The Corner Shop – Steering Group Meeting (2) - 18 Jul 2008, 2.30pm.

In attendance: Sarah Chubb, Steve Johnstone, Deb Justice, Michelle Knight,

Frances Land, Izzy Mohammed, Sarah Thom, Bobby Tiwana, Sarah Watton and
Cheryl Williams.

Apologies – Sanjit Basra, Jane Hanney and Lisa Harrison.

Notes from last (20 May) meeting and Matters Arising

 The notes were agreed as a true and accurate record.
 Archiving Collection Guidelines: Sarah and Izzy to meet and discuss by 31/07.
 Volunteer archivists: Bobby to identify more and pass to Sarah ASAP.
 Schools documentation clearance: Frances to check level of clearance with
schools so that we have complete control of usage i.e. web, exhibition and
archive by early Sep.
 Partnership Agreement: Bobby to draft agreement by 31/07 for comments.

Project Update
 Research – Bobby said that one team were out collecting interviews and
another were due to be trained up the following week; 10 interviews
returned so far.

 Archives – Nothing to report until Sarah and Izzy have met.

 Theatre Production – Frances said that performance dates were confirmed:

26 Sep – 4 Oct (no performance on 30 Sep), 2-3 times per day. She said that
the venue was licensed for up 100 people (65 audience, the remainder
performers, stewards) per show. Ticket prices: £6/£4 and group discounts.

Frances said that the relationship with The Public was yet to be confirmed.

Bobby said that the production was seeking 3 elders’ community groups for
participation within the performances, where they could perform within their
abilities and would be used sensitively within the production.
Recommendations given to identify groups: Local History Group that meets at
The Black Country Living Museum, Agewell, Sandwell Third Age Arts and
amateur dramatic groups.
• Action: Bobby to write brief for community performers and circulate
by end of July.

Schools Education Project

Frances read a statement prepared by Lisa Harrison, which described the process
the children went through leading to the outcomes, which indicated that it had
been a very positive experience for all involved.

Frances said that the shop owners had been very generous to the children and
the project. Sarah Chubb said that she’d enjoyed running her session with the
children. Cheryl stated that she was very impressed with seeing Lisa at work and
saw some powerful reactions in the children. Steve commented that the project

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had brokered a relationship between the community and young people, putting
the school at the centre. Bobby said that an education-angled press release had
been drafted and was waiting for further evaluative input about the project
before being issued to share and celebrate the project’s success more widely.

Frances said that the planning for the schools work was massively
underestimated and under-resourced as it was quite ambitious what we set out
to do. The input from different professionals i.e. heritage, archives, sound,
design and drama had been a key strength of the project, but this made it more
costly. Overall the project had exceeded expectations. It is a very successful
model for working with schoolchildren and the community and one that we could
share with others as good practise.

All recognised that the project had been a great success due to Lisa’s expertise
in this area; who had worked tirelessly to make a very ambitious schools project,
with limited resources, the best experience that it could be for those
participating. A glowing thanks to Lisa was recorded. Congratulatory applause!

Izzy asked if the processes and achievements were being logged as part of the
archive. Frances said that there was much material collated and documented as
part of the schools work which would need to be looked through, some of which
might inform the theatre production. Sarah said that there was no hurry for the
material. Bobby said that we needed to clarify appropriately agreed formats
(and paperwork – a log) for depositing materials.

Izzy also mentioned Young Roots – an HLF strand we could consider applying to in
the future to do more work like this.

Exhibition
Bobby said that Jane had sent some figures through. Jane consulted Simon
Meddings who produced the Slavery exhibition for English Heritage, which came
to 8-10k. The touring costs to each venue were £140 (£35 x 4 hours) approx using
Bob Sadler. The portable roll-up panels with magnetised info to place on top cost
£4550 for two (without any 3D element) and additional transport/driver costs.
Steve said that there was approx 4k in the project budget and another 2k from
Sandwell MBC towards this, which makes the remaining fundraising target more
attainable.

Bobby asked what had come out of discussion with Sarah Ferrega from the
Retailers’ Society. Michelle recapped that they were running a trade fair at the
NEC in March 2009, and were seeking a live performance part (section of the
show) to break up their training events, or role play around customer service and
could potentially host the exhibition.
• Michelle to follow-up to check if there is any interest/crossover and
mutual gain remaining i.e. cash for the exhibition, by …?

Cheryl suggested getting in touch with local authority Regeneration departments,

from whom she’d previously had money for oral history projects. One lead
suggested was Charles Jackson-Holston who works for Sustainability at…? Sarah

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suggested Sandwell Town Teams for support up to 1k and September was likely to
be the next round.

Someone suggested approaching The Wolfson Foundation who has an award for
innovative partnerships…?

• Action: Bobby, Cheryl and Izzy agreed to talk to create a list of outlets
to research/approach to raise further funds for the exhibition.

Bobby said that it would be useful to start a list of potential exhibition sites,
which would inform the budget – fundraising target too.
• Action: Bobby to start list and circulate by 25 July.

Marketing (general, booklet)

Bobby reported that they’d already been quite a bit of media coverage as corner
shops were very media friendly and of interest to all sections of the community.
Bobby said that there was a lack of awareness of heritage publications. Sarah
said The Society of Archivists have an education focused publication. Cheryl
suggested the Our Place audience development website run by English Heritage.
Someone suggested West Midlands Life, which has a three-month lead in time.
Izzy suggested Gem(SP?) – a conference in Sep 2009 where it might be good to
talk about the schools project.
• Action: Izzy and Cheryl agreed to research and suggest some heritage
publications by…?
• Action: Sarah to pass on details about The Society of Archivists
publication by…?
• Action: Izzy to pass on further information/lead on Gem by…?

It was suggested that we get hold of an HLF sign that we can have on site for
both the performance and the exhibition.

 VIP Events – Bobby said that BCT had met with their chair Kate Organ to tap
into her expertise about running VIP events successfully. He said that he,
Sanjit and Michelle had met with three of BCT’s board members with
specialist skills in marketing to inform the planning. Bobby said that in order
to get key decision makers (e.g. local authority chief executives) and media
along to an event required an important speaker for whom they would turn
out. Liam Burne (MP for the West Midlands) and Alison Fraser were initial
suggestions. It was agreed that Fridays and Saturdays were good days to get
MPs along to things. Sarah Thom said that Fridays were better for the media.
Bobby reminded members that the launch of the Cultural Olympiad was due
to take place during that weekend too and the date should be checked out
before finalising.
NB. Cultural Olympiad Launch – Fri 26 Sep; The Corner Shop VIP event
now Sat 27 Sep.

 Booklet – Frances said they’d also be a booklet about the project with high
quality images and minimal text with a introduction to the project, a brief

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 paragraph on each component of the project, a programme for the theatre
performance and to signpost people to the archive and website.
• Action: BCT will initiate the copy for this to be circulated for input,
comment and approval by 31 August.

Evaluation
As well as the usual quantitative and qualitative data gathering, it was suggested
that it would be useful to capture/measure people’s movements. Someone
suggested that it would be worth looking at a Generic Social Outcomes
framework (created by MLA). Cheryl said there was also a training course in how
to work with them. Deb said that Corinne Miller was due to send something to
BCT about this.
• Action: Cheryl agreed to find out more about this by…?

Shared Communication - Blog

All partners present agreed that the system was working fine, now that the few
teething problems had been rectified. Sarah commented that it was great to
have access to all documents in one central place rather than have to search
through numerous emails. The system would again be reviewed at a future date.

Future Steering Group meeting

Wednesday 20 August, 2pm at Black Country Touring agreed as the next date for
a meeting.

Any Other Business

 In-kind contribution – Bobby asked all partners to keep a log of their in-kind
hours, which we’d need to report back to HLF with.

Meeting closed at 4.45pm

BT