Sherington Historical Society
Committee Meeting 21st October 2003. 8pm.
33,Crofts End, Sherington.
Present:- Norman Arnold, Pearl Teasedale & Mark Vale.
Apologies :- Sheila Quinn.
1) Bank Holiday Show. It was agreed to pay half the hall hire cost to the Thursday Group as our contribution to the day, this will be done on receipt of an expense note from the Thursday Group. The day was very pleasant, but not too well attended, in hindsight Bank Holiday Monday maybe not the best day for SHS to hold an indoor event.
2) Speakers Evenings. After the last open evening, (Dianne Sutton 14th Oct.) was so poorly attended, approx 20 people attended (Members and public), it was agreed to cut down the open meetings to approx. 4 per year and grade them, from just village interest to talks with a wider interest, also known speakers or unknown speakers. This is a learning curve for the committee of SHS. Pearl agreed to take on the task of widening the advertising field, if appropriate. (Olney, Emberton, Chicheley, N. Crawley and Newport). Norman to produce more Posters. Also to co-ordinate the type of talk, with the strength and coverage of advertising.
3) Film to Video. No progress reported.
4) Web Site. Mark reported owing to work and family pressure, the progress on updating the W/Site was slow but still ongoing. Our front page had 126 ‘hits last month and has had over 4,200 ‘hits’ overall. Our website is 5th in the MK Heritage league.. The three in front were only a few hits ahead. We have received 3 discs from MKHA, entitled URBANIS a journey into the past, these have not been explored or viewed at this time. Apparently the discs cover three counties, Italy, Germany and the UK. The discs come to us via an E.U. directive. More on this later.
5) Archiving. We have noticed that some of our lever arch files have received damage to their mechanism, through members of the public inadvertently not using them correctly, (i.e. not unclampng the pages, then forcing them backwards and straining the mechanism). So the committee decided that four ring - ring binders would be a better option. Unfortunately these do not come in various colours, so we cannot have them colour coded as at present. This will be tried in future.
6) VW. Raffle Tickets. These will be distributed amongst the members at the next meeting and over the next few weeks.
7) Christmas Party. This will be put to the members at the next meeting, but the game of matching baby to adult photos has been suggested and might be a good game to play. Drinks and refreshments as last year. SHS will supply the basics of these.
8) Cupboard Space. We have been allocated two double door cupboards and we have now overfilled our allocated space in the village hall office. One with stock, paper and spare files. As there are no further empty cupboards we will have to use the filing cabinets available to store our stock and move into the next cupboard. We will also look for a narrow metal two shelf cupboard from the CVO. Warehouse. We have had permission to do this from Village Hall management.
9) Officers. Norman expressed concern, that two of the officers of SHS had served a term of nearly four years. It is normal in organisations such as ours that officers serve a term of one ,two, three or four years, then automatically step down to make way for new people, but are available for re-election. The committee thought in an organisation as small as ours, this would only result in a shuffle round of the existing committee and would not achieve its objective. But this will be put to the society at the AGM.
10) Finances . The finances of SHS are still very healthy. We have £1,514 – 27 in our account. (Despite Norman overcharging by £10 – 50 in August). Mark is still wanting to give up his post of treasurer.
11)AGM MKHA. Mark attended the AGM of MKHA and reported back that there was not a lot to affect us directly. But that there were now a couple of permanent officers on MK Council with responsibilities to Archaeological and Historical matters. Also that there is a move afoot to build a purpose building to house artefacts in CMK. This will be a whole new departure for MKHA as it will have to be self-funding. This all may have come about by MKs embarrassment over having nowhere to display in safety, the ‘Torts’ that were found in MK.
Thanks were given to Pearl for hospitality, the meeting closed at 10-15pm
N.A.