NORTH WEST REGIONAL ARCHIVE COUNCIL

Sarah Flynn spoke to the meeting about the continuation of the project after the present arrangements expire on 31 March 2002, when Treasury funding expires. The PRO is keen to see the work continue, and hopes to keep the central team together, but would need to recover costs more fully as part of any project with which they were involved. A steering group is looking at options, but there still seems great scope for retroconversion. However, other project options include backlog cataloguing, but also interpretative projects and digitisation, or mixtures of these. The PRO was keen to consult the archive community over this summer as to what options were favoured, and would issue a statement in the autumn. The HLF small grants scheme was seen as the natural source for funding, although participating offices would have to accept that they would probably need to find a larger proportion of matching funding than had been the case with Phase 1 of A2A.

There would be no need for future bids to be regional in nature, but there would still be scope for such bids, and HLF may well find them more attractive. Members briefly discussed the options which might be developed over the autumn for fruition in spring 2002: these could include carrying over bids developed by other regions in phase 1, revisiting some of the ideas suggested at the workshop in Preston in June 2000, such as buildings/social concerns/housing. It was agreed that options should be considered over the next few months for further development.

The minutes of the meeting of 2 April were agreed as a correct record and signed. The following matters arising were raised:

Item 3.4.The BRA had now nominated Dr Chris Lewis to serve as their representative. Further to this item, Richard Hoyle (RH) raised concerns about the increasing number of professional bodies coming in to membership of NCA, with the resulting eligibility to place on the Regional Archive Councils, thus diluting the proportion of user representation. While many members felt that this was not a straightforward matter, all agreed that user representation was important, and an important positive feature of the RACs, which must be preserved in the fast changing environment. It was agreed that the Secretary (BJ) would write to NCA to express the concerns..

Item 5 It was reported that, in connection with the Resource grant of £28000 for cultural diversity work, a proposal had now been submitted to Resource and subsequently confirmed. The grant would be used to create a project directory, and gather base line information. Work was due to commence mid June.

Item 6.3 NWRLS had now reconstituted itself as Libraries North West, and the two organisations would run in tandem for some time. The Area Museum Council had now also restructured with a leaner, more strategic board structure.

The Chairman (JG) introduced the item by stating that, if approved, the draft would be presented to Re:source, and that the RAC would then seek to produce an Executive Summary and Action plan for consideration at the next meeting. This latter document would identify the agenda to which the RAC would be working over the next few years.

Nigel Rudyard (NR) presented the fourth draft of the proposed Regional Archive Strategy document. He outlined the consultative process which had taken place to date, including the main public meeting in Manchester, and further meetings with 60 people, requiring 3000 miles of travel! He said that the four main criticisms he had encountered were:

	The lack of a distinctive NW flavour
	The history/heritage context had been emphasised at the expense of the evidential value/ Freedom of information/ democratic empowerment agenda
	Too biased towards large county services
	Nothing for users, including the question of input on strategic issues

While not necessarily accepting all these as valid criticisms, he had attempted to take all the comments into account when writing the revised version.

There was extensive discussion of the document, including the concern expressed by Colin Philips (CP) that the failure to address the tension resulting from the disparate views on the regional dimension was a strategic weakness. It was finally resolved that that the meeting endorse the strategy as it stood, and that this would form the basis of the submission to Resource, but that NR would attempt to reflect the comments made in the meeting.

The Chairman then suggested that the Executive Summary and Action Plan be drawn up by the Sub-committee agreed upon at the February meeting, widened out to include observers from the NWMS and LNW, and that this would be tabled at the next RAC meeting. This procedure was agreed.

 

That NWMS, NWRLS and NWRAC work together towards the establishment of a cross-domain strategic body, to an agreed timetable over the next two years.

That the Working Group (NWMLAWG) formulate mechanisms by which the above could be achieved while continuing to body to monitor existing cross-domain activity.

A business plan be commissioned for the new organisation.

Adapting the existing structure of the Area Museum Council (as an established funding channel from Resource) represented the most practical vehicle for the way forward.

Once key principles had been agreed, a Regional Director be appointed

The respective governing bodies of the three organisations be recommended to endorse the above.