New volunteer session

We had the first volunteer session a week ago where I outlined projects I thought we could tackle this year. They are:- Dry-mounting Museum Labels; Forres High Street Reminiscence
Exhibition at Forres Library looking at old Forres High Street; Redressing Retail Case; Printing "Elephant" Tee Shirts; Printing and making up "Spice" Notelet Cards; Produing marketing material; Letters for children to use in Post Office Sorting Bench; Prepare and host workshops/presentations for school visits; Volunteers to act as guides for visitors/tourists; Produce interpretation for recently restored painting and organise talk from restorers; Ongoing oral history recordings; Digitise and collate slide collection; Produce podcasts for use on internet; Research names given to closes in Forres e.g. “Singer’s Close”; Research history of local Italian Families and a computer training day at Forres Library.
There were 13 volunteers there and they were all enthusiastic about the ideas.
The really good news was that we are now based in the museum laboratory and store so this gives us a lot more room and scope to do more than one project at a time.
Yesterday was the first session in the lab and we had people printing and drymounting labels, writing envelopes for the sorting bench and printing folding and packaging the spice notelets. Rebecca Bolton, Community Librarian, came and explained the Forres High Street Exhibition they will be exhbiting at the libray and how we could help. This went down very well and some of us are going in on Friday to start work on our bits and pieces. It was a very successful day made more so by a surprise visit from Alistair Campbell, Libraries and Museums Manager who was delighted to see how successful the volunteer sessions are becoming. Last year's hard work by the volunteers has paid off and we have gained our independence and a closer and mutually respectful working relationship with the museum staff.
Chris

Christmas Spice

Our 2007 Christmas Exhibition - Christmas Spice - was launched on 7th December at a very successful and well attended preview evening. There were 55 people at the launch where Mark Macleod, Project Development Officer, was given a presentation to thank him for all his work in the last 15 months and to wish him well in his new post with the Scottish Museums Council in Edinburgh. Mark is taking up the role of Membership Development Manager from 7th January, 2008. Mary Kean, Friends Chairman, commented on his hard work, enthusiasm and how he had helped the Friends Group progress. He will be sorely missed.

"Christmas Spice" tells the story of The Spice Routes, Explorers, Christmas Spices plus a look at "Old Spice" and "The Spice Girls". During the course of the exhibition, which closes on January 18th, schoolchildren will be given the chance to attend workshops on mincemeat making, pomander making and also to take part in a competition to find the hidden spice horde. On opening the exhibition, Chris Bridgeford, Friends Secretary and Volunteer Co-ordinator, thanked the group of volunteers who have been working on the exhibtion since May. This group of junior and senior middle-aged attended volunteer sessions every Tuesday and many did a considerable amount of work at home.

Jean Mortimer, one of the volunteers, painted eight watercolours of the spice plants. These watercolours play an integral part in the exhibition and were to be offered for sale at the end of the exhibition. However all eight paintings were bought up by eager Friends on the opening night. Due to the popularity of the paintings we will be looking at producing prints in the New Year.

The volunteers are going to take a well deserved break until the New Year so the volunteer afternoons should begin again in January.

We're Open

After 15 months in the hands of building crews, architects, designers and electricians, the Falconer has now re-opened.  There will be an "official" opening ceremony on Friday but meanwhile the public have been getting a first hand look at the new layout.  One good thing about opening in the quiet winter period is that it gives time to get any wee teething problems sorted out.  

Next week our 2007 Christmas Exhibition - Christmas Spice - will be launched with a preview evening for Friends members and invited guests on 7th December.  

Cromarty Trip

The Cromarty trip went ahead with 20 members braving the atrocious rain. Although the incessant rain meant that walking round the idyllic wee town was not possible everyone enjoyed the trip. The day started with the group being totally surprised by the bus driver. He was 21 but looked about 16 and it was his first day on the job! He handled the day very well though even when we decided to leave an hour earlier due to the weather.
First port of call at Cromarty was the Courthouse where the group split into two to look around and enjoy the exhibits. The picture shows one of the jail cells at the Courthouse. After lunch the group then visited Hugh Miller's Cottage.
Congratulations to Joan for organising the trip. It's clear members enjoy trips away and hopefully we'll do more.

Bus Trip to Cromarty

Committee Member Joan Taylor has been hard at work arranging a bus trip to Cromarty on Saturday 18th August with the bus leaving Forres at 10:45am and returning at 4:00pm.

Hugh Miller was a world-renowned geologist, author, newspaper editor, human rights campaigner and a founder of the Free Church of Scotland. The visit will take in the elegant Georgian house that he moved to when he married and the cottage where he was born. The house holds a fascinating interactive exhibition and the cottage has an evocative audio tour taking you back to his early life in Cromarty in the 1800s.

After lunch (for which you should make your own arrangements at the many eateries in Cromarty) we will visit The Courthouse where you can meet the eccentric 17th century laird Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty and see a trial from the 1770s in the original courtroom, with life-like animated models with voices of local people. The time is then your own until we return at 4:00pm.

The cost of this trip has been restricted to £5.00 per head for Friends and £10.00 for non-Friends. This includes admission to both venues.

If you are interested in going drop an email to the Friends at friends@falconermuseum.co.uk before 1st August.

Volunteer Afternoons

We had our first "proper" volunteering session on Tuesday. We held a little one a fortnight ago but that was just a trial. This time we had seven people squeezed into Mark's wee office. I felt a bit disorganised as I was trying to talk everyone through their specific tasks and running about here and there. We actually got a good bit done. Two people started working on newspaper articles about for the local newspaper - The Forres Gazette - one started research on Alexander Falconer; one started indexing oral history; two people started an oral history recording in the court room and one person tried out an i-pod nano as we hope to let visitors use these when the museum is re-opened. Then we all sat down, had tea and brainstormed our proposed Christmas Exhibition to be called "Christmas Spice". Primarily it will be about Christmas Spices but will also take in the spice trade and explorers. And what of Mark, our hyperactive Project Development Officer, I hear you ask. Well, he's gone off on holiday for a fortnight to America meeting up with old friends. I think his absence added to my nervousness as it was the first time I 'd led a session on my own. He left us strict instructions not to go mess up his desk but I'm afraid the tea tray and some ladies handbags were put down on it - sorry Mark. He's graciously given us one tiny little shelf to use for our bits and pieces. Firecracker (Mark's little glove puppet friend) was on hand to watch over us so we felt we had to behave ourselves!

Podcasting

We're now podcasting thanks to the internet skills of our forward thinking Secretary - Chris Bridgeford. While there are some Museum Podcasts on the Internet the Friends are the first voluntary group in the museum sector to have produced our own podcasts.

The first two short podcasts in an ongoing series, are conversations recorded with Hilda Cumiskie a former Vice Convener of The Moray Council and David Morgan, former editor of the Forres Gazette, on the subjects of politics in the past and a dog with its own political viewpoint.

Some extracts from the podcasts:

“…They knew far more than the politician and were quite happy to tell him and sort him out for exactly what he was saying wrong…”

“..the dog was always in other people’s minds so I had to go and ask Hamish what he thought about a particular candidate…”

“…What do you think of Margaret Thatcher?” And Hamish growled…”

We will be adding to the Podcasts each week from the many conversations we have recorded as part of theOral History Project to be featured in the redeveloped Museum due to open in late autumn.

The Friends Podcasts can be accessed through the itunes store by simply searching for “Museum” or “Falconer Museum” and also by accessing the podcast at www.falconerpodcasts.co.uk

Friends AGM

We held the 2007 Friends AGM last week in the great surroundings of the Forres Lawn Tennis Club Pavilion as the builders have taken over our usual meeting place of the Museum.

All the committee members were re-elected and the audience were greatly enteretained by the Guest Speaker(s) for the evening - Mark Macleod, our Project Development Officer and his little friend "Firecracker" - the glove puppet - see photo.
Those who paid their subscriptions on the night went away with their new welcome packs. A lot of members were found reading them whilst enjoying their wine. I think they'll be a great success. (Chris)