Present: S Edwards (Glam, Chair); S Beckley (WGlam); E Bennett (UWSwansea); M Ellis (DILS); A Lloyd Hughes (NMGW); G Jenkins (NLW); R Baker (HMC); D Rimmer (Gwent); A Rhydderch (Gwynedd); L Tomos (DILS); R Williams (SocArch); J Watts-Williams (NLW).

Apologies: S Jones (PRO); H Malaws (RCAHMW).

1	Minutes of the last meeting
	The minutes of the meeting held on 2 March 2000 were confirmed.

2	Subscriptions
	Subscriptions outstanding were named.

3	Gregynog Meeting 2000
	Arrangements for the annual Gregynog meeting to be held on 9 September were complete.

4	Society of Archivists Wales Region
	A successful meeting had been held in Cardiff on 20 March.

5	National Archives Policy
	The draft document distributed ahead of the meeting by ME was discussed. It was decided to alter the title of the document to 'A National Archives and Records Policy for Wales'; and some other amendments were made here and there. Arrangements were discussed for publishing the final document and presenting it to the Assembly. It was decided to print a thousand copies.

6	Resource and Wales
	SE had joined the steering committee under the chairmanship of Russell Thomas which would consider the document prepared by Hywel Roberts, DILS. It was noted that archive services in England were benefitting from Resource in large measure and that Wales was missing out again.

7

Constitution

SB gave her report. The City and County of Swansea solicitor had considered the creation of a legal entity for ACW. The solicitor's report had been circulated to members of ACW's working group some time ago, but SB had received no reply and had done nothing to pursue it further. A copy of the solicitor's report was tabled, but it was decided that there was no time to discuss it. It was agreed that SB should request the solicitor to investigate further. GJ pointed out that NCA was drafting a constitution to set up a company limited by guarantees, but that perhaps ACW was different because of the larger involvement of local authorities. Further down the line GJ would be seeking the opinion of NLW's Director of Administration on ACW's draft constitution.

8

Mapping Project

A fax from Steven Jones had come to hand just before the meeting, saying that the analysis had been completed, and that the final report and the conclusions had been outlined. SJ was willing to discuss a revised timetable. Some concern was expressed that much of the data might be outdated by now, but it was agreed that the report still needed to be completed. It was decided to ask SJ for a new timetable; assurances about the comparability of the Welsh data with those for England; and a copy of each submission in order to check their validity today. It was agreed to distribute a copy of the fax to each member of ACW.

9

Archives Network Wales

The Chair reported: the partners' representatives had met at NLW in June and agreed on the content of the cataloguing element and the general purpose. The County Archivists' Group was prioritising collections to be converted. Flexible approach — some repositories would prepare descriptions in-house. ACW Constitution — working group preparing it. Rate of progress — 8 collection-level descriptions a week. Management structure — more detail required. Hardware and software — David Jeremiah was reassessing the requirements and costs. Partnership funding — more details required. Sustainability — commitment required from each partner. LT tabled the outcome of the ACW questionnaire (3 April 2000) regarding ICT position in Welsh archives. SE suggested that there might be a mid-October meeting of the ANW sub-committee to assess progress and discuss the rewriting of the bid. GJ thought that the wider group should be presented with a revised bid document as the basis for discussion. It was noted that the main obstacle was finding someone to rewrite the bid. GJ did not wish to see NLW doing a lot of extra work, only to have it rejected out-of-hand again; but, in order to avoid outlay on employing someone to do the work, it was decided to approach David Jeremiah.

10	CWLIS
	SE reported on the meeting of 30 May 2000: WIS; Resource Wales; the British Library strategy; the Assembly's vision statement; the launch of the first e-government site and the People's Network on 11 September; the Assembly's structural IT plan; contributing to Lifelong Learning and community regeneration; NOF and training; WHELF's research fund.

11	New Opportunities Fund (NOF)
	Gathering the Jewels — first stage of the bid approved; second stage to be in by December; all the partners to meet at Llanbadarn, 4 September; Gayle Evans to talk about the project at Gregynog.

12	NCA
	GJ reported: Nick Kingsley filled the new post of vice-chair; the Regional Archive Councils not receiving funding from DCMS; A2A document hopefully to become British standard; Bruce Jackson's survey shows that recruitment of conservators was cause for concern.

13	Next meeting
	Friday, 10 November 2000, at NLW.

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