Advocacy Working Party Meeting Minutes

Notes from the meeting held at UCL.

Present: Máire Lanigan (St. Mary's & Chair), John Gilby (LSE - Minutes), Marysia Henty (LSE), Julie Howell (London Metropolitan University), Paul McLaughlin (SHL), Janet Percival (UCL), Madura Rasaratnam (LSE).

Apologies: Apologies were received from Nicholas Martland (SOAS), Mary Nixon (Goldsmiths), Frances Norton (Wellcome Library), Monica Rivers-Latham (Westminster).

PM was welcomed to his first meeting and ML gave an overview of the work of the group.

1. Agree Agenda

The Agenda was agreed.

2. Previous Meeting Minutes and Matters Arising

The minutes from the meeting held on 15 March 2005 were agreed as a true and accurate record.

Review of actions:

• Action ML - Group membership, see Item 3.
• Action 1.1 - MH had chased comments from the Disaster Mamangenet Group regarding the press release and had received little feedback. It was felt appropriate to include the re-launched Disaster Control Plan in the first e-bulletin (see later).
• Action 2.1 - MR will circulate updates on working groups and steering group prior to each AWG meeting. Action complete.
• Action 2.2 - ML's action to draft sentences describing the Consortium had been superceeded by activities of the Steering Group/Secretary. Action complete.
• Action 3.1 & 3.2 - FN and MH had completed their actions looking at communicating the awareness survey results, see under Item 5 below. Action complete.
• Action 3.3 - JG actions on Word templates - see under Item 7 below. Action complete.
• Action 5.1 - FN & MH reported on the Annual Report timescales under item 6 below. Action complete.
• Action 6.1 - MR had arranged future meetings, action complete.

Under matters arising, ML commented that there was a need to report on the existing group action plan progress at the June Consortium AGM. Action 2.1 ML, PM, JP to look at report in time for circulating to the Consortium on 2 June 2005.

MR tabled a short paper containing ideas for the e-bulletin as discussed at the March 2005 Steering Group. Following discussion, it was agreed that the e-bulletin should reflect the (new) website style and could be emailed to interested parties as well as reside on an appropriate area of the website. Suitable recipients were thought to be M25 library staff and the Collaboration and Partnership Group would be asked for other non-M25 recipients.

All agreed that the first bulletin should be done end June/early July 2005 and thereafter termly. ML suggested deciding publication dates and ensuring that these were met. A further suggestion was to include topical issues and some form of 'under the spotlight' feature.

3. New Group Members

ML reported that efforts to recruit new group members had been very successful and confirmed that Paul McLaughlin (SHL), Mary Nixon (Goldsmiths) and Monica Rivers-Latham (Westminster) will be joining the group.

4. Review of AWG Action Plan

ML suggested deferring this item until the next meeting due to the ongoing work by the Steering Group. This was agreed.

5. Awareness Survey

The work on the publicity releases by FN and MH was approved and the group agreed that the first e-bulletin was the ideal place for them to go.

6. M25 Annual Report

MH introduced this item stating that the AWG would get more involved in the production of the M25 Annual Report, particularly with obtaining content and with briefing designers. The group agreed that using a new designer would give a fresh look and that three designers would be considered. ML commented that the BL Annual Report was good and MH expressed satisfaction with the LSE in-house design team. It was agreed to follow up both these and also an additional designer. Action 6.1 MH to investigate potential designers.

There was some discussion about the top ten facts and that most of these 'facts' were essentially statistics. The group agreed that statistics should be included in the Annual Report with the addition of some form of 'did you know' type information to sell the Consortium to members and potential members.

ML reminded the group that this years Annual Report (2003-4) was available in January 2005 due to circumstances and the group agreed that a late October delivery date would be acceptable in the future. The group agreed the timescales suggested. Action 6.2 MR to arrange AWG meeting near the end of August to review report contents and prepare designers brief.

Further comments on the proposal included:

• The Chair's report should contain a paragraph along the lines of 'where next'.
• The financial report was considered necessary but it was noted that the finances are officially signed off at the January Consortium meeting.
• The proposed inclusion of a list of member libraries will show the scale of the Consortium.
• A four colour print run of 500 would be similar cost to last year.
• There was considerable support for the idea of an M25 image bank that could be utilised for the Annual Report, flyers, website and other publicity. Action 6.3 MH to investigate the cost of hiring a photographer to create such an image bank.

7. M25 Website Review & Other Issues

ML introduced this item and gave an overview of progress of the website review. The group had looked at content and how to find it. Also what should be on the home page and the relative impact it should have. The group were now beginning to look at mapping existing content to the new structure.

JG and MR handed round some Word templates for various M25 communication documents that had also been discussed by the Steering Group. There was a lengthy discussion on the format and usage of the templates and it was agreed that the templates should not be too prescriptive. The group agreed that the Press Release and Short Document Template be used for external-to-M25 communications but that the other templates should be dropped. Action 7.1 ML to take this proposal to the Steering Group.

One issue that came for the Steering Group was interest in some guidelines for content in working group report to the Steering Group. Action 7.2 MR & JH to draft working group reporting guidelines.

MR updated the group on the proposed new short strategy document to replace the current Business Plan. This would be a short document covering three years and cover the generic areas of Consortium activities, namely resource discovery, mutual support and collaboration & partnership. The document will have an accompanying Action Plan that will detail specific tasks and deliverables.

8. Promotional Activities

The discussion and brainstorm for new ideas for promotional activities was deferred until the next meeting.

ML reported that the Steering Group liked the idea of some form of poster display for use at M25 events
Action 8.1 MH & JG to circulte ideas of the physical form of poster display unit.
Action 8.2 PM, JP, JH, MH to consider content of poster.

9. Next Meetings

Action 9.1 MR to arrange suitable dates for the next meeting, one around the time of the July 7th Steering Group Meeting and then mid to late August for finalising Annual Report issues.

Minutes by JG