NORTH WEST REGIONAL ARCHIVE COUNCIL

Item 4.6.2 The Draft had not yet been circulated due to delays in producing the Project Report. Recent appointments at the PRO should allow the Project Report to be completed within the next few months.

Item 4.8.2 The Secretary (BJ) apologised for not yet having prepared a letterhead, and undertook to do so before the next meeting.

Item 7.1 The Chairmen of the Regional Archive Councils had written to Re:source to express concern jointly about the establishment of a Task Force to look at Regional Museums, without taking parallel steps to address problems for archive services.

Item 7.2 The third National User Survey had now begun.

Item 7.3 The RAC Nominee had been interviewed but unfortunately not been appointed

Item 8.3 Paul Catcheside is to retire as head of Manchester Libraries and NWRLS and Liz Phelan will take charge. Joyce Little is chairing the NWRLS Futures group. The Society of Chief Librarians (NW) had launched a public prospectus and a parallel document was expected from the academic libraries. NWMS have issued their new grant policy which makes explicit mention of partnerships with libraries and archives, although applications still have to come from museums.

Item 9.2 As yet no nomination had been received from the National Council for Conservation-Restoration. MJW indicated that he would be standing down as BRA representative as he was moving from the region, and he hoped a successor would be appointed by BRA within the next few weeks.

a) JG introduced Nigel Rudyard (NR) who had been appointed as Regional Strategic Development Officer - Museums, Libraries and Archives. He will commence in post on 26 February, having previously been employed by North West Regional Library System. NR said that he hoped to build bridges between the three distinct professions. His initial tasks will be the preparation of the Regional Archive strategy, helping develop the Regional Archive Council, and gathering metadata on the three sectors with the aim of evolving a standard set.

b) JG has already provided NR with documentation, and they have produced a draft outline of the strategy, which was circulated (Copy attached to minutes). In discussion Colin Philips (CP) stressed the need for the policy to stress the need for comprehensiveness, as well as excellence. Alan Crosby (AC) wondered if the policy would highlight weaknesses, and in discussion it was agreed that this could be monitored through the Mapping Projects. Jonathan Pepler (JP) queried where Records Management would fit in to the overall scheme, as this was a key question.

The meeting then endorsed proceeding on the draft outline. The time-scale for preparation of the Strategy was discussed. It was agreed that JG should approach Re:source to discuss if completion by the end of June would be acceptable.

It was agreed that a core group should be established to assist NR with key data etc, although all members of the RAC would have a direct role to play.

Membership of this group was agreed as :

Jim Grisenthwaite (chairman) - counties

Nigel Hardman - business archives

Kevin Mulley - metropolitan areas

Frances Thomson - universities

Alan Crosby - users

Nigel Rudyard

It was also agreed at this point to seek to purchase the web domain name nwrac.org.uk for the RAC website. NR showed examples of the initial site development he had carried out already, which is housed for the moment on the NWRLS site. He was thanked for the good work he had already done.

Discussion of the proposed draft, circulated for comment by the PRO, took place. It was felt that the document, while useful in many ways, was rather unfocused, and took rather a centralist position. There was a need for greater regional input at an early stage in the process. It was agreed that a response be drafted to make these points and sent.

5.3 HMC - Quinquennial review

There were a variety of views expressed about the response which should be prepared. It was felt that the choices were fairly stark. Although there was agreement that certain functions at present carried out by HMC would have to be carried out by some other organisations if HMC did not continue. The question was really whether they were best carried out by HMC, or whether they could best be carried out in some other fashion. The future development of the NRA and inspection were the key functions identified, and there was a strong view that the independent nature of HMC put it in a unique position to comment on difficulties faced by archive services or users. It was agreed that a response be sent to the Chairman of the Review Panel.

The Final Report was due in June 2001, and would produce data of assistance in future work on the Regional Archive Strategy. Various organisations in the North West had been contacted to take part in the survey, although it was not clear on what basis the 10% sample had been constructed. Nigel Hardman (NH) expressed concern that the question of Records Management had not been addressed in the Questionnaire.

JP circulated a draft budget (copy attached to the minutes) which was agreed as a basis to proceed. This would be sent to Katie Norgrove by 18 February.

A website is to be set up and developed, with the constituent bodies on the RCC being asked for content. Consultants had been appointed to draft the Regional Cultural Strategy, and a meeting has been scheduled with them for 12 February at which the RAC will be represented. The aim is for different focus groups to feed in to the strategy, and a draft to be available in March.

There was no further information on the appointment of Business Manager or Admin assistant to work for the RCC.

For information: Michael Eakin has been appointed as Director of North West Arts; the Bolton Cultural Strategy has now been completed and will be available shortly; The new Cultural Strategy guidelines now include archives as a service

BJ/16/2/01