South West Region
The ARA South West Region covers the following counties: Bristol, Cornwall, Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire.
We aim to provide:
Events at which members can meet colleagues from throughout the region to discuss shared interests and concerns, including activities and developments affecting the region and the profession
Continuous professional development (CPD) opportunities for members
Effective and timely communication to members within the region, including information to members about the activities of ARA, the Board and Executive, and a channel for feedback to the ARA
A voice for the archive professions in the south west.
Our objectives are:
To hold at least three events a year, at a variety of venues, with interesting speakers on relevant subjects
To ensure at least one event will be a specifically CPD event
To disseminate information from and provide feedback to the Board
To maintain our information on the ARA website, and social media, with up to date information.
You can get in touch with us at
Email: southwest@archives.org.uk
Twitter: @ARASouthWest
What we do
Regular Meetings
The South West ARA Region meets three times a year. We hold our meetings in person, at archives throughout the region, but members are welcome to join online if they cannot attend in person. We can often offer a bursary to attend a meeting in person, if you would otherwise be unable to attend.
Recent meetings have included a joint meeting with MAPLE (TNA’s Major Archives Project Learning Exchange) at The Box in Plymouth focussing on partnership working; an online meeting (due to a weather warning) looking at accreditation and ARA professional membership; and a meeting at the UK Hydrographic Office in Taunton on working with depositors and Covid-19 relief fund case studies.
Our next meeting will be held at the University of Bristol Theatre Collection on Monday 20th March 2023
We send out email announcements to the region mailing list, advertise them on Twitter (@ARASouthWest) and post details on the ARA Training & Events webpage.
Training
We run our own training events and also partner with other sections and groups of ARA to provide both in person and online training in our area.
As with our meetings we will send out email announcements to the region mailing list and also post details on the ARA Training & Events webpage.
Most of our training is provided free to members, very occasionally we may charge a nominal fee to cover speaker or room hire costs.
Who we are
The committee of the ARA Region is made up of volunteers drawn from the membership of ARA.
Our committee is as follows:
Chair - Ally McConnell
Secretary - Elissa Truby
Joint training officers - Hannah Little and Jess Clark
Communications officer - Jennie Hancock
Treasurer - Anne Lovejoy
Committee members serve fixed terms on the committee and when we have vacancies for committee members or other volunteering opportunities with the group we advertise them on the Volunteering with the ARA webpage, in ARA Today, on social media and via emails to the group mailing list.
Join us
We’d love you to join us - drop a line to
Email: southwest@archives.org.uk
And we’ll be in touch as soon as we have something to share.
Get in Touch
Or if you have a specific query or want additional information on volunteering opportunities use the same email above and one of the team will get back to you as soon as possible.