Present: Ian Carradice (St Andrews), Evelyn Sibler (Glasgow), Dawn Kemp (RCS Edinburgh), Matthew Jarron (Dundee), Ewen Smith (Glasgow), Jacky MacBeath (Edinburgh)
1. Apologies
Neil Curtis (Aberdeen) Alastair Ramage (Glasgow Caledonian), Laura Hamilton (Strathclyde)
2. Minutes of the last meeting
Approved.
3. Matters arising
Anatomy Act: Responses to the Anatomy Act from the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh will be passed to Matthew Jarron by Dawn Kemp by the end of the week.
RDCF application: DK informed the committee that the bid to the Regional Development Challenge Fund 'Medicine in Edinburgh' had been unsuccessful. However, feedback on the application was positive (the best application received), and DK was asked to re-submit in mid-August for another panel meeting in mid-October. Out of the seven bids, only one (Glasgow) had been successful, though four out of the seven have been asked to re-submit. SMC were reported to be disappointed that the RDCF panel had only accepted one application, particularly when ongoing feedback had been so positive. Regarding the Edinburgh bid, only one panel member had felt that the project did not meet the 'regional' agenda. DK questioned the timing of the re-submission with Jane McKinley, the SMC project officer as it negated the impact of the Hunterian 2005 and RCS Edinburgh 500th anniversaries. Jane McKinley will report back on whether or not the Scottish Executive will agree to making a decision sooner than October after mid-Aug re-submission. It was clear from Panel feedback that an HLF-type application was expected, complete with business plan, though this had not been made clear in the application process. It was hoped that the SMC project officer would compile the required business plan. The committee discussed the amount of work DK and others had done in a short time. The committee also discussed the need for RDCF to support capacity building, that the museum sector in general and the University museum sector in particular does not have the staff, resources or opportunity to work on projects over a long period of time which can then be resurrected when appropriate funding becomes available. Edinburgh City Council still supports 2006 exhibition, and ICE will continue with curatorial research on the project so DK is still hopeful of the touring exhibition.
VAT: The public spending review announced shortly, when changes in VAT will be announced.
4. UMiS Conference 2004
The committee discussed a draft running order for the conference. It was suggested that the conference might benefit from an international dimension and it should be ascertained whether or not Marta Lourenaça could attend, and if not, Peter de Clerk might be approached. The last session will be in the form of a discussion panel with speakers tbc on the overseas view, and perhaps inviting Helen Wilson from MLA to discuss findings of the 'Collections for the Future' consultation exercise. Committee agreed that the Conference will cost £50 per delegate with £25 concessions. JM will draw up a programme for committee approval (by email) before designing a leaflet.
5. Feedback on launch of 'Opening Doors to Learning', UMiS advocacy document
Evelyn Silber reported on feedback from the event, which was thought by all to have gone very well, and circulated list of attendees to the event. ESi was pleased that Rachael Blanch from the Cultural Commission could attend on behalf of James Boyle.
The document has been distributed to all UMiS members, and labels have been obtained from SMC for mailouts to local authorities, MSPs and cultural co-ordinators, as well as personal distribution lists, Hunterian mailing list and SLAM. ESi has also emailed the newsletter of the Conference of National Museum Directors and reported on launch.
The committee recorded its thanks to ESi, Yvonne Threwall, and colleagues for their work which made the launch such a success.
6. Museums Association consultation exercise Collections for the Future
The committee discussed organising a UMiS session on this provocative document. The consulation ends on 1st Oct 2004, ie before the UMiS conference. The suggestion to have UMiS conference session to look at the results led to the idea of inviting Helen Wilkinson to conduct a consultation session for UMiS members and / or report on findings at the UMiS conference. JM to contact Helen Wilkinson to gauge her interest in either or both of these events.
7. AOCB
MA Conference: ESi reported that Steve Callaghan, the MA Scottish representative, is running one of the con-current sessions, on the way forward for Scottish museums, and that ESi had been invited to give the University perspective. The committee welcomed this. DK and NC will also be participating in another session, on Human Remains.
Members discussed the possibility of promoting the UMiS conference at the MA Conference, perhaps investigating if the promotional leaflet could be added to the delegates pack.
Members also discussed the high cost of attendance at the MA Conference.
Annual Subscriptions: ESm reported that the annual subscription will be due in the autumn. The committee decided the subscription will remain at £50 per institution.
Reports: Committee members were reminded to submit reports to MJ on recent activities, notification of exhibitions, events etc.
AGM: It was proposed that, as the timing of this year's conference does not allow for an AGM, a separate meeting could be arranged, perhaps taking advantage of members being together to participate in the MA consultation as already discussed. The following was proposed, subject to consultation with NC: