The first HeritageMeet was well attended (16 people), filling the back room of Kitchen Garden Cafe, who kindly let us use the room and kept our thirsts quenched too!
Some great suggestions, some more general (youth groups, School Groups) which is great, perhaps building on some of our previous projects with Sarehole Mill, Hall Green Arts, Paganel Primary, Swanshurst School, Swan Corner Community Group, University of Birmingham.
Others more particular, all of which I hope we can work with in the future: Friends of the LoB, Northfield Arts Forum, FoBAH, Secret City Arts, Friends of Northfield Library, the Play House, Birmingham Peace Hub, Northfield Community Partnership, Civic Society Heritage, Bham Solihull Women's Aid, Heritage Forum, U3AHallfield School and Victoria College.
We raised a number of questions in informal chat, and asked people to leave their comments:
What kind of projects would you like to do?
The busiest sheet for responses - a range of great ideas, many of which we will be acting on - film, oral history, walking trails, 'street-by-street', women's and children's histories, intergenerational and not forgetting work in a local cemetery - the last one is something I'm hoping we'll be hearing more about soon!
What skills would you like to share as part of the co-op?
Again a real range of skills - bid-writing, research, delivering workshops, promoting & networking, planning, digital archiving, conservation, blogging and social media, genealogical.
Such a great range of skills in our members, all of which we'll be drawing on to deliver some great projects.
Which other groups do you think we should work with?
Some great suggestions, some more general (youth groups, School Groups) which is great, perhaps building on some of our previous projects with Sarehole Mill, Hall Green Arts, Paganel Primary, Swanshurst School, Swan Corner Community Group, University of Birmingham.Others more particular, all of which I hope we can work with in the future: Friends of the LoB, Northfield Arts Forum, FoBAH, Secret City Arts, Friends of Northfield Library, the Play House, Birmingham Peace Hub, Northfield Community Partnership, Civic Society Heritage, Bham Solihull Women's Aid, Heritage Forum, U3AHallfield School and Victoria College.
How do you think being part of a co-op could help you?
Great to see our objectives reflected back to us by our members! We will be working on how best to deliver:
Being part of a supportive network, keep me using Public engagement skills, Collaborating, connecting, new perspectives, learning and sharing new skills.