Church Recording Workshop - Canberra October 2008
Full Report on Canberra workshop by Judy Munro
Dr Roger Allen of NADFAS was on holidays in Australia and gave up a day to spend with some 40 church recorders from around the Eastern States of Australia . Roger has recently retired from the position of Church Recording Chairman of NADFAS. The program was supported by Judy Cook, Chairman of AADFAS Volunteers Subcommittee, and organised and coordinated by Gordon McGregor, CR leader in Geelong , and the day and venue organised and catered by Gini Hole and the ACT CR group at St John's Reid, Canberra .
By way of introduction Roger showed his powerpoint presentation aimed at recruiting Recorders from NADFAS members, this could be used with local ADFAS and church groups.
When Roger came into the post of national CR Chairman he started a review of CR strategy under headings of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. He had a 4 page strategy handout, this is an edited version of the whole day.
The large numbers of trained recorders in the UK (some 3000 odd), the friendly support from many experts, the free service to churches and the excellent News & Views magazine published until 2006 were listed as strengths. Also there is a high standard of training by 24 area CRAR's (Church Recorder Area Representatives). The NADFAS website with many downloads on the CR members secure site is another strength for us.
Three years ago they found that over-prescriptive supervision and repetitive corrections were disheartening to volunteers, many of whom dropped out. Roger emphasised that a record must have internal consistency in style but that there was some latitude permitted in interpreting the guidelines between groups and churches. He reported that in the UK there had been some resistance to the use of new technology with digital photography being a major example. Direct recording onto laptops in the church rather than writing up worksheets by longhand was another option.
Opportunities were the large number of unrecorded churches, many facing closure, and the possibility of using existing information again, for example to prepare church trails for visiting children and schools. To give new volunteers the chance to be stimulated in new fields of enjoyment was also an opportunity.
Using Church insurers as sponsors is another opportunity we could take up here. ANSVAR look after Anglican, Baptist and Uniting Churches in all states, not usually Catholic ones. The churches with most art work to be insured are likely to be interesting for a church record.
In the UK all records get checked carefully by a national committee in a quality audit with rapid feedback.
Roger was impressed by the ADFAS Memorandum of Understanding that is signed with a new project, NADFAS might follow this up. It is most desirable for this to be owned by the church council or vestry committee, not just the incumbent. It was suggested budget rather than costs be used in documentation.
Tips for Group Leaders
Encourage volunteers to love their work
Manager, communicator, motivator
Know your CR references and expert knowledge available in or to the group
Type up as you go, (do not leave all to the end), then get another recorder to check, then get others in your section to check, then pass it on to another section to see if it makes sense.
Keep feedback frequent and regular.
Felstead Method for small groups of 6 - 15
All do the Memorials, meet and compare notes
Then all do the next section.
Each time get one member to do research and inform the others.
This might be varied by for example getting all members to share a large and favourite section like windows.
Horsham system - typing up as you go leading to timely feedback with less waiting at the end. If possible take a laptop computer into the church for direct entry.
Hint - type in the date of updates and changes, MS Windows will change the footer date each time you open the file.
Group leaders might have a monthly meeting of volunteers with refreshments and regular newsletters.
Hold information sessions for the parish with church recorders speaking.
PR articles in church magazines, pew sheets, local newspaper need church permission.
General
In UK all finished records go to a national committee for auditing. At this stage data about artists, architects etc is extracted and put on a national data base. Anyone can send in e-mail questions about artists. There are no photos but consult the relevant church record for this.
Most records take 3 years from start until publication
Digital photography should be saved as tiff not jpeg which is not stable, it gets smaller each time the file is opened. Photos might be taken in jpeg but should be rendered to tiff in adobe.
Store on gold archive quality disc.
Use photographic quality paper for printing
Use sewn quality bindings for permanence for the church, the group and the diocese. Other copies might be bound by heat sealing glue to the spine.
Questions
Why is national ADFAS approval needed ?
For Insurance purposes, the same reason as why all volunteers who are not ADFAS members need to be associate members.
Associate membership has a small cost to cover this insurance, training and materials. Some groups or members might like to subsidise this.
How much detail ?
eg "Wippells 602" for vestments in Wippell" catalogue
or sketch or photo and "dark brown with fading"
"roundel, see sketch, 24 cm dia"
Trace a sketch from a computer print and then scan this in for clarity.
Ganice?? British sculptors
Consider taking a digital photo of an item and measurements then type the record at home.
Sentences or bullet points ?
Most important to be consistent over the record, Roger prefers sentences.
ICOM, the international museum recording standard
Digital or film photography ?
Today we prefer digital, but it must all be the same within one record.
NADFAS no longer stores records, old ones go to English Heritage in Sheffield, stored under controlled conditions, with negatives and discs, "on permanent loan".
IN UK they use a disc for quality auditing and corrections, some send 1 disc of prints and 20 discs of images.
One day English Heritage will transcribe all records to the next generation of computer imagery. In Scotland the records are put on Hard Drive on receipt by Historic Scotland.
Intellectual property resides with the Association of ADFAS.
In Australia the National Library of Australia owns their copy, in Sydney the RA Historical Society stores copies for the Association of ADFAS who owns them.
CR News and Views - is no longer published, but the NADFAS Volunteers Supplement includes CR, as does the NADFAS review. The NADFAS secure website has CR mailings regularly too.
Bible quotations - Yes, look them up for the source if this is not included. (Google with inverted commas is a quick way to do this). Use sic if not accurate.
Measuring techniques
A laser measure might cost as little as $5.00, accuracy to 5 cm so qualify this with approx .
Helium gas balloon on a long piece of string which gets measured.
Count bricks on the outside and measure one or five and multiply. These are all similarly approximate.
Maintenance men to measure, or use their ladders.
Stonework is the section least thoroughly recorded.
You might add a ruler to photos, especially with hallmarks or other small items which are enlarged.
Labelling of items after recording ? (cf museums) Only if the church wants this, items are for sacred use, not just admiring. Invisible secure codes for insurance might be good if requested, but expensive.
Do we search for information when items are recorded in a church local history booklets ? Local histories are frequently not accurate. Go back to primary sources: vestry minutes, contemporaneous church newsletters, registers of births, marriages, deaths. specify secondary sources, add notes like "there is a local tradition that . . "
Access to records in Library: In UK there is a charge of 1 pound sterling for an A3 colour plate, this is the cost price to NADFAS.
In choosing a church historical age is not essential, some are from 1950s, but some theme, artist, stained glass, aesthetic, historic or geographic significance is needed.
Detail of recording: -In the Library section it is not necessary to list each edition of the standard hymn book, maybe just "various shades of blue, list of donation information at the end of record.
Bibles - before 1850 or really 17th C are of particular interest, or good bindings, or calligraphy.
Not mass produced devotional literature, baptism certificates, just "there is also a modern library of devotional literature . . "
Some silver might be in a museum for safekeeping. Give a detailed record of what is here and in use, and a shorter inventory type of list of what is stored elsewhere.
Shorter records: Cathedrals usually have too much for ADFAS to prepare a church record - sometimes a detailed inventory is done.
Training - some groups have had a talk by a local stained glass restorer.
Prepared by Judy Munro, Group Leader, Christ Church Geelong Record.
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