Minutes:
Durham, North Carolina
The Chairman informed the Council, that he had conveyed the council’s well wishes to the Mayor and community of the County Council’s twinned town of Durham, North Carolina following the distruction and distress caused by Hurricane Florence.
Durham County Record Office
The Chairman announced that Durham County Record Office had recently became a fully accredited archive service under the archive service accreditation scheme. The scheme was the UK quality standard for all areas of archive service delivery.
A warm welcome was then extended to Neil Sweetmore from the National Archives, former Chief Archivist of the Tyne and Wear Archives Service and member of the accreditation panel, Liz Rees.
Addressing the Council, Mrs Rees explained that the recent achievement was a tribute to everyone involved with the County Record Office. Mrs Rees explained that the importance of archives could not be underestimated and were a collective memory to hold governments to account, connect generations and inspire innovation. In presenting the award, Ms Rees spoke of the strengths of the record office which included a strong policy framework and an excellent team of dedicated volunteers.
Gill Parkes, Principal Archivist was delighted to accept the award on behalf of the Record Office and paid tribute to Liz Bregazzi, County Archivist who had been instrumental in the work of the record office but could not be present at the meeting due to illness.
Royal British Legion
The Chairman extended a warm welcome to Peter Milne, Community Fundraiser for the Royal British Legion representing the areas of Durham, Sunderland and North Tees. The Council were shown a brief film entitled ‘Thankyou’ produced by the Royal British Legion. The film, made to commemorate 100 years of World War I, recognised those who fought on the front line, the women who fought to vote, the families affected by war and those who worked in ammunitions factories. Mr Milne praised the fundraising contributions made by the people of County Durham which had amounted to over £250,000 in 2018.