Present: Evelyn Silber (Glasgow, Convenor), Neil Curtis (Aberdeen, Secretary), Justin Parkes (Robert Gordon University), Matthew Jarron (Dundee), Dawn Kemp (Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh), Jacky MacBeath (Edinburgh), Jill Forrest (Edinburgh), Emily Peppers (Edinburgh), Alison Hadfield (St Andrews), Ewen Smith (Glasgow)
1. Apologies
Alan Knox (Aberdeen), Jane Cameron (Stirling)
2. Approval of minutes of Annual General Meeting on 21st November 2005
The minutes were approved.
3. Matters arising
It was noted that the most significant outcome of the Cultural Commission was the Significance recognition scheme and considerations of Cultural Entitlement/Engagement.
4. Convenor's report
This has been a busy year for UMiS members as structural changes in funding have emerged to pose both threats and opportunities. We have also been working in liaison with the UK University Museums Group to raise the profile and influence of university museums both with internal stakeholders and with external bodies such as the Scottish Executive and the Museums Association.
2006 marked the year when the SFC, formerly SHEFC, announced its next round of Museums and Galleries funding. Instead of the expected 5 -year award funding was confirmed only until 2009, after which the indications are that the funding stream currently totalling about £1m, would be reabsorbed into the main grant allocations to universities, leaving the funding of university museums to the discretion of the individual parent bodies. In England HEFCE have made a similar announcement with regard to the c£13m allocation to English university museums. This is a matter of serious concern since the loss of secure ring-fenced funding will make most university museums far more vulnerable to the vicissitudes of university annual budget rounds. Individually and corporately UMiS members will need over the next two years to argue the case internally and externally for secure funding for university museums and for a system capable both of effective monitoring and of development to accommodate collection changes and to ever increasing legislative, professional and public expectations.
The launch of the new Cultural Engagement strand of the SFC's Knowledge Transfer Fund holds out the promise of additional funding accessible to university museums for activities that transfer collection-based research knowledge into the public domain via exhibitions, events and outreach programmes. However, the metrics hitherto suggested to evaluate the outputs and impact of such activity for collection based activities are flawed. UMiS has been active in meeting with the Universities Scotland to pass on a view to the Metrics Working Group and has this month written to SFC to urge more consideration of collections activity and for careful differentiation of CE programmes and outputs from the existing Museums and Galleries fund.
In parallel with this advocacy UMiS has been collecting data on the direct and indirect costs of their museums/collections, their real cost and the potential impact of the loss or reabsorption of the museums and Galleries fund. The data collections process is still incomplete but it confirms a picture of resources almost totally absorbed by fixed costs, maintenance and basic access with minimal resources for cultural engagement activity.
Funding initiatives under the auspices of the Scottish Museums Council are proving valuable. The Scotland in Medicine initiative and the exhibition Anatomy Acts led by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and supported by several funding sources including the SMC Regional Development Fund has demonstrated the university sector's wealth of medical collections and archives. The touring exhibition, Anatomy Acts, is currently on show in Dundee. The Hunterian at Glasgow University also opened a new medical display based on its collections with the support of the Wellcome Trust and Wolfson Foundation, while at St Andrews work began on new display facilities. The recent launch of the Scottish Executive's Significance scheme should enable further capacity development within the sector.
University museums were well represented in the consultation sessions held by the National Museums of Scotland to formulate their national partnership. Opportunities for closer liaison and skill sharing with national museum curators especially in the sciences and ethnography were identified. It is hoped these will develop over the coming year.
I have been pleased to be able to contribute as a working group member to the National Collections Development Strategy (launched here in Dundee only two weeks ago) and to the Significance working group. Neil Curtis and Dawn Kemp have been particularly active in consultations over the repatriation of human remains and the Human Tissue Amendment Act. Representations by university museums and NMS were instrumental in securing committee stage alterations so that museums are largely exempt from that Act.
The UMiS committee has met four times in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Stirling. I would like to thank the colleagues who have kindly hosted these meetings, and my colleagues, Neil Curtis, Ewen Smith and Matthew Jarron for their work as Secretary, Treasurer and website manager respectively. Since I have now moved from the Hunterian Museum back to art historical research I have decided to stand down from the UMIS Chairmanship since I think it essential for the UMIS chair and committee to be directly engaged in the university museums sector. My thanks to everyone for their good will and support and I look forward to continuing involvement through my continuing membership of the AHRC Museums and Galleries Committee and the Significance Panel of SMC.
5. Treasurer's report
The Treasurer's report was read and accepted. UMIS funds had steadily grown over the past few years, enabling UMIS to underwrite conferences. Taking into account current commitments, the available balance was £2659.19. It was agreed that there should be no change in the subscription rate for the coming year. It was also agreed that all HE/FE institutions in receipt of Cultural Engagement funding should be invited to join UMIS.
6. Election of office bearers
Evelyn Silber having reported her intention to step down as Convenor, her work as Convenor was praised by the Secretary and Treasurer, supported by all others. The work of UMIS had changed dramatically with a much higher involvement in strategic activity.
Alan Knox was nominated as Convenor. All other committee members indicated their willingness to continue in post for a further year.
The committee for 2005-6 is therefore:
Ewen Smith undertook to liaise with UMG and UMAC (the latter in collaboration with Peter Trowles. Mungo Campbell would continue to act as liaison with SMC Board for the remainder of his term as board member.
7. Other reports
There were no reports from the University Museums Group,
University Museums Committee of ICOM (UMAC) or the Scottish Museums Council
8. UMIS Conference
Matthew Jarron was thanked for having organized a very enjoyable and stimulating conference.
9. AOB
There was no other business discussed.
10. Date of next meeting
The date for the 2007 AGM would be set by the committee for some time in the latter half of the year.
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