Present: Ian Carradice (St Andrews), Neil Curtis (Aberdeen), Laura Hamilton (Strathclyde), Matthew Jarron (Dundee), Dawn Kemp (RCSEd), Jacky McBeath (Edinburgh), Evelyn Silber (Glasgow), Alastair Ramage (Glasgow Caledonian), John Scally (Edinburgh), Peter Trowles (Glasgow School of Art)
Apologies: Ewen Smith
1 Opening remarks
1.1 The UMiS committee was welcomed to the University of Edinburgh by Dr John Scally, Director of University Collections
1.2 The death of Laura Adam, former Secretary of UMiS was noted with sadness. Matthew Jarron and Ian Carradice had attended her funeral at which her work with the Dundee University collections had been highlighted. Laura had been the founding Secretary of UMiS and the society had benefited greatly for many years from her dedication and hard work. Members of the committee who had known Laura signed a card to her family.
1.3 The committee passed on its best wishes to Ewen Smith who was recovering after an operation.
2 Approval of minutes
The minutes of the committee meeting of 14/11/2003 were approved and the minutes of the AGM were noted.
3 Matters arising from the minutes of 14/11/2003
3.1 (2.3) Evelyn Silber reported that a small group was revising the Advocacy document on behalf of UMG. There had been some difficulties reconciling a balance between those institutional views that emphasized widening public access and those that prioritised scholarship. As a result no date had yet been set for its launch.
3.2 (2.9) It was noted that the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh had joined UMiS. Dawn Kemp, RSCEd curator was therefore attending a UMiS committee meeting for the first time.
3.3 (5) It was agreed that committee members should give a brief verbal report on activities within their institution at every committee meeting and that a short written summary be reported to Matthew to be web mounted on the UMiS website. Members were also reminded of the agreement that collecting policies be web mounted.
4 Regional Challenge Development Fund
It was noted that the revised guidelines had recognized the possibilities of proposals coming from groups of museums that were not from a contiguous geographical area. As it was still a requirement that at least two local authorities be members of each consortium, a bid from UMiS was not appropriate. It was agreed, however, that it was important that university museums be involved in the process, so UMiS was happy to support a bid from RSCE and partners predominately in the South-East and other bids involving UMiS members.
5 Goodison Review
The report by the committee chaired by Sir Nicholas Goodison was reported. His recommendation that VAT be lifted from university museums was welcomed, though it was noted that without the Designation scheme in Scotland or funding by AHRB there was not a clear qualification for this exemption. His recommendation that gifts to museums be eligible for tax relief (similar to acceptance in lieu of inheritance tax) was also welcomed. It was not clear, however, whether these recommendations would be accepted by the UK Government.
6 UMiS Conference
The topics suggested at the AGM were discussed, with the conclusion that the conference topic should be 'The Significant Collection' encouraging papers that would explore ideas including definitions of national and local significance etc., the different values deriving from research, education etc., changing significance and the Distributed National Collection. A more detailed call for papers would be written by Jacky McBeath for distribution in the spring.
The conference would be held in the Laigh Room of St Cecilia's Hall, University of Edinburgh, which houses the Russell Collection of keyboards on 11th and 12th November, with the UMiS AGM on the afternoon of 12th November. It was noted that the UMG AGM would be on 19th November. It was hoped that an evening reception would be hosted by Prof Vicky Bruce, Head of College of Humanities and Social Sciences on 11th November.
In response to a request from Jacky MacBeath for secretarial assistance, Dawn Kemp offered to help, while Ian Carradice suggested that she contact the School Secretary in ST Andrews who had organized the last conference.
7 McLean report
The report by the committee chaired by Sheila McLean to review the Human Tissues Act and the Anatomy Act in Scotland was noted. None of the panel appeared to have museum expertise, which was concerning as there were references to medical education (which might involve the use of collections) and the scope of the material to be considered might include material housed in museums that had not been acquired under the provisions of existing legislation (e.g. ethnographic specimens). Dawn Kemp would be making a response on behalf of RSCEd.
8 AOB
8.1 The recently established Institute of Curatorship and Education in Edinburgh College of Art led by Andrew Pattrizzio was welcomed and a conference in April noted.
8.2 Members present gave brief verbal reports on recent activities, with all promising to send a written version to Matthew Jarron for web mounting on the UMiS web site. [Click here for the reports submitted by members afterwards.]
8 Next meeting
No date was set
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