Present: Ian Carradice (St Andrews), Neil Curtis (Aberdeen), Jacky MacBeath (Edinburgh), Evelyn Silber (Glasgow), Ewen Smith (Glasgow), Dawn Kemp (RCSEd)
John Scally (Edinburgh) attended the opening of the meeting

Apologies: Matthew Jarron (Dundee), Alastair Ramage (Glasgow Caledonian), Jane Cameron (Stirling)

1 Approval of minutes
The minutes of the committee meeting of 30/01/2004 were approved

2 Matters arising

2.1 (30/01/04-4) Dawn Kemp reported that decisions on bids to the Regional Development Challenge Fund would be announced in mid June. A proposal led by RSCEd involving many university collections had been submitted and had attracted support from VisitScotland, National Galleries of Scotland and South Lanarkshire Council among others. Although a thematic, rather than 'regional' bid, it would be offering a series of regional leaflets and would increase access to medical collections throughout Scotland. Neil Curtis noted that a proposal would be submitted for the second round from the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen City Council and the Aberdeenshire Council emphasising access and education. Evelyn Silber noted that, although there was as yet no formal proposal, a focus on the Romans in central Scotland was another possibility.

2.2 (30/01/04-7) Submissions had been made to the consultation on the Anatomy Act and the Maclean Report by RSCEd emphasising the potential issues raised by museum medical collections, while Neil Curtis had also written to the Anatomy Act consultation highlighting the potential for ill-considered overlaps with archaeological and ethnographic collections.

3 UMG/UMIS Advocacy document and launches

UMG launch
Scottish university museums would be represented at the launch of the UMG Advocacy Document University Museums in the United Kingdom: a national resource for the twenty-first century by Evelyn Silber and Helen Rawson. It was agreed that if approached by the media, the UMIS position was that we broadly welcomed the publication of the UMG document and would be launching a document on 18th June in Glasgow that would highlight Scottish issues. It was noted that the report was available on the new UMB website at www.umg.org.uk. Anyone requiring copies of the UMG document should contact Nichola Johnson (n.johnson@uea.ac.uk).

UMIS document
A draft four-page document had been written by members of UMIS. Some amendments were discussed and will be submitted to Christine Galey at SMC by Evelyn Silber. Any errors should be reported to Christine (christineg@scottishmuseums.org.uk) as soon as possible, while digital images for possible inclusion should be sent to Carl Watt (carlw@scottishmuseums.org.uk).

UMIS launch
The Scottish document Opening Doors to Learning! University Museums for 21st century Scotland would be launched in the Hunterian Art Gallery on 18th June. After discussion it was agreed that the launch should be of the UMIS, not the UMG document, though copies of the UMG document would be made available at the launch. The launch would be chaired by Ian Carradice who would introduce Sir Muir Russell (Principal, University of Glasgow) and Graeme Roberts (Chair, Scottish Museums Council). Ian would discuss with Evelyn the best way of highlighting the UMG document as part of the launch without causing confusion. Nichola Johnson would be asked to supply copies of the UMG document for distribution at the launch.

UMIS launch publicity
An offer by Dawn Kemp to produce and post invitations was gratefully accepted. Addresses of those to be invited should be sent to Dawn as soon as possible, ideally as printed address labels and as a database/spreadsheet file. Ian undertaking to provide suggested contacts within SHEFC, while the SMC would be asked to supply information about MSPs, Scottish Executive ministers and officials etc. SMC would be asked to co-ordinate a media launch with the Hunterian Art Gallery, possibly to include a photo-opportunity immediately before the launch. Everyone invited would be sent a copy of the document after the launch.

4 VAT and university museums
Ewen Smith and Ian Carradice noted that at a meeting between UMG and HM Treasury officials and Paul Boateng, it had been recommended that the definition of university museums in Scotland to be exempted from VAT would be determined as those in receipt of SHEFC special factor funding. The implication of this for museums was unclear and it was agreed that SMC be asked to investigate the impact.

5 Communication
Problems with the use of the Jiscmail list had been encountered. It was suggested that the cause may lie in the use of an automatic 'reply' function, so everyone was reminded that the address jiscmail@abdn.ac.uk must be used to ensure that the message is sent to everyone on the list, rather than using an email programme's 'reply to all' function.

6 Repatriation
Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities had been contacted about the possible repatriation of Maori human body remains. There was some discussion about the best way of handling and storing the material during the process of repatriation. It was suggested that this was an issue which should be discussed with those making the request, rather than trying to pre-empt their wishes by creating special storage conditions.

7 UMIS Conference
Six proposals and some expressions of interest had been received. It was agreed that the registration fees of speakers should be waived, but that normally they should be expected to cover their own travel and accommodation costs. Subject to the speakers agreeing to this, it was agreed that all the proposals should be accepted and that two of those who had expressed an interest would also be accepted. It was agreed that NMS be approached to provide a speaker, which might provoke debate about the idea of the Distributed National Collection to which another speaker might be asked to respond.

8 AOB
Although there were no formal reports, UMIS members were reminded to send reports to Matthew Jarron as soon as possible.

Dawn Kemp reported that there had been a successful bid to the AHRB from the Edinburgh College of Art for an exhibition 'The Cutting Edge: art and anatomy' which would involve RCSEd among others.

Evelyn Silber reported that Sally-Anne Coupar had been appointed as Curator of Archaeology in the Hunterian Museum.

9 Next meeting
The next meeting would be in Edinburgh on 7th July at 11am.

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