Local history volunteers learn market skills

Local history groups, civic societies and other community heritage organisations came together in March 2007 to benefit from a pioneering free training day organised by Kirklees Council’s Museums and Galleries Service.

A day-course, entitled Consuming the Past: Building Community Involvement & Membership Recruitment for Heritage Groups, was held on 22 March at Oakwell Hall, Birstall to give local voluntary groups the chance to explore issues around recruiting and retaining members, heritage marketing and increasing community involvement and participation in their heritage activities.

Twenty-five representatives from sixteen groups participated in the course, which included an introduction to some of the theory surrounding involving individuals and the community in heritage, a practical look at the tools which groups can use to encourage people to get involved in their heritage activities, together with presentations of case studies focusing on local examples of community involvement and initiatives for membership recruitment.

Sarah Hughes, Community Education Officer with Kirklees Museums and Galleries, said: ‘In Kirklees, as elsewhere, local heritage groups undertake many projects which enable the community as a whole to benefit from the richness of our history and heritage, but such projects require the involvement and commitment of volunteers to make them happen. This training day provided members of local community groups with the opportunity to learn more about the theory and practice of how to get people involved. It is hoped that this will help to support groups in their valuable work.’

For the past few years Kirklees Museums and Galleries has been running the History Network, a network of local groups who work to promote the heritage of the Kirklees area and its communities. The Consuming the Past training day forms part of a training programme organised through the network to support these community groups with their work.

‘One of the most positive things to come out of the History Network training programme is the continuing development of the groups involved’, explains Sarah Hughes. ‘For example, members of the Marsden Local History Group, who delivered a case study presentation as part of the training day in March, cited one of the case study presentations from a previous History Network Training Day as the inspiration for the photographic archive project which they were now presenting as an example of good practice.

‘Similarly, the Friends of Beaumont Park, another local success story, applied for grant funding following the 2003 History Network and Heritage Lottery Fund partnership training day on Funding for Heritage Projects for Local Groups and have since gone from strength to strength with the assistance of an HLF funded Community Facilitator post’.

The decision to hold a training event focusing upon building community involvement and increasing membership came about following consultation with the local groups making up the History Network. Groups were asked to prioritise their possible training needs, with the overwhelming majority of groups expressing a need for training on how to recruit, retain and develop members.

Finding a tutor for such a session did not, however, prove to be straightforward. Despite approaches to colleagues within the museums sector, Museums, Libraries and Archives Yorkshire and the Civic Trust, among other organisations, a trainer with the ability to cover both the theory of heritage involvement and marketing and the practicalities of involving people and recruiting members proved elusive.

The development of the Heritage Studies aspect to the BA (Hons) History course at the University of Huddersfield provided, however, a local breakthrough in the search for an appropriate tutor. The lead tutor on the Heritage course, Dr Mike Tyler, in addition to being the specialist tutor on the University’s History with Museum and Heritage Studies BA (Hons) course, also has extensive experience of working in the community heritage field, and was therefore recruited to deliver the History Network training day-course.

Feedback from the groups taking part in the training day has been incredibly positive, with participants expressing their satisfaction both with the ‘excellent’ and ‘very useful’ learning sessions together with expressing their appreciation of the ‘great opportunity for networking, sharing ideas and suggestions’ with colleagues from other groups. The evaluation process also provided further opportunities for groups to express their future training needs, with the outcomes from this and previous consultation now being analysed to inform the future development of the training programme.

Anyone requiring further information on the training programme or the Kirklees History Network can contact Sarah Hughes on 01484 223803.

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27 April 2007

Left:The Friends of Beaumont Park, pictured here, in Huddersfield were one of the voluntary groups to take up the offer of free training by Kirklees Museums & Galleries Service. For more information tel: 01484 645217 or visit www.fobp.co.uk. The group serves tea and cakes in the park’s visitor centre every Sunday afternoon throughout the summer, 2–4pm.

Below: Oakwell Hall, Birstall, where the training day took place.