Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest received at this point in the meeting.

The minutes of the Joint archives committee held on 29 March 2022 were submitted and approved as a true record.

AGREED - in accordance with Council Procedure Rule No. 5, the Chair agreed to vary the order of business to agenda item 6,7 and 5.

The Archives Manager will provide a verbal update in relation to the Joint Archives.

Ruth Hobbins, Archives Manager provided the committee with an update in relation to Joint archives.

The committee were advised that the archives service had completed their move from Exchange house to the Dorman museum at the end of March 2022. There has been extensive support from other departments during the move and thanks would like to be extended to these individuals.

The Dorman museum is clean, light and easily accessible to the public and this has been a huge improvement. Not having achieves documents on site has taken a little bit of adjusting too and this has been reflected in the numbers of the public coming into the building also. The service has not seen pre covid numbers return, however this has been across the board. It has also been difficult to bring volunteers back, however options to overcome this are being explored.

The Manager outlined that if members would like a tour of the Archives to get in touch.

Following the Managers update, the Chair enquired about key performance indicators (KPIs) and visitor numbers. The Manager outlined that at present visitor numbers do not look positive but this may be down to service being closed for some time. It was however outlined that the KPIs would be circulated, providing local and national context. 

The information provided to the committee was also discussed and it was agreed that a template would be drafted and circulated to the members to be used in future meetings.

Gaye Kirby, Creative Programmes & Partnerships Manager also advised the committee that the service level agreement had expired, however an updated version would be circulated to the members.

The Manager introduced Chris Corbett, Community Engagement officer, who had been appointed in Janaury 2020. Chris provided the committee with a presentation relating to her work and the current projects underway.

Following her presentation, the following actions were made;

1.     An update on community engagement be brought to every meeting of the joint archives committee.

2.     Further promotion be made on the community engagement events through social media channels e.g. Enjoy Teesside website.

3.     Consider developing a Communications and marketing strategy. This would be discussed with officers.

The Committee will be provided with information on future developments for the Joint archives.

Leanne Littlewood, Deputy Head of Culture provided an update in relation to future developments. The committee were advised that the move into the Dorman museum was a temporary solution and conversations would commence to the future arrangements in due course. 

In terms of the Museums groups, there has been discussions about whether we develop the Dorman and do a feasibility study.

The following discussions took place:

-         There should be a longer term plan embedded for the Archives.

-         Subject to external funding, there are plans to extend the Dorman, and whether archives could be part of this. Having joint archives as part of the museum would open up funding avenues.

-         Creative place advisory group- storage is important – do we have a archives centre/ tells the story of us/ heritage sites

-         Gaye Kirby- lead officer meetings recognized that there is duplication amongst the Archives. We could look at digital but it would be difficult to join the museum and archives collections together. This isn’t that simple as backlog in museums is huge e.g. Singer sowing machines. To dispose of archives can take up to 2 years.

-         Business case would be required

-         Look at possible partners e.g. the university.

ACTION

1.      Take information to the Creative space Advisory group- TVCA

2.      Officers of each Local authority to discuss in the officer group and recommendations be brought forward to committee.

3.      Future developments to be added to a standard items.

The budget for 2022/23 will be presented to the Committee.

Richard Horniman, Director of Regeneration and culture presented the budget to the committee.

He outlined that the amended proposed budget had been circulated to members following clarification from accounts.

Key appoints were as follows:

·         In terms of contributions, there has been variance – highest is Stockton is 4,137.92 due to per head of  population, other Local authorities variance will be approx. 2,000.

·         Cost of the move has been significantly more from capital

·         47k on the move- paid by Middlesbrough council

·         Running costs to be provided to the committee- fixed costs

·         Implications if Local authorities did not approve budget

There was a discussion regarding the budget and how the local authorities contributions are calculated.

AGREED

That further discussions take place further to the budget approval on 1 March 2023.

Any other urgent items which in the opinion of the Chair, may be considered.