Minutes
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Minutes of the Tweed Regional Museum Advisory Committee Meeting held Thursday 30 September 2021
Venue:
Online Time:
4:30pm Present:
Cr Warren Polglase (Councillor); Tracey Stinson (Director Sustainable Communities and Environment); Andrew Illingworth (Manager Tweed Holiday Parks and Cultural Facilities); Erika Taylor (Acting Museum Director); Gary Fidler (Community); Marion Mewett (Community); Chris Core (Community); Christian Ellis (Community); Helena Duckworth (Uki & South Arm Historical Society); Mᾱris Bruzgulis (Murwillumbah Historical Society); Denise Garrick (Tweed Heads Historical Society); Kirsty Andrew (Collection and Program Support Officer - Minutes).
Apologies:
Sandra Flannery (Community).
Minutes of Previous Meeting:
Moved: Marion Mewett Seconded: Mᾱris Bruzgulis
RESOLVED that the Minutes of the Tweed Regional Museum Advisory Committee meeting held Thursday 27 May 2021 be accepted as a true and accurate record of the proceedings of that meeting.
Business Arising:
NIL
Agenda Items:
1. Museum Director’s Report
Report had been circulated prior to this meeting.
Acting Museum Director added to her report by advising the Committee that the Museum had run a very successful School Holiday Activity program, despite being in lockdown; over 200 take-away Activity Bags were distributed to local children.
Erika also advised that visitation numbers for the first half of 2021 had exceeded pre-Covid levels and that social media statistics for 2021 were far in excess of 2020 levels.
Tracey Stinson updated the Committee on the recruitment of a new Museum Director.
Marion Mewett offered thanks to Erika Taylor for Acting in the role of Museum Director, in addition to her already busy role of Curator.
Tracey Stinson reiterated that and offered congratulations to Erika for a job well done.
Minutes
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Moved: Warren Polglase Seconded: Denise Garrick
RESOLVED that the Museum Director’s Report be accepted by the Tweed Regional Museum Advisory Committee.
2. Proposed Acquisitions
The Proposed Acquisitions list had been circulated prior to this meeting.
Gary Fidler asked for more information on the Acquisitions backlog mentioned in the report.
Erika Taylor advised that all Museums have a constant backlog of processing acquisitions, however Tweed Regional Museum is experiencing it at the moment due to recent donations of photographic collections (only one of which consists of over 150,000 negatives) as well as the staff shortage. Erika advised that processing of acquisitions would be a priority for 2022 once the new Museum Director has commenced, and that space at the Museum Collection Store was limited, making decisions regarding acquisitions more difficult.
The significance of this photographic donation, from Ray Sharpe, was discussed, with Denise Garrick paying tribute to Tweed Heads Historical Society President, Ross Johnson, who negotiated the donation with Ray on behalf of the Museum and was instrumental in its success.
Moved: Chris Core
Seconded: Helena Duckworth
RESOLVED that the Proposed Acquisitions be accepted by the Tweed Regional Museum Advisory Committee.
3. Proposed De-accessions
The Proposed De-accessions list had been circulated prior to this meeting.
Erika Taylor provided background information regarding the items, their location and their lack of provenance.
Moved: Denise Garrick Seconded: Marion Mewett
RESOLVED that the Proposed De-accessions be accepted by the Tweed Regional Museum Advisory Committee.
Moved: Denise Garrick Seconded: Marion Mewett
RESOLVED that the cooling-off period for the de-accessions be waived.
4. Collection Policy Update
Erika Taylor advised the Committee that the update Museum Collection Policy was formally adopted by Council at its meeting on 15 July 2021.
Denise Garrick asked whether the Committee members would receive a copy. Erika Taylor advised that the Policy is available on the Museum’s website.
General Business:
5. Local Government Election
Minutes
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Chairperson, Gary Fidler, advised the Committee that the Local Government election would occur on 4 December 2021, after which all Council committees would be disbanded and Expressions of Interest sought for new members.
6. Proposed donation
Cnr Warren Polglase advised that he had been given an old copy of the Mt Warning Star newsletter and queried whether the Museum would like it.
Erika Taylor advised that the Museum would definitely consider it as it does not hold all editions in its Collection.
Warren Polglase to pass the Newsletter on to the Museum for consideration.
Next Meeting:
The next meeting of the Tweed Regional Museum Advisory Committee will be held Thursday 25 November 2021.
The meeting closed at 5:05pm.
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP TEAM’S COMMENTS:
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP TEAM’S RECOMMENDATIONS: