History Council of South Australia

MINUTES FOR HCSA [EXECUTIVE] COMMITTEE MEETING Sunday 2nd February 3.30pm – 5pm Susan Marsden’s home

Welcome

Meeting opened at: 3.30pm

Present: Susan Marsden, Richard Venus, Wilfrid Prest, Annmarie Reid, Greg Slattery, Annette Mills

Apologies: David Albano & Sue Coppin

1. Minutes of previous meetings a. Confirm: Executive meeting minutes (21 Oct) Moved by GS and seconded by AM. b. Note: General Committee minutes (25 November) – not available

2. Business arising from the Minutes Business was dealt with as it arose under headings listed below.

3. HCSA advocacy and advice a. SM spoke on ABC radio during the heatwave about how people coped with extreme heat in the past. Referred to Ron Gibb’s book. b. Meeting with Hon Ian Hunter Minister for Sustainability, Environment & Conservation (22/10): SM and RV reported back at General Committee meeting. There has been no further follow up from the Minister’s office but discussion followed about how best to pursue his suggestions regarding lobbying during the upcoming election and on revisiting the History Manifesto which was written during a previous state election. Discussion also centred on contacting the City of Adelaide (the clipper) group regarding their successful lobbying and advocacy. The possibility of running a session in History Month 2015 regarding advocacy was raised by AM. All agreed that this would be worth pursuing. c. Review of State Records Act 1997: Sue Coppin responded on behalf of HCSA with input from SM, AM and others. AR submitted our response on Friday 24th January. SM thanked Sue for her work and also AM for facilitating the input of Geoff Strempel, Associate Director, Public Library Services at the State Library of SA. d. Printing of new flyers - SM has left a message with Alison Fort regarding costing of this. e. Nominating historian(s) to SA Heritage Council (Norman Etherington; Wilf Prest) (SM letter sent to Glenn Gale, State Heritage Unit 23/10). Glenn responded that the process is a lengthy one and an announcement will be made in early 2014. No news as yet. f. Register Committee of the South Australian Heritage Council - call for nominations was received last week. SM asked WP if he would be interested in nominating. WP will also contact Norman Etherington re his interest. g. Calendar of Events for 2014. Several dates were added and it will be ready for distribution to members soon. ACTION: SM to follow up printing of flyers. WP to nominate himself for Register and contact NE. AR to forward electronic version of nomination form to WP. AR to add dates to Calendar of Events as they become available.

4. Events in 2014 2

a. Thursday 29th and Friday 30th May 2014: ‘About time’ at the movies events with Flinders Library has been confirmed and planning is underway with Gillian Dooley. -AM has booked the Hetzel Lecture Theatre and Gillian Dooley has organised guest speakers to introduce the movies. -See AR’s email re invitation to attend movie selection event on February 28th. All welcome. b. 17th July: Awards presentation (see 5). Discussion followed about booking an area in SLSA such as the Mortlock wing, in case Government House is not available. c. Annual Lectures: It was agreed that the country lecture should be held in either Clare or Nuriootpa and the city lecture should be held in the Hetzel Lecture Theatre at SLSA, following the Annual General Meeting on 29th August 2014. It is likely that the country lecture would therefore be held on the 27th or 28th of August; date to be finalised when speaker and venue are confirmed. CAL application for funding: was due on 31st January, so AR and SM have applied. RV has approved application and provided input. A lengthy discussion followed regarding the choice of speaker. It was agreed to approach Ron Gibbs regarding his availability.

ACTION: SM and AR to ask local history society/groups and local public library for sponsorship/support for the country lecture at a later date. SM to approach Ron Gibbs re speaking. AM to book library for July 17th in case Government House is not available for award ceremony and for the AGM and lecture on August 29th. SM to continue with advocacy visits to middle managers at State Library and to the new Museum Director, Mr Brian Oldman.

5. Awards and prizes a. Awards: issues arising from judge’s report (held over from previous meeting for WP to address). WP has spoken to Wakefield Press and they are happy to continue providing vouchers as prizes. WP would prefer not to oversee the judging process this year as he will be away in May/June. SM suggested he approach Alison McKinnon and John Bannon to see if they are interested in assisting with judging in the week beginning 2nd June. Discussion about WP’s suggestion of naming the awards after SA historians but it was felt that to do so would detract from the fact that it was a HCSA award. b. Three entries were received for the 2013 Wakefield Companion to SA History essay prize and WP has selected a winner but would like another academic to read the papers before announcing the winner; Carol Fort was suggested. Discussion followed whether or not money could be better spent sponsoring undergraduates to attend the State History Conference. WP to discuss with other editors. c. Publicity of awards and prizes: WP prepared materials ready for addition to web site. A draft was circulated prior to the meeting. WP spoke to his summary of the various awards and further alterations were suggested. AM to upload once corrections have been made. d. Other sites/networks for publicity about the awards and prizes were discussed, including Twitter. The importance of distributing information through country networks was highlighted, given the introduction of the new award for regional historian. Member organisations such as the National Trust and organisations such as the AHA will be asked to ‘advertise’ the awards, too. ACTIONS: WP to contact Alison McKinnon and John Bannon re judging and also contact Carol Fort re 2013 Wakefield essays. AR to correct award descriptions and forward to AM to be uploaded to HCSA web site. AR to contact other organisations with information about the awards, and approach Mandy Paul about advertising the awards through History SA site and newsletter. SM to ask previous applicants to renominate for 2014

2 awards.

6. Website/Communications a. Reconstructing website – AM has been busy working on the new site & features. It is almost ready to go live. Once payment has been made to secure the domain name, it will be ready to go. b. Weekly eNews – continue to send news directly to Annmarie Reid [[email protected]] c. Twitter: Lauren is continuing to tweet and now has a strong following. Need to make use of this for publicity for awards. A Twitter feed will come up across the banner of the new web site, allowing us to advertise upcoming events. ACTION: AM will contact David and Adrian for personal photos for online profiles.

7. Membership Report a. Report from David- not available b. Query from Susan re Deb Morgan at State Heritage Unit. ACTION: SM to speak to David about progress on membership database. AR to check emails to see if there was an enquiry from Deb and follow up her membership.

8. President’s Report Discussion ensued about the upcoming State election and the possibility of sending out copies of the History Manifesto written by John Bannon for a previous election campaign – possibility of sending it out to all party leaders and The Advertiser. ACTION: AR to advise all members via the eNews about the Manifesto and about lobbying local candidates. AR and SM to discuss a mail out. SM to write something for The Advertiser?

9. Treasurer’s Report a. Report from GS: -$ 4299 adjusted balance

-$ 504 cheque drawn for onlineiq

-$ 2,000 in Term Deposit

b. Cultural Gifts Register – finalise application. ACTION: RV to work with GS in order to finalise the cultural gifts registration process.

10. Correspondence Inwards: Glenn Gale, State Heritage Unit. Response to SM letter of 23/10 Inwards: Government House re date for award ceremony Inwards: Christmas cards from: Elizabeth Ho and the Hawke Centre at UniSA; The Muriel Matters Society; History SA; Alison Fort; Inwards: publicity materials from UniSA Inwards: Juan Mahony re The Diggers View calendar Inwards: Email from Margaret Ross regarding historical materials; Susan has phoned her in reply.

Outwards: Ongoing email discussion regarding History Month activities with Gillian Dooley.

11. Any Other Business a. David to report back re possibility of primary school teacher PD activities following discussion with Dr Kiera Lindsey and Professor Melanie Oppenheimer; DA was not present to report back, but SM spoke on his behalf. After consultation with other HTASA members, it was felt that information about places that teachers could go with students in order to engage with history and heritage would be the most useful resource. Discussion followed regarding various collections, exhibitions and sites. SM suggested that we host a breakfast meeting to bring together staff from History SA, SA Museum, SLSA, HTASA and the various History departments to facilitate discussion about the creation of such a resource. RV felt that the Engineering Heritage Group and local councils would also be interested in contributing. b. AR did set up Dropbox folder as discussed and has invited Executive members to join. ACTION: Further discussion about point (a) to be held over for the General Committee meeting when Kiera, Melanie and David will be present.

12. Date of next meetings AND for whole of 2014

Executive: 2/2 (3-5pm before garden party for council), 28/4, 21/7, 20/10 Times & venues (except 2/2): 5.30–7.00 pm, State Library of SA

Council (General committee): 17/3, 16/6*, 25/8 [before AGM on 29/8], 24/11 Times & venues: 5.30–7.30 pm, History SA Board room, Torrens Parade Ground

12th AGM - Friday 29 August 2014 - 4.45–5.30 pm (before Annual Lecture), venue TBA

Meeting dates combined in 2014 (executive members attend all): 2/2 17/3 28/4 *16/6 – note change of date due to Public Holiday 21/7 25/8 [29/8 AGM] 20/10 24/11

13. AOB? -Greg asked if the State History Conference will go ahead in 2014. AR to contact Mandy Paul. -Greg raised the idea of providing free membership to teachers for the remainder of 2013/14 financial year and then sending them a membership account in July. Other members agreed that this was a good idea. AR will ‘advertise’ via the eNews and ask David to spread information via the HTASA web site.

Meeting closed at: 5.45pm

Next meeting: 17th March at Torrens Parade Ground for General Committee Meeting