Minutes of General Committee Meeting
Monday 3 December 2012
5.30– 7.00 p.m.
Meeting Room (Law School 110), Ligertwood Building, University of Adelaide
Meeting opened at 5.30 pm
1. Present
Wilfrid Prest (co-Chair), Carol Fort (co-Chair), Daryl Best, Lauren Gobbett, Hugh Magarey, Annette Mills, Greg Slattery, Alexis Tindall, Richard Venus, Jenny Stock, Jacinta Weiss.
2. Apologies
Margaret Anderson, Susan Marsden, Alan Mayne, Geoff Bishop, Adrian Rudzinski.
3. Noting of Minutes of previous meetings
Minutes of the AGM 2012 having been circulated were noted and await confirmation at AGM 2013.
4. HCSA Archives
The meeting discussed lodging of HCSA records at the SLSA . and agreed that decisions about things like privacy , access conditions, and organising the archives must be made before donation.
Members agreed to form a working group to manage this process and anybody interested in contributing should contact the Secretary or Vice president by email.
Action: Annette will provide the Executive and General Committees with a package of guidelines, frequently asked questions (from similar organisations), and helpful tips, regarding storing the HCSA archives at the SLSA.
‘Archives Working Group’ to be formed. Volunteers to address their offers to Secretary or Vice-President.
5. Website
The Committee discussed the website, acknowledging the need to keep it relevant and up-to-date, both aesthetically and in content. The Chair asked the Committee to spend some time reviewing the website, and websites of a similar nature and report their findings and ideas at the next meeting or through the Secretary.
There was a suggestion of linking HCSA podcasts to popular websites such as Big Ideas (http://www.abc.net.au/tv/bigideas/).
Action: Committee members to examine HCSA website as decided.
6. Annual Lecture
The Executive Committee reported to the General Committee its preliminary ideas about asking interested groups in Mt Gambier to host next year’s regional Annual Lecture.
Wide discussion about potential speakers: Alistair Thompson and Barry York among several named.
Action: Vice President to talk to the OHAA and Margaret Anderson to hear their ideas about how we might support the History Conference – especially how we might combine our lecture with the conference.
7. Membership
West Torrens History Group, Laura History Group, Friends of Immanuel Archives, Ray Ogilvie, Adelaide Gaol Preservation Society, State Records and UniSA have all renewed their memberships.
8. President’s Report
No written report.
The Vice-President summarised the period of her Acting Presidency and thanked the members of both Executive and General Committees for their support and hard work across the year.
She said that the action of her Acting Presidency she felt most excited about was the appointment of Jacinta Weiss as Membership Officer. As a new position, there are no specific performance indicators or job description but, in nominating Jacinta, the Executive Committee makes clear its aim to make HCSA more relevant to its members and more responsive to their concerns. The Vice President emphasised that the role is not simply to focus on drumming up more members but to concentrate Council Members’ thinking on our purposes and on who our members are and how we might appropriately serve them. General agreement was expressed.
The Vice President was supported in this statement by Daryl Best (representative of the History Teachers Association) who explained that although the HTAA has a long-standing relationship with the HCSA as a foundation member, members of that organisation have expressed dissatisfaction with the current relationship and arrangements.
Richard Venus (Engineers Australia) concurred, and went on to say that his organization values products of the HCSA such as the President’s Proclamation Day message and urged that more of this sort of thing be done.
Hugh Magarey (National Trust) added that the HCSA might take a stronger role in advocacy for South Australian history. For example, in supporting the Museum of South Australia or Adelaide idea. He distributed copies of RB Such’s 1 November 2012 appeal to parliament on the subject. Magarey requested HCSA support for the National Trust of SA. The Vice President asked him to arrange for the Trust to make a formal proposal and request for help for the HCSA to consider, preferably through the soon-to-be-elected President of the NT.
The Vice President also recommended this as a good time for the Council to implement a new round of contacting/lobbying significant members of parliament: something she intends to take up with the new President as soon as she is available.
9. Treasurer’s Report
Payment of $132 to the Auditor is due.
The Auditor’s 13/11/2012 report was accepted.
10. Correspondence
Integrated Museum, 1 November 2012 (see Attachment 1)
11. Any Other Business
Alexis Tindall invited the Committee to the Museums Australia Christmas breakfast at 7.30am at East Terrace Continental. MA has breakfasts every first Friday of the month. She will email the Secretary with further details for circulation.
Meeting closed at 6.55 pm
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