014, the new committee for 2014-2015 is

President John Sexton

Vice President Christopher Thomas

Treasurer Noel Harper

Secretary Julie Hawkins

Committee members Jean Boughey, David Coleman, Ruvé Etchell, Digby Longhurst, Andrew Ross, Matt Spencer

Ex Officio Jennifer Storer, TMAG Acting Director

Thank you to all those members who have responded thus far and renewed your membership for the coming year - well over half our members who fell due in July have renewed, with more coming in daily.

We are planning to issue personalised, credit-card style membership cards, to replace the cardboard cards we've previously used. This will occur in late October; meanwhile, please continue to use your old card, or bring along or print out a copy of your membership receipt, to claim membership benefits.

If you are reading this, you have clearly found your way to the new Friends of TMAG website. Your committee has been hard at work, getting the site ready for you. In future this will be the major point for dealing with membership applications, renewals, registration for events and more.

For now, we are populating the site with what we hope will be useful and interesting information for members. On the Home page, for example, you can download copies of recent Friends Newsletters.

In the About Us section, we have placed a copy of our Constitution document, for interest and reference. (This is a scanned copy of the hard copy we have - if any member has the current constitution as a word processor document, could you please forward it to us at friends@tmag.tas.gov.au - we'd be grateful and it will save someone a lot of typing!)

Also on the About Us page you'll find our new Privacy Policy. Like any organisation in Australia, the Friends of TMAG is subject to the Australian Privacy Principles and associated legislation. The Policy details what personal information we collect, how it is managed and what uses it is put to. 

Your personalised membership renewal letters and forms are on their way to you. There is even a reply-paid envelope to return the form, plus we have offered a range of options for payment.

We hope you find the renewal process easy, and encourage you to renew promptly so you don't miss out on any of the events that we have coming up.

We had a brilliant tour of Shene Estate last Sunday afternoon. Anne and David Kernke gave a wonderful tour of the magnificent gothic stables, the great barn and through their homestead before treating us to afternoon tea. Take a look at the Photos page for a taster or reminder.

Due to the overwhelming response to this activity and the large number of members who missed out, we have secured a second tour of Shene on Sunday 25 May. A notice is being sent to those who missed out on the first tour. Depending on the uptake by those members, a wider notification may be sent.

Artist Donna Ritchie, who works as a Visitor Services Officer at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, is having an exhibition at the SideSpace Gallery of the Salamanca Arts Centre this month, and members are warmly welcomed to pop along for a look.

It is approaching that time of year again when we ask you to renew your membership of the Friends of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. It is hard to believe that it is more than a year since the reopening of TMAG following the first stage of its redevelopment. In that time visitation has grown, as has membership of TMAG.

Your committee has been hard at work implementing a new, very 21^st century membership management system that will, in due course, enable those of you who have the inclination to manage your own subscriptions via a website, as well as access news, information about forthcoming events, make payments and donations and generally stay in touch with the activities of the Friends of TMAG.

We will be using the system from this membership renewal onwards. On this occasion we will be writing to all members and asking you to complete the information a pre-filled form and return it to us by post.

We will also be asking you to provide your preferred method of contact. We know from our survey of a couple of years ago that many of you are keen for contact to be via email and the web, which this new system will soon be providing. Those who are not so keen, never fear; we shall continue to allow you to subscribe, receive news and make payment by post and cheque for as long as the banks keep accepting them.

However, given the increasing costs and workload associated with mailing to our growing membership, we do ask that if you have access to email, that you do seriously consider using that channel; the more money we can save on postage, the more we have to support TMAG and its work.

Your committee is implementing a new computerised cloud-based membership database system to help us stay in touch and better serve our rapidly growing number of Friends. 

This new, very 21^st century membership management system will, in due course, enable those of you who have the inclination to manage your own subscriptions via a website, as well as access news, information about forthcoming events, make payments and donations and generally stay in touch with the activities of the Friends of TMAG. 

The system, from Canadian developers Wild Apricot, offers a range of benefits, including:

• A choice of payment options, including direct debit and online payments while still allowing us to accept postal orders and cheques.
• Managing RSVPs and payments for Friends’ events
• A Friends website, which could include news, a calendar of events and options for members to manage their own membership preferences online
• Communication by either email or traditional post
• It can be managed by any committee member or other authorised person from any location – it doesn’t require someone sitting in a particular office.

We anticipate that it will take a few months for us to transfer all the membership information and the years of corporate knowledge that are held within Jean’s estimable card index system. Members should not notice any change or interruption to services at present, until we reach the point where we can begin email communications for those who have opted for it.