2010 AGM

Minutes of British & Irish Sound Archives (BISA) Annual General Meeting held on 14 May 2010, at the Rymer Auditorium, Department of Music, University of York

Present:
Martin Astell (Essex Sound and Video Archive)
Kenny Beaton (Tobair an Dualchais)
Almut Boehme (National Library of Scotland)
Jenny Doctor (University of York)
Jonathan Draper (Norfolk Sound Archive)
Mike Hirst (DAS-360° Digital Archive Services)
Daniel Leech Wilkinson (King’s College London)
Shona MacDonald (Tobair an Dualchais)
Cathlin Macaulay (School of Scottish Studies Archives)
Alice Measom (Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, English Folk Dance and Song Society)
Breandán Ó Nualltán (Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann)
Will Prentice (British Library Sound Archive)
Dafydd Pritchard (National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales)
Richard Ranft (British Library Sound Archive)
Brian Rice (RTÉ)
Simon Rooks (BBC)
Alison Smith (National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales)

Apologies
Beth Thomas and Meinwen Ruddock (both of St Fagan’s: National History Museum)

1. To Receive the Minutes of the Previous Meeting held on 5 June 2009, at the Wessex Film and Sound Archive, Sussex Street, Winchester, Hampshire
The minutes of the meeting held on 5 June 2009 were accepted with no amendments. Will Prentice (WP) duly signed the minutes.

2. Committee Members’ Reports
WP explained that there were 120 members on the BISA e-mail discussion list. Jonathan Draper (JD) noted that before the event started, there were 56 members of BISA but indicated that figure would increase slightly. Dafydd Pritchard said that there is £2,810.02 in BISA’s bank account.

3. Appointment of new BISA Convenor
JD explained that WP had stated his wish to stand down as BISA Convenor at BISA’s AGM in Winchester. JD expressed his thanks on behalf of the BISA Committee for all Will’s work for BISA and hoped that Will would still attend BISA events. WP said that he would continue to look after BISA’s e-mail discussion list.

JD explained that nominations were opened in February 2010 and that one nomination was received from Simon Rooks of the BBC. For this reason, JD explained that no formal election vote had to take place. He therefore proposed that Simon become the next BISA Convenor and this was seconded by Jenny Doctor (JDo).

Simon Rooks then said a few words. He thanked WP and the other committee members for all their work for BISA. He encouraged members of the BISA e-mail discussion list to become members of BISA. SR recalled the work of British Association of Sound Collections (BASC) and BISA’s origins in a meeting in Edinburgh in 2006. As a new organization he acknowledged that BISA needs modest ambitions but that as it grows there will be questions that need addressing such as charging for membership. He stated that if BISA is to grow, there needs to be specific benefits for BISA members. He endorsed the creation of a directory of members. He also expressed his wish for a register of suppliers of goods and services and saw BISA as being in an excellent position to endorse those people on such a register. SR explained that BISA should aim to carry out its modest ambitions to a high standard. He also expressed his wish for the continuation of good communication between BISA committee members and his wish for mid-year committee meetings, either by telephone-conference or in person.

4. Branch membership of the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives
JD stated that the BISA committee had initiated a poll of BISA members in March 2010 to see if they were in favour of BISA becoming a branch member of IASA. He explained that 24 votes were received for the proposal, none against and that quorum was reached with 35% of BISA's full individual and institutional members voting. Of those who responded, two-thirds are members of IASA, one-third is not. WP has duly written to IASA requesting that BISA becomes a branch member of IASA and we are awaiting a decision by their Executive Board.

JDo asked the BISA committee what are the benefits of becoming a branch member of IASA. WP responded by stating that branch membership would enhance BISA’s credibility and would make its work easier. Dafydd Pritchard (DP) added that the IASA Executive Board had a pragmatic approach to the rule which states branch members require 50% of their membership to also be members of IASA. JD mentioned that as a result of the survey earlier in the year, a lot of BISA members were also members of IASA.

5. BISA Directory
Brian Rice (BC) gave a summary of what work had been completed on behalf of Malachy Moran who was unable to attend the BISA event. BR explained that the back-end work on the directory had been completed and that current work is focussing on the front-end and that this work should be completed in the next few weeks.

6. Any Other Items of Business
JD thanked all those who were giving presentations throughout the day and to the University of York for hosting the event.

7. Date and Time of Next Meeting
The next BISA meeting will be hosted by BBC Scotland's Information and Archives Department at BBC Scotland, Pacific Quay, Glasgow, on 20-21 May 2011.

The meeting ended at 12:45.

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