11 April 2021: It is true, life can be like London buses. Nothing happens for a while, and then everything comes along at once. And so it has been with the Friends. It all started with our first AGM for the new CIO charity.
We would normally hold our AGM in June but because we had to hold it within 18-months of the CIO being registered (October 2019) we opted for 23 March to formally appoint the trustees. I am pleased to warmly welcome Tony Willenbruch and Carole Shaw, previously observers at the old charity meetings, who were elected to the team as trustees.
The AGM was the first outing for our new outsourced support, Admin & More. Elizabeth and her team have taken over the recording of minutes at our trustee meetings and will eventually assume responsibility for the related administration. Their role at the AGM was to act as our voting scrutineers, providing independent oversight of the voting procedure as required under our new constitution. Outsourcing is a new venture for us and is one of the advantages of incorporating. It will help to reduce the voluntary workload and make the task of managing the Friends less burdensome.
Not long after the AGM we found ourselves in the fortunate position of interviewing an applicant to join us to take up the membership secretary role. We have also been thinking about outsourcing or making the role more manageable. After many discussions and enquiries we are almost on the cusp of appointing a new member to the team to take on a new arrangement with an external provider to deal with all membership matters. This will make a significant difference and more details will be circulated once we have finalised arrangements.
At the AGM I welcomed our newly appointed social media coordinator, Matt Welch. Matt uses social media in a commercial setting and he will bring some valuable experience to help us get the most out of our Twitter account, and no doubt we will extend to other platforms in due course. If you have any thoughts or ideas about how best we can utilise social media then please do drop Matt a line: socialmedia@ftna.org.uk
And there is more! Eileen, our vice chairman, and myself have also been busy interviewing applicants to join our trustees team. At the time of writing we are in a position to recommend two appointments. These appointments will make a significant contribution and also bring valuable financial and governance experience.
Once we have drawn breath, we have another round of interviews to fill the outreach coordinator vacancy. There are many Friends organisations of other archives and I am keen to try and establish an informal network to share ideas and information. We are all busy in splendid isolation doing our own thing so I think it is important to join some dots and establish a network of like-minded organisations.
Another opportunity for outreach is to establish a connection with the many university history societies around the country. It presents an ideal opportunity to draw in history students and future academics to the Friends’ world. Against the gloomy backdrop of the past twelve months of the pandemic and restrictions I am pleased to be able to report that the Friends are flourishing with a growing management team with additional expertise and knowledge.
Not all the news is positive as indicated by falling membership numbers. Sadly, the pandemic has meant some members have changed their priorities. With The National Archives shut and activities moved online this has not helped our cause, perhaps another reason for the declining membership base. This will have an impact on our financial capability to support projects but we will monitor the situation and sit tight until the pandemic weather passes and we can get back to some kind of normality.
But, lets not end on a gloomy note! The Friends CIO is continuing to consolidate and build on the heritage of our endeavours that began in 1988. The latest chapter is a grant of £24k that we have just made to enable work to begin on the Great Cowcher Books, DL 42/1-2, in the Duchy of Lancaster Records. They are an important record of land owning and lordship compiled in 1402. This is the beginning of a much wider project to unlock the historical record and the Friends are on hand to ensure it can be accomplished.
Unlocking the historical record and making it accessible to all – that’s what we do.