| 1 | Welcome |
| Martin Rolph was given a special welcome. |
| 2 | Apologies |
| S Beckley (WGlam); G Evans (NMGW); T Moseley (Assembly); L Tomos (DILS); C Orr (Pembrokeshire); R Williams (SocArch). |
| 3 | Minutes of the last meeting |
| The minutes of the last meeting held on 21 March 2002 were confirmed. |
| 4 | Matters arising from the minutes |
| 4.1 | National Archives Policy |
| The Policy was nearly ready for reprinting. | |
| All the representatives who had not already sent to SE the names of recipients of the first printing were asked to do so without delay. |
| 4.2 | Gathering the Jewels |
| A brief progress report was given. |
| 4.3 | Learning and Access Framework |
| SE had attended the meeting at the Assembly in June. Welsh representatives would be invited to a feedback meeting on the English pilot projects. |
| 4.4 | Archival Statistics |
| The sub-group had not yet met. It was noted that Resource meeting would be held the following week to discuss the collection of statistics. It was suggested that the task of collecting Welsh statistics could be given to a trainee archivist; and ARh had one in mind. | |
| Rob Baker was elected to attend the Resource meeting on behalf of ACW. |
| 4.5 | Development Officer |
| No news had been received about the funding of the post. |
| 4.6 | HLF Wales |
| It was decided that Susan Beckley should be asked to represent ACW. |
| 4.7 | ELWa |
| It was noted how important it was that ACW should be consulted about ELWa's activities. Attention was drawn to the golden opportunity for archives services to contribute to the work of the Community Consortia for Education and Training (CCETs), which were drawing up strategies for each local authority area 'to achieve more efficient delivery of education and training and promote collaboration between schools, FE and training providers and others to meet the needs of individuals and employers more effectively and coherently'. |
| 4.8 | Families and Estates Project |
| GJ circulated a brief written report. It was noted that the data would be made available in due course as part of the ANW project. |
| 4.9 | Sports Archives |
| GJ reported that an options paper had been submitted to the Assembly a few weeks previously and it was possible that a project officer would be appointed shortly to do more research. | |
| GJ and SE would seek to keep the Council informed of any developments. |
| 4.10 | NRA |
| SE agreed to arrange the distribution of HMC's questionnaire. |
| 5 | Chair's Report |
| 5.1 | Invitations |
| SE reported that, having been invited to represent ACW at several different events, she had attended the National Lottery reception at the Millennium Stadium, but had apologised for her inability to attend the others. |
| 5.2 | CWLIS |
| SE had attended the AGM and received the minutes of another meeting, and she reported on CWLIS's current activities. |
| 5.3 | NCA Reception at Westminster |
| SE, GJ, and Rowland Williams had attended the reception. No explanation had been received for the NCA's refusal to display the Welsh Archives Policy document when there was clearly plenty of space available. Discussion ensued about the ineffectiveness of this kind of event. |
| 5.4 | Cymru'n Creu's IT Report |
| Some of the details of the options paper were noted, such as the idea of creating a website replete with cultural information including a cultural calendar and a Welsh version of the 'Great Scots' website. |
| 5.5 | Address |
| SE had spoken to Higher Education institutions regarding Freedom of Information and records management. |
| 5.6 | Registrar General's Records |
| A representative of the General Register Office had discussed with SE the problems of access to registrars' records. |
| 6 | Secretary's Report |
| 6.1 | NCA |
| GJ reminded the Council that he had sent out shortly after the April meeting a brief report on matters discussed there. |
| 6.2 | Archives Month |
| The idea of holding an Archives Month was not going ahead. SE would probably be attending the meeting at PRO on 29 July to discuss the organisation of a possible smaller project in its place. |
| 6.3 | Scotland's Archives Council |
| The Scottish Archives Council had been set up on 2 May. |
| 6.4 | Parish register transcripts on the Web |
| Attention was drawn to a test case about putting transcripts of parish registers on the Web without permission. |
| 6.5 | Archives Course in Scotland |
| It was noted that an archives course in Scotland was in the offing. |
| 6.6 | Welsh Woman of the Year 2002 |
| SE agreed to put in her nomination. |
| 7 | Archives Network Wales (ANW) |
| It was noted that the bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund had been successful and that Simon Thomas MP had sent his congratulations. GJ explained that the press release had been done by HLF. Discussion followed on the paper tabled by GJ setting out the way forward; and on the paper presented by EB on the lessons learned from doing the Mine of Information Project. | |
| It was decided that ACW would be ANW's Project Board and that the Project Board should meet on the same days as ACW. | |
| It was decided to arrange a series of consultative meetings to gather the comments and views of the public on ANW. | |
| It was decided to set up a Project Management Group and EB, SE, ME, and ARh were elected to join three members of NLW staff as members of it. | |
| Discussion ensued on the desirability of professional qualifications in relation to the project posts. It was agreed that a professional qualification was desirable. It was decided to devise a competency framework for the posts. |
| 8 | Constitution |
| SD had been collecting examples of constitutions, but it was agreed that the impending decision of the Assembly on the issue of a Resource for Wales would probably have an effect on the constitution of the Council. On the other hand there was a possible problem if HLF expected the Council to amend its constitution before the ANW project could begin. | |
| It was decided to wait for the outcome of the Assembly's deliberations on the establishment of a Resource for Wales before revising the Council's constitution. |
| 9 | Resource Wales |
| It was reported that the Council had submitted its response to the consultation document, making points similar to those raised by others, such as the lack of an arm's length position; and the absence of an advocacy role, a fund-raising option, and a mechanism for service delivery. It was noted that the responses were being considered by the Assembly. |
| 10 | Quinquennial Review of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales |
| Martin Rolph thanked the Council for the invitation to attend the meeting to speak about his work with regard to the review. He sought to encourage everyone to respond to his report and to take the opportunity to raise issues of importance for archive services. |
| 11 | Gregynog 2002 |
| An outline was given of the programme for the Gregynog meeting on 28 September: the morning session on digitisation projects; and the afternoon session to include an address by David Howell on estate archives and a Society of Archivists business meeting. | |
| It was agreed to set a fee of £15 a head for attendees and the representatives were urged to let GJ know soon how many were coming so that Gregynog could be informed by the end of August. |
| 12 | Future of HMC |
| RB revealed that the functions of HMC were to continue but not under the present structure, because the government had decided to amalgamate it with PRO to form the National Archives of the United Kingdom. |
| 13 | Heirnet |
| HM reported that a funded review of market research and statistic collection was going on in all the facilities operated by the HEIRs in order to ascertain in which areas they were not meeting the needs of their users. |
| 14 | Users of archives and membership of Archives Council Wales |
| The request of the Welsh Federation of Family History Societies for representation on the Council was discussed. | |
| SE agreed to respond on behalf of the Council by stating that the constitution was to be reviewed once the Assembly's decision on establishing a Resource for Wales was announced. |
| 15 | AHRB |
| It was reported that the AHRB had made swathing cuts in the bursaries available for archive students this year. | |
| It was decided to write to the Board to protest about the cuts and to point out the importance of maintaining the funding at its previous level. GJ agreed to prepare a letter in conjunction with ME. |
| 16 | Next meeting |
| It was agreed to hold the next meeting at Aberystwyth at 11 a.m. on Friday, 15 November 2002 either at the National Library of Wales or the Royal Commission. |
Yn ôl i'r
Tudalen Blaen