Minutes of Executive Meeting
HISTORY COUNCIL OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Minutes of Council Committee Meeting
Monday, 7 March 2011
5.00 p.m. – 7.00 p.m.
Meeting Room (LawSchool 110), LigertwoodBuilding, University of Adelaide
Meeting opened at 5.05pm
1.Present
Wilf Prest (Chair), Greg Slattery, Annette Mills, Alan Mayne, Peter Brinkworth, Jenny Stock, John Bannon, Alison Mackinnon, Daryl Best, Richard Venus, Carol Fort
2.Apologies
Geoff Bishop, Jenni Jeremy, Hugh Magarey
3.Confirmation of Minutes of previous meeting
Minutes of the Decembercommitteemeeting of 8 December, which had been circulated, were signed as a true and correct record. Moved Annette Mills, seconded Wilf Prest, carried.
4.Business arising from the minutes
a) History Month
Wilf reported to the group about the themes given to History SA for the program. Confirmed panellists are Rebecca Richardson and Alan Mayne. Annette suggested someone from the MigrationMuseum; Alison agreed to approach Christine Finnimore. Wilf asked if John would be willing to be a panellist; he agreed. Wilf will take the role of MC.
Structure: the 4 panellists will have 5-7 minutes each to make their points, followed by questions from the floor and discussion.
Action: Alison to approach Christine Finnimore.
b) Co-badging October Festival of Ideas event
Festival theme is “Planning for Uncertainty”, and Wilf reported that the Festival is looking for a high profile international or national speaker. The Festival of Ideas would be looking for a financial contribution if we did co-badge an event. Alison suggested Simon Schama as a possible speaker.
[Richard Venus arrived, 5.15]
Wilf commented on the need to avoid duplicating the activities of other history groups, but there was general consensus that if we did co-badge an event like this it would bring our organization to the attention of a wider audience.
c)Commissioning of logo
Wilf has checked his notes, which don’t indicate whether designing a logo was included in Alison Fort’s original quote. Alison has devised a typographic logo, a basic pop banner and a letter head. Wilf handed around examples of each around the table.
There was general consensus that the banner has too much black surface and the slogan down the right- hand side needs to be more legible.Richard commented that the letterhead will be an electronic template and that we won’t be printing out reams of letter head. The vertical line down the centre and on the side of the example letterhead shown failed to win approval.
- President’s report
a) Website
Wilf showed the new website to date. General consensus to make the slogan read: ‘the
voice for history in SA” .John emphasised that the initial wording on the home page must be in shorter, crisper sentences.
Following discussion about the role of webmaster and who will be taught to use the content management system the web site has been built in, it was agreed that initially Wilf, Carol and Annette will learn this skill.
Members only section: agreement that this is not really required at present; ditto any forum.
Agreed that the tab “events” should be relabelled “News and Events”.
Urshhas indicated that all RHS material can be hidden until required. Wilf suggested that initially we should have NAA developments and the National curriculum listed as “issues”.
Sponsors: agreed that Alison and Ursh should be listed as HCSA sponsors, for the initial term of 3 years, in view of their major contribution and very reasonable pricing.
Carol displayed a series of additional images which will be forwarded to Alison for incorporation in the website.
Alison is keen to included images of members of the Executive and Committee next to their names[Please forward your head-and-shoulders style photograph to Alison at
The website did not display properly on the Adelaide Uni equipment; Richard asked whether it is a fixed pixel width, which may not work correctly with all browsers. Alison raised a concern about the search function being confined to our site, rather than trawling the lower depths of cyberspace.
Action: Wilf to bring all the above comments, suggestions and queries to Alison’s attention.
b)Membership
Wilf expressed concern about the numbers of organizations who were previously members buthave not yet paid subscriptions –
e.g. SA Tourism.
SA Museum
State Records
School of History and Politics (Adelaide Uni)
Australian Society of Archivists
Royal Geographical Society SA
Wilf wondered what percentage of the membership is actually paid up, and how we can recruit as members the 300 or so historical societies in South Australia; John suggested that we wait until the website is up, which indicates a tangible presence, then undertake a recruitment drive.
c)WEA and U3A
Wilf reported on discussions with Sue Ross from the WEA and Adrian van der Wist from U3A re HCSA being involved in expanding offerings of history. They were both very positive, and flexible in the way they conduct their courses, i.e. anything from 1-2 hour seminar to 2 hours a week over 6-7 weeks.Andrew Buxton has indicated that there is no potential conflict with HTASA professional development.
It was agreed on Greg’s suggestion that we postpone issuing a call for members’ participation in this way until the website is up or until final subscription receipts go out.
Alison asked how the HCSA will broker this. Jenny commented that U3A and WEA have their own quality control.Carol suggested that we could do a ‘find a speaker’ service and build a database of people willing to talk on specific topics Alison asked if this cuts across what the PHASA do, Jenny thought not.
d)NAA
Carol having missed two meetings was unable to report; however Greg noted that theLeigh St co-location agreement has been signed,while NAA are leasing part of the Collinswood site.
e) History Prize
Greg reported that the new bank account is now open and seeded with $100. We are now in a position where we can accept tax-deductible donations and put the lending rights receipts from the Wakefield Companion into this account, once the Tax Office approves our application to be a registered recipient. General satisfaction and thanks to Greg were expressed at this long-awaited outcome from a complex process.
[John left at 6.15pm]
6.Correspondence
IN: Queen Adelaide Society newsletter
Renewals
Email from James Bellich re inability to accept an invitation to lecture (re co-badging lecture with the Hawke Institute at UniSA).
7.Treasurer’s report
Greg reported we have $955 in and $944 out which includes $100 transferred to the tax free account and $145 for the PO Box.
We currently have $5496 in our trading account.
Wilf asked how income this year compares to income last year. Greg commented that this is tricky because of the 2 year payment subscription being introduced this year.
Richard asked if it was appropriate to let the committee know which organisations were in default with subscriptions as a personal approach might assist. Greg named the following: Australian Society of Archivists; Bay Discovery Centre; City of Playford; DIRCSA; DEH; Heritage Arms; Heritage Preservation Association; Kanawinka Writers; Military Vehicles; National Trust; RGSSA; SA Museum; SA Tourism; State Records Yacka History Group.
Greg commented that the take up of the 2 year subscription is very high, and Wilf suggested that we should revisit the subscription categories before the end of the current financial year.
Action: agenda item for April Executive meeting.
8.Any other business
Launch of new website
Wilf asked whether we should have a formal launch of new website – general consensus to roll it into another event.
President’s newsletter
All support giving away the President’s newsletter for free just as we had it available on our old website.
[Jenny Stock left 6.30pm]
Daryl Best gave a report on some issues concerning HTASA: HTASA meeting with Jay Wetherill(Minister for Education ) on 23 Feb. to discuss the new SACE and itsimplications; numbers of students undertaking Year 12 History have dropped significantly. Thus 1802 students enrolled last year of which 1604 completed the course; this year only 1100 are enrolled; these developments will have implications for University placements.Wetherill agreed that the new SACE needs find tuning
Daryl reported that all schools have to offer History under the National Curriculum; there is a need for training and development in the new curriculum, otherwise teaching may be narrowly facts-based, especially for teachers in primary schools and in country areas. HTASA cannot take on this training role.
Premier’s ANZAC award: Daryl commented that 9 students were awarded the prize last year to go to Gallipoli and France. The prize is worth $7500 and mainly DECS school children apply.Prize committee consists of representatives from HTASA; Catholic Education, Independent schools board, RSL and Premier’s Department.
HTA National Conference(3-5 October)is currently looking for sponsorship.
Speakers include Anne Clarke and Stuart McIntyre.
HTASARefresher session held in February for Year 12 history teachers had 67 attendees this year, when usually fewer than twenty.
HTASA is going to award a History teaching prize to the best teacher this year.
Wilf wondered why we don’t have a South Australian historian of the year. Alison thought we had discussed this in the past when we presented an FAHS award at one of our AGMs. Agreed to put this topic on the agenda for the next executive meeting in April.
News from ASA
Jenni was an apology but asked Annette to report to the group that the ASA national conference in Adelaide has been cancelled. This was a decision by national office, not the local organizing committee.
9.Next meetings
Council/Committee:
Monday 6 June 2011 -LawSchool (meeting room 110) LigertwoodBuildingAdelaideUniversity, 5-7pm
Executive:
Monday April 4:5-7pm State Library SA
Monday May 2:5-7pm State Library SA
Monday July 4: 5-7pm State Library SA
Monday August 1:5-7pm State Library SA
History Month panel session
Thursday 5 May –Hetzel Lecture Theatre, State Library SA
Annual lecture
Thursday 4 August –Hetzel Lecture Theatre, State Library SA
AGM
Tuesday 6 September - venue TBC
Meeting closed at 7.05pm
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