Archive Project Meeting – 25th August 2016

Austin 7 Clubs Association Archive project, Meeting No.8

Thursday 25th August, 10:30 am

Triumph Sports 6 Club,

36 Main St, Lubenham, Market Harborough LE16 9TF

  1. Those present:

Phil Baildon – Association Archivist
Hugh Barnes – Cambridge Austin 7 and Vintage Car Club
Nick Beck – Scottish and Bristol A7Cs
Chris Charles – Association Web Master
Chris Garner – Association Vice-chair and PWA7C
Dave Martin – Asst Archivist and PWA7C

  1. Apologies for absence

Ruairidh Dunford – Scottish A7 Club
Alan Garaghty – PWA7C
Andy Lowe – Association Chairman and Midlands A7
Nick Turley – PWA7C

  1. Minutes of meeting 7

Were deemed correct

  1. Progress since last meeting
  2. Progress on private collections of Handbooks etc (Action CG, PB)

Both owners of private collections have been spoken to and will be visited by PB and CG in the coming weeks.

  1. Follow up with VSCC regards copyright (Action CG)

No further action has been taken with the VSCC subsequent to guidance received by Hampshire County Council that all of our materials appear to be out of copyright

  1. Digital Archivist progress (Action HB)

Further attempts to encourage our only candidate to reconsider his withdrawal of interest have met with no response to follow up emails. HB will issue another request for help, this time narrowing the tasks required to maintenance of the Excel Catalogue

  1. Paint chart progress – A10 Club project etc (Action HB, PB)

A10 Club have not come back to us since initial contact. PB to chase. HB has borrowed the paint cards from his contact and they are now being photographed by Nick Turley

  1. Delivery of Brochures to HCC arranged (Action HB, PB)

PB will visit HCC Offices on Friday September 2nd to deliver the brochures. He will also collect the two drawing s they have had for sample costing process

  1. Sample drawings identified for digitisation: Wigston and HCC advised of ‘test’ pieces work (Action HB, PB)

PB will deliver the two drawing s used by HCC for sample costing process and direct costing comparison. Wigston quotes to be available for review by next meeting.

During this part of the discussion, it was suggested that we should have a formal process defined as how accessions should be handled. NB will draft ((Action NB)

  1. Provide digitisation technical details to PB for Wigston (Action HB)

Done (PB to check email inbox – HB to resend if necessary)

  1. CC to set up Mailing List (Action CC)

Done. 20 subscribers so far. More to be encouraged. Advertise in Grey Mag, A7Friends and Grey Mag (Action HB)

  1. NB to speak to his local garage (Action NB)

Done. Agreement in principle. NB to pursue. Upholstery sample collection is of interest.

  1. Open Day review

It was agreed by all the day was a great success. We had welcomed some 30 visitors, many of whom had stayed much longer than either we or they expected (Comments on Austin 7 Friends refers to one visitor, arriving at 11am expecting to stay an hour, who was still there as we cleared up at 4pm). Name tags for Project Team members had been a particularly good idea. It was suggested that for a future open day, visitors should also be given something similar. HB will write a piece for the next Grey Mag describing the day. CC to ask his Father to share the photos he took on the day to give an additional set of photos to go with those taken by NT to illustrate the article.

It was agreed we should hold another Open Day in Spring of 2017 – either April or May. PB to look at possible dates. (Action PB, HB, CC)

  1. Photo sorting

This is to be the next piece of work by the Thursday Team. Some discussion was had about best approaches to this work. It is important that a strategy is chosen to avoid duplication of or unnecessary work to keep effort to a minimum. An approach that enabled a catalogue to be produced as part of the work was to be pursued.

It was decided that we should devote the majority of the next meeting to dealing with this.

  1. Archive Web Site review

CC gave a demonstration of the current version of the web site he has built. The Team as a whole were impressed by the quality of the work and CC was congratulated on his approach and efforts generally.

HB said that he wished to see the web site Live at the earliest opportunity but there were a number of issues that required resolution before that could happen. The point was made that when Users first engage with the site, we have to do our utmost to ensure they understand what they are seeing and how they can navigate through the detail. We have one opportunity to catch their interest and, if there are any problems, we will lose them. It will be very difficult to entice them back after that. Consequently, we have to be able to provide as much information as possible to help them with understanding what we have available.

All data sets will require some form of introduction.

  • After review, it has been seen that the Index Cards may not be in the most suitable order for historical research. Many of them seem to be in ‘reverse’ order – ie, the most recent parts come first tracking back by date This might make sense from an ‘engineering’ perspective where an engineer would need details of the most recent revision of a part.

An introductory preamble will be written by PB/DM explaining the order of the cards and the likely reason behind it, the best way to navigate through them (with the possibility of using the Parts List booklet soon to be published). It will also refer to the mini project that we will undertake to re-order the PDFs into chronological order. (Action PB, DM)

  • A similar introduction is required for Handbooks and Parts Books. This will not be as complex as the order is more intuitive as they are published and listed on the web site in date order.

Reference will be made however to the missing items and will contain an appeal for loan or donations of missing items. (Action PB, DM)

  • The Trophy collection will need a lesser introduction as well, but should have some wording. (Action PB, DM)

In readiness for our next tranche of digitisation CC asked to photograph a sample Show Brochure to act as a ‘placeholder’ on the appropriate page on the Archive site. (Action CC)

Following guidance from HCC, all references to Copyright to be removed from the web site. (Action CC)

HB to follow up Honorarium payment to CC with Hon. Treasurer. (Action HB)

RD to be asked to pilot a project in re-ordering the Index cards PDF into chronological order. CC to provide advice on suitable software to do this. (Action HB, CC, RD)

CC to implement a ‘feedback’ option to gather observations on the new web site from Users (Action CC)

  1. Budget Position

As per last meeting, the Project still has some £3500 uncommitted.

  1. Digitisation

PB will be taking the Show Brochures to HCC Friday September 2nd. HB will remind Heather Needham of HCC they are coming. PB will also collect the 2 engineering drawings they have assessed for digitisation. HB raised the prospect of a return to a Heritage Lottery Grant at some time when we have a better understanding of both the photograph collection and, more specifically, the engineering drawing collection. The latter are likely to be individually quite costly to do. HB asked PB to start assessing the number and approximate sizes of drawing we will need to digitise. (Action HB, PB)

  1. Publicity

CG suggested an A5 flyer insert in the Grey Mag. After some discussion it was decided that we would do this in 2017A. This will give us time to prepare the flyer (timescales to short to get it into the next issue) and for the web site to settle down and undego any improvements needed as a result of feedback and review. CG to draft and circulate. CC will reformat the text into a more ‘eye-catching’ format for printing. The Project will bear the cost of any funding required for this. HB to inform Editor and Treasurer (Action HB, CC, CG)

HB will write his usual article for the Grey Mag focussing on the Open Day and the launch of the web site. This will contain a further appeal for a Digital Archivist, albeit with a reduced job specification (mainly maintenance and ownership of the Excel catalogue) (Action HB)

When the web site is launched (likely to be Sunday 28th August, announcements will be made on A7 Friends (both in the ongoing Archive Project Progress thread and an Archive launch specific), Face book and Twitter (Action HB, CC)

It was also decided that in early 2017, we should issue a formal Press release regarding the Project (likely recipients being FBHVC, The Automobile etc) CG to draft (Action CG)

  1. AOB

David Fletcher, recently retired from Bovingdon Tank Museum, was suggested by David Morgan and endorsed by Bob Wyatt as a possible contact who would take the Stanley Edge Military archive. PB will liaise with him to come to Lubenham to review the material.. (Action PB)

CG will follow up with Lincoln Museums regarding the Stanley Edge Clayton Dewandre materials (Action CG)

NT is in contact with Bob Wyatt over recording his ‘oral history’ Other candidates were discussed. HB to discuss with NT his willingness to carry on the project with other candidates. (Action HB, NT)

CG will look at writing something for publication in the Austin Apprentices journal asking for any archive materials that people may wish to donate or loan (Action CG)

The possibility of ‘watermarking’ all Archive images was discussed briefly but no decision taken. The mood of the meeting was this may not be necessary. We will return to this topic in a future meeting. (Action all)

HB reported that a number of other organizations have shown interest in our Project. Mail has been exchanged with the Historic Caravan Club and the TR Register. We have also had contact from the MG Car Club.

  1. Date and time of next meeting

Sunday 9th October following on from the Association Meeting. The Dun Cow, Dunchurch

 

Task List for next meeting:

PB and CG to arrange to meet with owners of collection of archive materials

HB to advertise for someone to maintain the Excel Catalogue file

PB to follow up with A10 Drivers Club re paint sample project

PB to deliver show brochures to HCC and collect the 2 sample engineering drawings

PB to deliver the 2 engineering drawings for quotation. Quotation to be available for next meeting

NB to draft Accessions/Catalogue process document

HB to advertise Archive Mailing List

NB to maintain contact with local garage (particularly re upholstery samples)

PB to consider date of next Open Day

CC to provide photos of Open Day

HB to write Open Day article for Grey Mag

PB/DM to write introductory pieces for each style of digitised material

CC to implement ‘place holder’  image for show brochures

CC to remove references to copyright from web site

HB to discuss with Assn. Treasurer Web Master’s honorarium.

RD to undertake pilot project in re-ordering index card pdfs

CC to provide RD with appropriate software for his task

HB to remind HCC of our delivery/collection of materials

CG to draft ‘flyer’ for 2017A Grey Mag

HB to discuss flyer with Treasurer and Editor

CC to instigate go live of archive web site Sunday 28th August

HB to do appropriate announcements on A7Friends, CC to deal with Facebook and Twitter

CG to draft Press release for early 2017

PB to follow up with contact for Stanley Edge Military material

CG to follow up with Lincoln Museums re Clayton Dewandre materials

NT to undertake oral history recording with Bob Wyatt

HB to discuss with NT opportunities for further interviews

CG to consider appeal to Austin Apprentices for any archive materials they could loan or donate