1. Present:
Alan Knox (Aberdeen, Convenor), Neil Curtis (Aberdeen, Secretary), Matthew Jarron (University of Dundee), Helen Rawson (University of St Andrews), Angela Edgar (Heriot-Watt University), Ewen Smith (University of Glasgow), Jessica Burdge (University of St Andrews), Jacky MacBeath (University of Edinburgh), Jane Cameron (University of Stirling), Peter Trowles (Glasgow School of Art), Jane Kidd (Robert Gordon University) Apologies
None received.

2. Minutes of committee meeting on 4th February 2009
The minutes were approved subject to a correction of the date of the next conference to 2010.

3. Matters arising
a. 2008 conference
The surplus of £280 had been received by UMIS.
b. SFC funding consultation
The SFC grant letter referred to a review of museums grant (and others including knowledge transfer and RSLP) during 2009-10 with the aim of releasing funding for new priorities within the New Horizon fund. A proposal is expected to go to the June Council meeting regarding the overall process of the review.
c. Discovering Physical Objects: meeting the researchers' needs (RIN report)
Alan has responded to the report
d. Membership
ACTION: NC to contact Edinburgh College of Art re membership
ACTION: Jacky MacBeath to be added to jiscmail list in place of Richard Devaney

4. SFC SPIRIT funding
a. Revealing the hidden collections
The progress of the project was to be discussed at the SPIRIT Board meeting immediately after the committee meeting
b. Next round of funding
A second round of funding of collaborative projects had been announced, though there appeared to be little scope for direct continuation of the current project. The focus would be on government priorities, such as 'digital content and technologies', 'life sciences' and 'tourism' with evidence of demand for projects and economic impact required. Non-HEIs could be brought in to projects, with 80% of funding available from the scheme. The initial deadline for proposals is 21st August. The Hunterian is considering a bid, possibly in conjunction with UMIS members, with a topic such as digitization or Mackintosh.
ACTION: All to discuss further before next meeting.

5. Website
Web statistics show continuing international use of the website of almost 4,000 users over three months. There was some discussion about getting more qualitative data about the use of the site. Matthew asked for more information content for the website from members, also that information be supplied about the SPIRIT project.
ACTION: MJ to sign up to Google Analytics
ACTION: All and NC - content to MJ
The proposed domain name 'umis.ac.uk' had been rejected as being too similar to the now defunct 'umist.ac.uk'. An appeal is in progress.
ACTION: AK

6. Partnerships
a. Scotland & Medicine
Nothing to report
b. UMG
The first joint UMIS/UMG meeting will be held in Manchester on 2nd June. As the first joint meeting, members were encouraged to attend and UMIS was offering £50 per institution for attendance.

7. UMIS AGM
Members were reminded that we needed to revise the constitution to bring it into line with practice. The relationship between conference, AGM and committee members was discussed. It was agreed that this should considered as part of the review of the constitution with the idea that the AGM and one of the committee meetings be combined. There was also some discussion about the UMIS relationship with NMS.

8. Resource Discovery Taskforce
This was deferred to the SPIRIT Board meeting.

9. Museums Summit
Mike Russell, Minister in the Scottish Government, had called a 'museums summit' on 2nd June to discuss museum issues in Scotland. The emphasis appeared to be on issues relating to national funding of industrial museums and Glasgow Museums, so it was important that the role of university museums and those outwith the Central belt were highlighted.

10. AOB
Finance
The current UMIS balance over £5,000
STICK/NMS partnerships
Matthew reported that Klaus Stauberman at NMS was keen to make links with university science collections. We would invite him as well as Jilly Burns and Alex Hayward to a committee meeting.
Museums Galleries Scotland
After the meeting Ewen Smith made the following report on MGS activity:

" David Taylor, the SEM developer, has reached the end of his contract, and left. I understand that there is in place a review of the future direction of the project.
" Note, for information, that funding for the industrials will be routed through Recognition funding. This represents a change in policy, whereby Recognition funding can (presumably only in certain specified cases) be used for capital purposes
" MGS developing a new Operational Plan, with measurement of their own performance included
" Their budget for 2009/10 is standstill; we may not be so lucky in 2010/11, but who knows (in an election year?)
" Interestingly, Main Grant applications were down; reasons suggested were capacity, lack of adequate match-funding, and the emergence of Recognition awards (presumably to the same institutions who had been applying successfully for Main Grants previously?)."

11. Dates of future meetings
Thursday 20th August - committee meeting (NMS/STICK representatives to be invited)
Thursday 12th November - AGM & committee meeting
Both dates would also be used for SPIRIT Board meetings

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