Present

Brigadier Dick Mundell

Lieutenant Colonel Walter Robins

Lieutenant Colonel Tim Isles

Major David Harrap

Major Chris Jowett

Captain Ian Fillan

Mrs Alice Mahon

Mr Barry Sheridan

Chairman

In attendance

Brigadier Colin Sibun

Mrs Franne Wills

Mr John Spencer

Mr Richard Macfarlane

Mr Scott Flaving

AMOT

Collections Manager

Hon Secretary

Apologies

Colonel Mark Lodge

1.

OPENING REMARKS.

 1. The Chairman told Trustees and Museum staff how impressed and proud they should be for what they had achieved in the Museum. He also introduced Brigadier Colin Sibun, Director of the Army Museums Ogilby Trust.

2.

APOLOGIES.

 1. Apologies had been received at the Museum from Colonel Mark Lodge.

3.

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING.

 1. The Minutes of the previous Meeting were accepted.

4.

MATTERS ARISING FROM THE PREVIOUS MINUTES.

 1. Para 4.2. Wellesley Barracks Plaque. F Wills gave an update on the project to Trustees. She had been working with the Council and was about to submit a Listed Building Consent (LBC) form to the Council Planning Committee, along with the required Advertisement Request form. This would take eight weeks to be cleared. As a result, it was expected that the planning permission and the plaque would be ready for an unveiling event in September/October.

2. The Chairman raised the question of finance, following an indication that the Regimental Associarion funds would pay for the plaque. A Mahon agreed to check this with the Council. The Chairman indicated that the Regiment may donate 50% of the cost. F Wills reported that the original quote from Andy Barraclough, of £3,250, may have risen recently and could be nearer £4,000. W Robins suggested changing the name from the School Plaque to the Wellesley Barracks Plaque to be more in keeping with the heritage of the site. This was agreed. The Chairman asked the Project Committee to continue with this work.

 A Mahon

 T Isles

W Robins

A Mahon

F Wills

5.

COMPLETION OF REFURBISHMENT.

 1. F Wills reported that the refurbishment project (Forgotten Voices) was now complete, with the exception of the PC display and the handling box, which is now sourced but not yet constructed. The project had been signed off by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

 2. Future updating of the display cases was discussed and it was agreed that with the considerable public interest in current military operations in Afghanistan the 3^rd Battalion’s current activities there should be included in the ‘Today’ Display Case. It was decided to continue the same format of recording soldiers’ memoirs, supported by the display of relevant artefacts. D Harrap was asked to approach CO 3 YORKS for stories and artefacts from the Battalion. It was noted that this should also include TA activities from the Barnsley and Huddersfield companies.

 3. J Spencer and R Macfarlane agreed to visit the GH Museum, to see what had been done with regard to the 2^nd Battalion, and F Wills was asked to identify any costs for updating the ‘Today Case’. The Chairman stated that the ‘Today Case’ must be able to be updated when appropriate.

 D Harrap

 J Spencer

R Macfarlane

F Wills

6.

TEMPORARY CLOSURE OF THE MUSEUM.

1. F Wills reported that the museum roof was to be repaired during the summer, with minimal disruption to the displays or visitor numbers expected. There was still no news on the closure for the rewiring, with late 2011/1012 a likely planning date. There was likely to be sufficient warning to plan an effective closure but there remained a slight risk of the building being closed as the result of a failed safety inspection which could necessitate cutting the power to the building. A contingency plan for this eventuality has been prepared by Museum staff.

2. Of concern in any complete closure and emptying of the building for rewiring was the safe package, removal, temporary storage and eventual return of the firearms and medals collections. There was a mix of DWR and Calderdale owned weapons and the police-issued firearms licence only covers the Bankfield Museum building at present.

3. J Spencer was asked to provide a full inventory of these collections to the Chairman and Secretary. F Wills and D Harrap ware asked to look into the practicalities of moving the collection and the scope for requesting assistance from the 4^th Battalion in this, both for transport and safekeeping of firearms.

 J Spencer

F Wills

D Harrap

7.

UPDATE FROM DIRECTOR OF AMOT.

 1. Prior to the meeting, the Chairman and Director of AMOT had seen the Museum display. The Director told Trustees he thought the display was excellent. He went on to explain the current work of AMOT, the main points being:

 a. The main threat to the 68 funded museums was the erosion of the £5 million contribution to Museum running costs from the MOD. The Museums had increased their contributed costs from £6 million at the last spending review to £18 million in 2009. The MOD appears to have accepted the case for continuing their contribution of running costs.

b. The Adjutant General is to speak to the AMOT annual conference at Whitehall on 26 October on ‘Museums’ and the ‘State of the Army’.

c. A contract with the National Archives allows military museums access to the Documents Online project for a £50 per year fee.

 d. An AMOT Grant Scheme allows a grant of up to £2k for most types of Museum/Archives projects. Bids to be submitted by 31 May.

 e. The AMOT website lists the 136 Regimental and Corps collections. A written guide is being updated currently and the Director would send the DWR page to D Harrap for updating/amending.

 f. Promotion of the Waterloo bicentenary commemorative exhibition is being planned. Major General Sir Evelyn Webb-Carter, as President of the Waterloo Association, was heavily involved in this. J Spencer informed the meeting that three ancestors of Waterloo veterans were known to him. He was asked to liaise with Brigadier Sibun over contacting them.

 g. HLF Grants were likely to be much smaller in the future, but were still available.

 h. The Museums, Library and Archives service had been cut and it was now better to submit requests for assistance as part of a joint regional or sector project with other museums and collections.

 i. There were different models for reflecting new Regiments in their antecedent Regimental museums but it was important to retain the old titles as this helped keep a wide footprint for the Army across the country.

 2. The Chairman thanked Brigadier Sibun for his visit and interesting talk.

J Spencer

8.

ACCREDITATION.

 1. Accreditation had been finalised and the certificate was on display in the Museum. A copy was requested for the Trustees’ records. Bi-annual accreditation checks could be expected.

F Wills

9.

EDUCATION.

 1. B Sherridan reported to Trustees that there had been encouraging developments in the education field since the re-opening and work was underway to publicise the display to schools in the area. Discussions between the Museum and Education officers were being held to take this forward.

 2. There had been four guided and 10 self-guided school tours to tie in with WW1/WW2 Key Stage work. There had also been off-site activity, with handling boxes taken to schools in Bradford.

 3. A number of projects, based on current literature and drama events and the secondary school Civic Service area of the curriculum, were being studied. There was considerable potential to take this work further through a Choices in Wartime theme, contrasting the various experiences of soldiers, conscientious objectors and civilians (including war factory workers and rationing). J Spencer was involved in this and visits to other Regimental museums in the region were being arranged to enable best practice to be implemented.

4. The Chairman asked if the oral history collection could be used in education. J Spencer reported that the difficulty lay in a lack of transcripts, which were vital for teachers to be able to access the material. This could be addressed but would need financial support, perhaps an AMOT project for the future. It was agreed that the modern transcripts (1039 – Korea) from the tapes was to be types for a trial. This may incur a cost.

B Sheridan

 J Spencer

B Sherridan

 F Wills

Secretary

10.

ACCOUNTS.

1. The accounts were not available at this meeting but would be circulated to Trustees before the next meeting. Assets are approximately £35k, mostly in investments.

11.

DWR AND CALDERDALE RESPONSIBILITIES PAPER.

 1. F Wills introduced Richard Macfarlane, the Bankfield Museum Collections Manager, and distributed a draft paper outlining the respective responsibilities of the DWR Museum Trustees and Calderdale Council.

 2. She guided the Trustees through the paper and explained the Council’s artefact receipt and accession process. It was agreed that accessions to the DWR Museum would be processed through the Bankfield Collection Committee meetings in accordance with the DWR Museum Acquisition and Disposal policy and with any doubtful issues being referred to the Chairman or D Harrap at York for a decision. Trustees were invited to attend collection committee meetings, details of which would be sent to the Chairman.

 3. A list of all acquisitions accepted at these meetings would be submitted to Trustees at the next Museum Trustees’ Meeting.

 4. The DWR and Calderdale Responsibilities paper was accepted by the Trustees of the DWR Museum at the meeting and the final version is at Annex A to the Minutes.

 Annex A

12.

ARCHIVES.

 1. The Archives, held in Wellesley Park and managed on a day to day basis by a volunteer team supervised by R Heron, was under the responsibility of the Museum Trustees.

2. D Harrap reported that the Yorkshire Regiment was working on a project to record all Yorkshire Regimental property onto the MODES software package. The PWO had a similar MODES based project to record all its Archival holdings. There was a need to have a common recording process for all archival records across the Yorkshire Regiment. He recommended that a bid for funds to the Yorkshire Regiment be made to pay for the work involved in putting the records onto MODES. This was agreed.

3. The Chairman is to present a paper on the Yorkshire Regiment Museum and Archives at the next Yorkshire Regiment Board meeting and he would draw attention in this to the need for commonality of systems across the Regiment.

D Harrap

Chairman

13.

ICONIC ITEMS HELD BY 3 YORKS

 1. All the ‘iconic’ items owned by the Museum and held by the 3^rd Battalion had been checked and marked. The paperwork for the loan and the annual check certificates were in hand.

J Spencer

Secretary