HISTORY COUNCIL OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Minutes of Council Committee Meeting
Monday, 6 June 2011
5.00 p.m. – 7.00 p.m.
Meeting Room (Law School 110), Ligertwood Building, University of Adelaide
Meeting opened at 5.05pm
1. Present
Wilf Prest (Chair), Margaret Anderson, Greg Slattery, Annette Mills, Peter Brinkworth, Jenny Stock, John Bannon, Daryl Best, Richard Venus, Carol Fort, Geoff Bishop, Hugh Magarey, Jenni Jeremy
2. Apologies
Alan Mayne and Alison Mackinnon,
3. Confirmation of Minutes of previous meeting
Minutes of the March committee meeting of 7 March, which had been circulated, were signed as a true and correct record. Moved Wilf Prest, seconded Greg Slattery. Carried.
4. Business arising from the minutes
a) History Month panel
Wilf reported that all went well (Margaret Anderson arrived 5.05pm)
b) Co-badging October Festival of Ideas event
Robert Phiddeon is still considering this – they are looking for a history of cities angle – perhaps someone like Grace Karskens who has done a lot of work researching Sydney in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Carol suggested Lionel Frost, Margaret suggested Alan Mayne illustrated by his panel session for History Week. Carol asked Wilf what Festival of Ideas wants to present on cities – Wilf not sure. Another suggestion was Seamus O’Hanlon.
Action: Wilf or Carol to follow up with Robert Phiddian
c) Commissioning of logo
We now have a logo. And it is in use.
5. President’s report
a) Website
Wilf reported that the website is now live. Some updating needs to be done for example the date of the forum, the podcast link to the forum, John Hirst’s lecture topic is incorrectly cited and’ newsletters’ only points to FAHS, rather than president’s missives.
All agreed that if minutes and agendas are made available from the site they should be accessible to members only.
Wilf suggested that we only have one email account set up – currently the email address is
Geoff asked who will be authorised to update the website – Carol replied that the President, Vice President and Secretary should be able to do it. Wilf reported that training will be organised soon by Ursh and she will create some videos to help with this. Hugh asked about a contact phone number –Annette commented she is happy to have her SLSA phone number listed.
b) Membership
In response to Wilf’s concern re membership enrolments, Greg provided an update which confirmed that numbers are down from what they were when the History Council was first initiated. John suggested that this might be a good time to write to these people saying we have a new website etc. in an attempt to get them back on board.
Action: Carol and Greg to get together and put this into action before the State History conference.
Wilf also expressed some concern about the application of the newly revised membership categories. John commented that these are in the constitution since the last AGM and it seems premature to redraft them now. Greg suggested that we can create guidelines on the membership categories to avoid any major redrafting at present
Hugh asked about Indigenous representation. Annette and Carol confirmed that the Executive has been in contact with various people in the Indigenous community and currently there is no Indigenous representation or membership of the History Council.
c) WEA and U3A
If we are to sponsor adult education courses as History Council approved/endorsed, we need to create a pool of willing potential speakers. Richard asked what the difference was between this and just giving a one-off talk. Peter commented on his own experience with adult education teaching for WEA and U3A. WEA has a formal structure and pays a small fee; U3A doesn’t pay anything and you negotiate with the students directly what it is they want to learn.
Action: Carol suggested that she might get together with John to look at the possibility of our offering a course on aspects of South Australian history, with various brief segments or sessions each taught by an individual member of the HCSA .
d) National Archives of Australia Consultative Forum Update
Wilf reported that John is now chair of the NAA Advisory Council. John reported that as Ross Gibbs has retired as Director-General of the NAA, his own first task will to participate in appointing a new Director General. NAA has just been approved $600 million building and upgrade of repositories. Co-locations are going well. Next meeting will be in Darwin. John is looking forward to interfacing with the regional offices.
e) History Prize and tax free account
Greg still needs to lodge the paperwork with the ATO, and will do so before the end of the current financial year.
Action: Greg to lodge tax free account paperwork
Wilf asked what we wanted to do with the Wakefield Companion royalties; at the last executive meeting we talked about a South Australian Historian of the year or Young South Australian Historian of the year award.
Discussion ensued – Geoff suggested that this would require some eligibility criteria, i.e. residence in South Australia. John thinks some obligation should be in there, such as giving a lecture or talk. Carol suggested that we look at the NAA prize wording.
Action: the matter was referred back to the Executive for further discussion and the formulation of a detailed proposal.
6. Correspondence
IN: none
OUT: none
7. Treasurer’s report
Greg gave a listing of expenses for the year. Our income to date is $6950. Greg distributed a listing of expenditure (see below)
Wilf commented that he has applied to the Copyright Agency Limited for some funding towards the costs of our annual lecture.
8. Any other business
State History Conference
In response to a question, Margaret reported that registrations for the State History Conference were going well.
About Time History Festival
Geoff commented that About Time was excellent. Margaret commented that the official evaluation of the event is yet to be undertaken but the informal responses received have been very good. Margaret added that it is not clear what will happen in 2012. Main cost of the event is printing. 2012 might see a fortnight rather than a month of history events.
AGM
It was agreed that a speaker from the SS City of Adelaide project might help attendance and should not be seen as providing History Council of SA endorsement of the project.
Action: Annette to check if Ira Raymond Room at Barr Smith Library is free.
Advocacy
Hugh talked about the Glenelg tram restoration and how the HCSA should have a view and endorse historic issues. Wilf thought this was an interesting point to raise as he had recently had a conversation with the Zoe Pollock of HCNSW about advocacy and heritage issues. John commented that we can endorse all sorts of projects, but it’s all about priorities in the context.
Australian Historical Association conference
The conference is being held in Launceston, Tasmania in July 2011. Traditionally History Councils have been asked to share notes and views in a panel session. While no-one from the Executive is able to attend this year, it was agreed that we must ensure that we are represented at the 2012 meeting.
Civil Aviation Historic Society
Richard pointed out that the Civil Aviation Historic Society is looking for a new home.
9. Next meetings
Executive:
Monday 18 July 2011 (moved from 4 July) 5.00pm -7pm State Library
Monday 1 August 2011: 5-7pm State Library SA
Annual lecture
Thursday 4 August –Napier Lecture Theatre 102, University of Adelaide
AGM
Tuesday 6 September - venue TBC
Meeting closed at 6.30 pm
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