Founded in 1968, the Hawaiʻi Museums Association (HMA) has been serving the informal learning center professionals in Hawaiʻi for fifty one years. Our roots trace back to a meeting held at Queen Emmaʻs Summer Palace in which a small group of professionals came together with the idea to create an association to be a forum for the exchange of information and ideas as well as to promote both institutional and professional standards. This same grass-roots idea of people coming together to support one another in the field still exists today as HMA has no staff or officers and depends on a volunteer board for governance and its members for support.