Ffederasiwn Amgueddfeydd Ac Orielau Celf Cymru

Ffederasiwn Amgueddfeydd ac Orielau Celf Cymru

The Federation of Museums and ArtGalleries of Wales

Charity Registration No. 1102270

Committee Meeting,Friday 4 December 2009, 11am

NewtownTextileMuseum

Present: Susan Dalloe, Andrew Deathe, John Marjoram, Esther Roberts, Rachael Rogers, Scott Reid, Martin Everett, Chris Wright, Carol Whittaker (CyMAL)

Apologies

Angela Gaffney (NMW/AC), Jane Henderson, Emma Lewis, Rachael Lovering, Pat West, Chris Delaney, Debbie Wildgust

Minutes of the Last Meeting

Agreed as a true record.

Matters Arising

Military Museum/Cardiff - HLF grant application Phase 2JM had drafted standard letter of support and will send one in support of their Phase 2 bid.
Effective Collections:JM reported that Len Pole already talking to MA about Ethnography based Effective Collections Project
Contemporary Collections – JM thought Federation should help reinvigorate / put contemporary collecting onto post museum strategy draft – JM to talk to Eva Bredsdorff about this.
Archaeological Standards training: Alex Dawson from Collections Trust had suggested to RR that ‘standards in action’ could be used. It is felt though that more in-depth information regarding Welsh archaeological standards would be needed to move ahead with related training. RR to contact Alex Dawson again to see what could be done.
Digihub Equipment Audit – RR to ask Chris how this audit was progressing.
CILIP conference – JM reported that following meeting with CILIP & CyMAL representatives, the themes suggested by the FED had not been taken on board and would be focusing on Economic Hard Times.
Historic Environment Network – have advertised for a consultant to scope works.

Correspondence

No correspondence received.

President’s Report

Welsh Historic EnvironmentCD had attended the Welsh Historic Environment network and reported that there were two key issues to be aware of;
Cadw’s Conservation Plan Published
Cadw are keen to develop an All Wales Development Plan regarding Interpretation (AD reported that further information about this was available on the ‘Dehongli Cymru / Interpretation Wales’
CyMAL advisory committeeCD had attended a CyMAL advisory committee and reported (through RR) that the Peoples Collection had progressed further and there was also to be a review of the ‘Sharing Treasures’ project.

Legislative Competency Order (LCO)CD and RR had both given evidence in response to the Legislative Competency Order (LCO) although neither were attending with a Federation hat (CD for CBA and RR for MA). RR reported that the link to the responses were now available on the Welsh Assembly Government website. The first stage of the LCO has been approved by committee although there was still a long way to go before the LCO will be in place.
Museums Strategy for WalesIn response to CyMAL’s museums Strategy for Wales, RR will be attended a meeting on behalf of the Federation to meet CyMAL with members representing WLGA,NMW, independent and military museums.
Stuart Davies, Museums Association. RR soon to be meeting Stuart Davies, Museums Association. He had apologised for the lack of any reference to Wales in his speech at the MA Conference – he said the Welsh LCO and museums strategy was in the first draft but was edited out later. He raised two proposals that may raise the Welsh profile/representation within the MA;

Idea of a Welsh candidate as an MA President (unlikely at present)
Idea of MA conference happening within Wales in 2013. Cardiff and

Llandudno thought suitable venues by committee. RR to offer both locations as possible venues to Stuart Davies.

Treasurer’s Report

Balance on current account: £10,678.07

Balance on deposit account: £107,087.51

Balance on Cefni Barnett Fund: £1505.40

Small payments made since then towards cost of Costume Seminar (c.£238) and expenses (c£78).

Membership Update

Membership informationAndrew Deathe agreed to act asMembership Secretary and reported that as there were four different ‘working’ lists at present, it was hard to establish who had been invoiced and who had been paid. The treasurers list states that only 38 museums had paid membership (including the nine free museum places) As we are close to the end of the financial year, it was thought best to start afresh March 2010 with invoicing everybody with a membership leaflet and membership form and to give the opportunity for BACS payments to be made. SD to send BACS details to AD..

AD to collate lists of all ‘should be’ members and collate second list of new/small museums to target for membership in 2010.

JM to send AD list of museums.

Carol Wh to send list of all accredited museums to AD.

AD to send outstanding membership invoice to NMW fao: AG and also to raise issue of mechanism for disseminating Fed. information within NMW staff structure.

Restructuring of membership

In order to attract more members and in response from some museums that membership was too expensive, a reduced pricing structure was suggested. Discussed further under item 13 Business Plan.

Wales Development Officer

North and Mid WalesRegionalMuseum Partnership Project. JM is facilitating their agenda. JM reported that a meeting of the Partnership on 30 Nov in Rhyl was reasonably well attended and that the steering group of the Partnership would be keen to meet Fed reps to discuss some of the issues raised through the Common Cause Report. Suggested meeting February 11th at Rhyl.

CyMAL

Nothing additional to AGM report

Editor’s report

YMAG will be published in the early New Year. RL would welcome any articles and any help.

Websitewas currently causing problems as Newport IT restrictions means EmmaR not able to upload material to it. This highlights need for more committee members to be trained to upload material. SR and JM volunteered to learn how to upload material.

Museum Strategy

Strategy ResponseJM had responded on behalf of the Federation and RR will be meeting representatives from Welsh Assembly regarding strategy (alongside LA’s, WLGA, NMW, independent and military museums.

A meeting with the Minister would be timely as not yet had one with current member. Business Plan could be basis for discussions which should cover;

Professional issues, strategy issues, current climate issues. JM to write letter for signing by RR to request meeting with Alun Ffred Jones in the New Year.

Business Plan

JM started business plan for 2010-2012. JM to change Mission Statement to reflect advocacy role. Business Plan discussed and changes agreed upon, including the restructuring of membership bands to encourage greater membershipJM to change and recirculate draft.

Grant application to CyMAL

It was suggested that the Federation apply to CyMAL for a strategic grant e.g. £50k to administer small grants for projects that now fall out of CyMAL’s minimum small grant awards. Carol Wh suggested should compliment rather than conflict with AIM’s small grant schemes and also think of working in partnership e.g. Records Council for Wales

Events

SR reported that Costume Seminars had been successful with 14 attending St Fagan and 7 at Bangor.

Tuesday 8th December – 14 delegates booked for The Peoples Collection Seminar

Forthcoming training events

Roman Coin training day by Oliver Blackmore, Newport.

Other suggestions by members from feedback forms were;

Ceramics study day –in partnership with National Trust?

Natural History study day –

MA Advocacy Workshop – MA approaching institutions in Wales to host workshops. SR to write to MA ask if there would also be a scope for the workshops to be more relevant to Welsh context.
CWright – got award for entrepreneur working in small independent museums. As part of this award, CWright offered to give four hour workshop called ‘Rampant Money Making for Museums in Hard Times: Fine Tuning Your Operation’. The day would look at branding, core visitor profiling, training strategies etc. Venue: Greenfield Park. SR and CWright to coordinate

Advocacy role – seen as important future direction – RR to ask MA about their plans re: collating research and toolkits. RR to talk to WLGA to discuss ‘how museums are beneficial’ type study in Wales
Tourism Partnership Meeting –SD reported that champions have been appointed within Welsh Tourism announced with Dewi Davies (TPNW= Tourism Partnership North Wales) being champion of culture and heritage and Beverley Jenkins champion for attractions and families.
NIACE – Dysgu – Learning through Life: Inquiry into the future of Lifelong Learning. Report available on NIACE website. Grants were available for events organised through Adult Learners Festival Group.
BBC History of the World – CarolW had met with Christina Macaulay who is part of the BBC project – she would be happy to talk about the project and website (which will be upload able for museums. It could be an effective promotional tool once launched, especially considering absence of Museums & Galleries Month in 2010.
Sell to Wales – there is a website called Sell to Wales and Buy for Wales which lists suppliers who are available to work for public organisations in Wales.
LeicesterUniversity Placement (LUMEN) – Could the Federation offer a placement to a student? A decision is needed by February. The placement would need to be hosted by a committee member for a duration of 8 weeks in July/August (19th July until 10th September – accommodation would be an issue. Advocacy research could be a suitable project. RR to look into this andto discuss further via email following discussions with MA etc.

Date and venue of next meeting

NewtownLibrary

Friday 19th March 2010

11:00am-3:00pm

Next scheduled meetings;

Tuesday 15 June 2010

Tuesday 14 September 2010