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| Ian Coulson of Schools History Project, starting off the ALEs conference with an entertaining and informative session. |
Since the last Annual meeting the ALES committee has met twice – both times by teleconference.
We organised a ‘break-out’ session at the Archives and Records Association conference in Cardiff last August. This was organised on a ‘Question Time’ model with a panel of archivists from England, Scotland and Ireland who are involved in delivering education. The session was ably chaired in Dimbleby fashion by Douglas Roberts. Each Panel member presented their ‘take’ on using archives in education and then the session was opened up to questions and discussion amongst all present. It was very well attended and we got really positive feedback from delegates – the only criticism was that we really need a longer session (we only had 45 minutes). It was the first time that ALES had put itself forward for ARA conference for some time – something that we may wish to consider repeating this year.
When the ALES committee met in September we were still hoping to run a training session in the autumn. It became clear however that due to pressure of our ‘day jobs’ this would not work out. We shifted our attention to the annual conference, and Maria put together a fabulous programme on The Archivist as Teacher. I would like to minute particular thanks to Maria for all her hard work and organisation and to Gloucestershire Record Office for so kindly hosting the event.
There will be an ALES Autumn training event this year – Janet Baker is planning a training day on assisting family historians which will take place on 26 September at Highland Archives. Somewhat off the beaten track, but I hope as many of you as possible will be able to attend this event. Further information will be circulated as it becomes available.
Maria is already thinking about next year’s conference – potentially on Learning and Teaching in the Digital Age! If you have ideas for training or research or anything else that you would like/would like to offer/ would like to see ALES pursuing, participating in or seeking funding for, please don’t hesitate to suggest it. We can’t deliver what you want if we don’t know what it is, and now is the perfect time to include additional funding requests in our budget proposal for next year! Contact me by email to: alison.diamond@nas.gov.uk
I would like however to record my thanks to all ALES committee members for all their hard work and support over the year. It makes a huge difference to have a team of folk who can be relied on – makes being chair much easier!
On that note however, I have been Chair for a number of years now and can’t help feeling that ALES would benefit from a change of leadership and some new ideas. I really would be happy to step down if anyone else is interested in taking on the role….
