|
1.0
|
Apologies
|
| 1.1 |
Apologies were received from Ajay Chowdhury, Neil
MacGregor, Michael Stevenson, Alan Watkin, Mark Wood
and Lola Young. |
|
2.0
|
Minutes of Previous Meeting and Matters Arising
|
| 2.1 |
The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed as a
true record of the proceedings. |
| 2.2 |
The Chairman signed the minutes. |
| 2.3 |
There were no matters arising not on the agenda. |
|
3.0
|
Resource's English Regional Agenda
|
| 3.1 |
Stuart Davies introduced a paper outlining progress
in implementing the key elements of Resource's
English regional policy. Sue Underwood presented a
paper explaining how this has worked in the North
East, and developments with the North East Museums,
Libraries and Archives Council (NEMLAC), and the
benefits of a single cross-domain agency working. |
| 3.2 |
Matthew Evans began by thanking NEMLAC for helping
to organise the previous night's dinner with key
players from within the region. Resource had learned
a lot from their comments and questions,
particularly about the key role of advocacy.
Resource would organise a further Board meeting in
another region shortly, in order to obtain a variety
of perspectives on its work. |
| 3.3 |
Vivien Griffiths asked how the NEMLAC Board was
constituted and how it was developing. Sue Underwood
explained that the Board was composed of elected
members, professional, independent and higher
education members, sending a message to the region
that the Board was independent and widely drawn. The
board was quickly maturing into a strong, focussed
group, which would complement and add value to the
work of Resource. |
| 3.4 |
Loyd Grossman asked how NEMLAC was sharing its
experience with other regions and across domains.
Sue Underwood said that there was a huge amount of
interest across the regions in NEMLAC. NEMLAC would
be happy to contribute to the work of Resource's
Regional Sounding Board Group in order to share
expertise and best practice. Loyd then asked whether
the Area Museum Councils were driving this agenda,
or whether the other regional agencies for libraries
and archives were also actively involved. Neville
Mackay responded by saying that Resource was
determined to ensure that all 3 domains had an equal
say, but the historical legacy inevitably meant that
there were more issues to be resolved on the museums
side then elsewhere, because on the numbers of staff
employed and because of issues to do with premises
etc. |
| 3.5 |
Neville Mackay asked Sue Underwood what advice she
would have for Resource in managing its regional
relationships, and what issues had emerged so far
from the NEMLAC experience. Sue Underwood replied
that a pragmatic approach was the moist fruitful,
but that NEMLAC would have benefited from clearer,
more prescriptive focus from Resource during the
early days of NEMLAC's formation. This would have
assisted the development of emerging organisational
structures and given them greater political
credibility. In her view the regions would benefit
from Resource being a friend and setting parameters
at the same time. She added that the regions were
also looking to Resource to exert influence across
government and be a strong advocate for the museum,
archive and library domains. Neville Mackay replied
that Resource needed to strike a balance between
providing clear guidance and allowing regional self
determination. It would therefore continue to work
constructively with regional partners to create
structures that would embed and support
cross-sectoral working, where this added value. |
| 3.6 |
David Barrie emphasised the significance of
Resource's advocacy role. Resource needs to be an
effective advocate in Whitehall. David Barrie asked
Sue Underwood what, from her regional perspective,
could Resource do to be more effective in this role?
Sue Underwood replied that there was a clear need to
do more to promote clear, joined up thinking between
government departments and to raise awareness of
museums, libraries and archives in order to lever in
additional resources. Resource also needed to
achieve a high profile and credibility with other
national and non-national agencies. David Barrie
asked what were the pressing issues for regions now?
Sue replied that from a NEMLAC perspective, key
issues were funding for basic skills, ICT, and the
need for effective two-way communication. |
| 3.7 |
Vic Gray raised the issue of whether Resource Board
members could do more personally to contribute to
the development of a stronger advocacy role. Nick
Hodgson commented that Board members could develop
the contacts they had as part of their day jobs and
ensure Resource was aware of the opportunities this
provided. Karen Knight replied that effective
communication and building strong links was a task
for the whole of Resource. |
| 3.8 |
The Board endorsed the view that Resource should
continue to develop strong communications networks
and links across government. |
| 3.9 |
Lord Evans thanked NEMLAC for its hospitality during
the Board's visit to Newcastle, and personally
thanked Sue Underwood for her work in leading and
developing NEMLAC into an effective single regional agency. |
|
4.0
|
Culture Online
|
| 4.1 |
Chris Batt gave a presentation on the Culture Online
business plan and actions now being taken to secure
funding from the Treasury. He focussed a range of
factors, including potential audiences, proposed
nature of managing the organisation, implementation
plans, and the types of content that will be
produced. He stressed that the intention was that
Culture Online would take a market-driven approach
focusing on demand rather than supply. It would be a
"digital bridge between learning and culture"
providing learning experiences to people at all ages
and stages of their lives. |
| 4.2 |
Mark Jones asked how Culture Online would decide
which projects to award money to. Chris Batt replied
that how Culture Online will be edited and managed
will be the responsibility of the NDPB created to
mange and evaluate it based on clear needs and
defined target audiences. The Culture Online NDPB
will be a commissioning agency, and the most likely
method of funding will be through a general needs
analysis followed by the commissioning of work. It
was unlikely that there would be general calls for
bids to create content. Government was leading on
this type of project as it is very unlikely that the
private sector would be willing to bear the risks
associated with the creation of a completely net
market, where the demand side is still little
understood. Government investment would 'kick start'
commercial activity. |
|
5.0
|
Heritage Lottery Fund
|
| 5.1 |
Karen Knight presented a paper outlining Resource's
draft response to the Heritage Lottery Fund's
consultation document on their strategic plan, which
provided an opportunity for the Board to add to this
response and discuss more generally issues
concerning the important relationship between
Resource and HLF. |
| 5.2 |
Nick Hodgson said that it was important for Resource
to encourage HLF to consider those individuals and
institutions that choose not to apply, or give up
during the application process. Advice to bidders
must be consistent, and HLF should consider the need
to support the maintenance of collections. Free
access is an ideal, but can difficult to deliver in
practice, particularly with partnership projects.
The idea of clusters of attractions is important to
promote tourism and sustainable economic value. |
| 5.3 |
Jane Ryder and Mark Wood commented that the value of
clusters depends on the state of the market in a
given area, and consideration should be given to the
displacement effect of new projects on current and
existing attractions. Vic Gray urged the HLF to
consider the intangible heritage, and how the
quality of projects can be measured, eg what are the
critical standards for institutional and community
projects? The 20-year rule has worked adversely, for
example in discriminating against ethnic
communities. Stuart Davies said that HLF might be
encouraged to work with individuals and institutions
to define quality of output and Resource needs to
keep HLF informed about areas of expertise. Jane
Ryder said that issues of permanence and perpetuity
need to be re-considered. Loyd Grossman advised HLF
to consider the issue of transportation to
attractions seriously, and support and encourage
transportation strategies. |
| 5.4 |
Matthew Evans said that Resource was working to
strengthen its relationship with HLF, and this
response was one way of developing an on-going
dialogue. Karen Knight said that the Board's
comments would be fed through to HLF as part of
Resource's regular meetings with them. |
|
6.0
|
Regional Museums Taskforce
|
| 6.1 |
Matthew Evans reminded the Board of the background
to this project, which had been instigated at the
request of the then secretary of state for Culture,
Chris Smith. The brief had been to look at the
issues faced by the nation's regional museums, and
develop an integrated regional museums' policy. The
project team had undertaken a wide ranging
consultation and the final report made clear
focussed recommendations which were fully supported
by all members of the Taskforce. The new ministerial
team at DCMS were fully supportive of the project,
and early indications were that this was seen as a
lead project for the next comprehensive spending
review. The report will be formally launched at the
Royal Academy (where the idea first began) on
Tuesday October 23rd. Matthew Evans gave warm thanks
to Stuart Davies and the project team for their
unstinting hard work and dedication to the project. |
| 6.2 |
Stuart Davies gave a presentation on the emerging
findings of the Regional Museums Taskforce. The
outcomes of implementation of the recommendations of
the report would be improvements for users, a focus
for leadership, building capacity through
development of regional hubs, and new governance and
funding arrangements. The next stage would be to
work up a detailed bid to HM Treasury for February
2002 for the next spending round. |
| 6.3 |
David Barrie asked how much the recommendations were
expected to cost. Stuart Davies replied that
Resource was working in close partnership with DCMS,
DfES, the LGA and other key players to ensure that a
robust and realistic case is put to HM Treasury. |
| 6.4 |
Loyd Grossman asked how the proposed regional hubs
would be defined. These would be decided at a
regional level, and implementation mechanisms would
be devised and managed by a Regional Museums
Taskforce Implementation Team. |
|
7.0
|
Resource's Libraries Agenda
|
| 7.1 |
Neville Mackay gave a verbal report on progress with
the libraries agenda. Resource had made a positive
public statement outlining its commitment to
libraries through its consultation document
"Building on Success". This strategy has drawn a
positive response from the libraries community and
Resource now needed to strengthen its internal
capacity and expertise in this area in order to
carry out this agenda. The Board agreed to the
proposals for achieving this and also endorsed the
view that at least one additional Board member
should be appointed with a strong libraries background. |
|
8.0
|
Resource's Stewardship Strategy
|
| 8.1 |
Karen Knight reported on progress. The Stewardship
Strategy was being updated with a new introduction
and an action plan. A Collections Management and
Development Group had been established to take
forward the work programme, and the Strategy would
be published by the end of October. One of the key
aims of the Strategy was to provide a framework to
debate and raise awareness of issues such as
de-accessioning. Resource's role is to influence and
co-ordinate others engaged in the stewardship
agenda, and, in partnership with other key players,
act as a catalyst for action. |
| 8.2 |
The Board endorsed the approach taken. |
|
9.0
|
Resource's Archives Agenda
|
| 9.1 |
Neville Mackay gave an update on progress. Following
widespread consultation, Resource's Archives Agenda
had been launched at the Society of Archivists
annual conference in Aberystwyth. Entitled
"Developing the 21st Century Archive: An Action Plan
for UK Archives", the plan outlined three main
projects for 2001/2002, a user-focussed review of
the nation's archives, a report on the learning
potential and contribution of archives, and a report
on archive training and skills. These outcomes were
supported by the archive profession, and work was
underway to scope and set the parameters of these projects. |
| 9.2 |
Maurna Crozier asked about archive acquisition
policies, which did not appear in the strategy
document. Neville Mackay replied that these would be
considered as part of the user-focussed review. |
|
10.0
|
Any other business
|
| 10.1 |
Neville Mackay explained that he wished to create a
new Senior Management post within Resource in order
to strengthen the organisation's ability to respond
to the learning and access agendas. This would
complement the developing library role mentioned in
paragraph 7.1. A job description was being prepared
and the post advertised shortly. |
| 10.2 |
Neville Mackay suggested that the Board Awayday
planned for 22 November should focus on its
corporate plan for 2002-05. Matthew Evans suggested
that the Board should meet for dinner the night
before. This was agreed. |
|
11.0
|
Date and Time of Next Meeting
|
| 11.1 |
The next Board meeting will be on 22 November at 1
Queen Anne's Gate. |
Action List
|
| 3.0 |
RESOURCE'S REGIONAL AGENDA
- The Board approved the direction proposed
|
| 4.0 |
CULTURE ON LINE
- Chris Batt to keep Board informed of
developments
|
| 5.0 |
HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND
- Karen Knight to submit Board comments to HLF
|
| 6.0 |
REGIONAL MUSEUMS TASKFORCE
- The Board approved the recommendations
- Summary briefing to be prepared for all
Board members
|
| 7.0 |
RESOURCE'S LIBRARIES AGENDA
- Ongoing discussions with DCMS concerning
transfer of responsibilities for Library
Standards Unit
|
| 8.0 |
RESOURCE'S STEWARDSHIP STRATEGY
- Strategy and Action Plan to be published by
end of October 2001
|
| 9.0 |
RESOURCE'S ARCHIVES AGENDA
- Implementation work ongoing
|
