British Association For Biological Anthropology And Osteoarchaeology

BOARD OF TRUSTEES’ MEETING

University of Sheffield, 9 Mappin Street, Sheffield

22nd August 2018 12:00

Present: President Charlotte Roberts (CAR); Secretary Ceri Boston (CVB); Treasurer Lizzy Craig-Atkins (ECA); Membership Secretary Anwen Caffell (ACC); Outreach Officer Claire Hodson (CH); Communications Officer David Errickson (DE); Commercial Representative Lauren McIntyre (LM); Annual Review Editor Diana Swales (DS).

Apologies: Grants secretary Karina Gerdau (KG); Representative of a Professional Organisation Gaille McKinnon (GMK); Museum Representative Heather Bonney (HB); Student Representative Emily Carroll (EC); Non-executive Member Catriona McKenzie (CMK)

1. Minutes of the last meeting

The minutes of the previous meeting were sent out previously to the trustees for comment and amended accordingly. These minutes, as well as those of the November meeting, were emailed to the BABAO membership in July. However, minor errors that remain include

- The spelling of Dave Errickson’s surname- ‘Study of human remains’ should read ‘Standards for the study of human remains’

Action: CVB will amend these and send the final minutes to DE to add to the BABAO website.

2. Matters arising

2.1.BABAO grants- commercial and academic

This year there were seven applications for the academic grant and four for the commercial grant. Each grant application was reviewed and scored independently by two trustees and by the grant secretary KG. This year applications in both grant categories were particularly strong. In view of this, it was decided by the trustees to award two student and three commercial grants. The total expenditure approximately will be £8,000. ECA confirmed that it was financially feasible for BABAO to award all five grants.

ACC needs to check that the student prize winners had paid their BABAO fees before they had entered for the prize.

Action:

- ACC will check with conference organiser Carrie Baxter that fees had been paid in time by the student prize winners.

- The successful applicants will be announced by CVB at the BABAO AGM.

2.2.BABAO Conference 2018

The arrangements for the BABAO conference at Cranfield University are progressing well. Conference organiser Carrie Baxter estimates approximately 174 attendees thus far. The programme has been sent to conference attendees, and other pertinent information will follow shortly.

One outstanding concerns raised by CH and DE at the April trustees’ meeting regarding transport to the campus on Sunday morning has yet to be resolved. DE pointed out that there are no public buses from Milton Keynes to the Cranfield campus that run early enough on a Sunday to allow delegates without private transport to arrive in time to attend the first session of lectures. As accommodation on site is limited and beyond the means of many delegates, this lack of public transport may affect many delegates staying off campus, particularly students. It was decided to revisit the suggestion of running minibuses from a central location in Milton Keynes (e.g. the train station) on Sunday. The additional cost of vehicle hire will be met by BABAO. ECA confirmed that this was financially feasible.

As this will be the 25th anniversary of the founding of BABAO, CAR suggested that this occasion be marked out by a special birthday cake/s to be baked by willing members, and served during the course of the conference. She had already emailed members for volunteer bakers, and received eight offers. She originally envisaged shaped cakes arranged to form the letters and numbers ‘BABAO 20’. CVB suggested that getting members to bake cupcakes and arrange them in this format would be more practicable. This was unanimously agreed by the trustees. CH and other trustees raised the potential difficulty of catering for attendees with vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free dietary requirements, and that all cupcakes should be nut-free to accommodate those with nut allergies.

Action:

- ECA will be in touch with conference organiser Carrie Baxter to arrange private vehicle/s to transport conference attendees without private transport to the venue on Sunday morning. These will be paid for my BABAO.

- The conference organisers will announce the availability of this transport to conference attendees. Those wishing to use the service will then have to contact the organisers by a given date, so that sufficient minibuses may be hired to convey them.

- CAR will contact the bakers requesting that each person bake 20 cupcakes. These are to be in a range of flavours, but all will be nut-free. CH will bake gluten-free cupcakes and other bakers will be approached to bake vegan/ dairy-free cakes. They will be decorated with osteological themes (e.g. sugar skulls) according to the inclination of each baker.

2.3.Data protection (GDPR)

In the previous trustees’ meeting, changes in the law regarding data protection (GDPR) were discussed, and how these would impact on the collection and storage of personal data of BABAO members. CMK was appointed by the other trustees to review the new legal requirements of GDPR and BABAO’s data protection policies and practices. In May, she sent the trustees several documents outlining the required policies and a risk assessment. These were commented on and amended by the trustees. Unfortunately, she could not attend this trustees’ meeting to report in person, but sent the following summary:

1. With the assistance of other trustees ACC, CAR, DE and ECA, she has compiled all of the necessary documents and is working on implementing the new policies and procedures (.e. transferring files containing personal data to a secure external hard drive etc).

2. Following the email to the general membership, there was a single request to remove a phone number from the BABAO database. When AC investigated, the phone number had never been given and so could not be deleted from the record.

3. DE has emailed all of the previous trustees to request that they delete all documents that contain personal information. Please can all trustees remember to do this when their term ends.

In view of the new GDPR requirements, DE is working to increase internet security of the BABAO digital archive to (e.g. changing from Google Drive to a safer programme). Once this has been achieved, the BABAO archive, including members’ personal data, will be transferred to the BABAO database. In this way, the current practice of holding personal data on the private computers of trustees, particularly by the membership secretary, will be eliminated. Access to members’ personal data on the BABAO website will be restricted to the communications officer and membership secretary via a secure portal.

Actions:

- Before sensitive information is transferred, DE or his successor will explore security arrangements with Web Integrations, and set up additional online security.

- The online database will then be set up. In addition, DE is in the process of transferring various documents to the online BABAO archive for secure storage.

2.4.Equality and Diversity in BABAO

In May 2018, Michael Rivera contacted BABAO trustees asking about the promotion of Equality and Diversity within the organisation. ECA led a small working group to explore the question more fully. She hopes to involve Michael when he takes up his post of Communications Officer in September. ECA has approached him and other anthropologists already working on the issue of diversity in the field.

Actions:

- ECA and Michael will continue to explore this question, in order to develop a more comprehensive agenda and statement.

- They plan to set up a small working group of 5-6 members who best represent the diversity within the organisation.

2.5.Nomination for the BABAO Lifetime Achievement Award

One nomination for the BABAO Lifetime Achievement Award was received. Sonia Zakrezewski and Jo Buckberry nominated Holgar Schutowski. The award will be presented to Holgar at the BABAO conference.

2.6.Nomination for Service to BABAO Award

CAR nominated Megan Brickley for this award, in recognition of her efforts in founding BABAO, her contribution to the development of British standards of osteological recording with Jackie McKinley, and her ongoing participation in the organisation and osteology more broadly. This was supported unanimously by the other trustees. Her award will be presented at the BABAO conference.

2.7.New trustees’ posts (President, Communications Officer and Grants Secretary)

CAR thanked the outgoing Communications Officer DE and Grants Secretary KG for their valuable work as trustees. The trustees also thanked CAR for her active and valuable contribution in moving BABAO forward, and for representing its members so well over the last three years.

The three new posts of president, communications officer and grants secretary will be uncontested as only one nominee for each position was put forward. These are Jo Buckberry for President, Michael Rivera for Communications Officer and Sophie Newman for Grants Secretary. Although there is no choice of candidates this year, BABAO members may signify their support or lack of support for each candidate online. DE sent out the online voting to BABAO members on the 22nd

August.

Action:

- DE will collate the results of the poll. These will be presented at the AGM by CVB.- The new trustees will take up their posts immediately following the AGM. Outgoing

trustees will hand over to the new trustees in the months following the AGM. Thus, DE will need to retain full access to the BABAO database until December 2018 until his hand-over is completed.

2.8.Issues to raise at AGM

- Future of Trends Series

Whether proceedings of future BABAO conferences should continue to be published in the Trends series will be put to the membership for discussion at the next AGM.

- Inclusion of Annual Review editor as a trustee

CAR and the other trustees feel that it would be useful to include the Annual Review editor in trustees’ meetings, so that he/she may be more conversant with issues discussed by the committee. Present editor Diana Swales attended this August meeting, and found it extremely useful. Inclusion

of the editor as a trustee may be particularly pertinent in view of a proposal by CAR that the editor produces an annual synopsis of the trustees’ meetings over that year. The trustees felt that this change should be approved by the membership before proceeding with it.

- Purchase of casts for outreach activitiesCH has highlighted the need for a range of plastic casts of skeletons of both anatomically modern skeletons and hominins for teaching at the numerous outreach events in which BABAO is now involved. ECA feels that BABAO can afford to fund plastic casts to the value of £3-4,000 this year. These will comprise a core set of casts necessary to demonstrate ageing and sexing techniques (e.g. male and female skull and pelvis), an adult and child disarticulated skeletons and a magnetic teaching cranium. It is envisaged that in future years, this cast collection will be expanded. Investment in a cast collection represents a significant outlay for BABAO. CAR feels that this use of BABAO funds should be approved by the membership at this year’s AGM before casts are purchased. The casts would be available for short term loan to all members for use in outreach events. They will be curated by the Outreach Officer. This proposal will be put to the membership at the AGM.

3. President’s Report (Charlotte Roberts)

1. Trends: Editor Tina Jakob has advised that it is more likely to be November 2018 for the contents of Volume 3 to be sent to Oxbow.

2. I questioned the status of the revision of the Ethics and Guidance documents. This has been taken over by Becky Redfern and will include all relevant content, including destructive analysis and digital guidance.

3. I will send my history of BABAO for the website to the new Communications Officer after the 2018 conference for archiving.

4. I will also scan all my BABAO- related emails regarding the GDPR and delete as necessary; I will also upload to the archive relevant BABAO documents I hold and delete the rest.

5. Don’t forget to send the conference report form to Nick Marquez-Grant after the conference – this is a valuable source of information for the archive on stats!

6. REF2021: I will collate any feedback on the two documents that I asked the membership about and send to REF by the 15th October.

7. I confirmed with ECA that my expenses would be paid for being part of a panel discussion at the PAN Anthropology conference in Oxford on the 20th September 2018.

4. Finance report (Lizzie Craig-Atkins)

1. Managing the accounts

Nothing to report.

2. Financial reporting

A current state of finances report is provided for the period from the start of the last financial year to present: 01/01/2018-17/08/2018.

Comments

- Membership income remains healthy into 2018. It currently stands at £16k whereas this time last year was at c. 15K.

- Some large expenses have come through, which have kept our income lower for this year. Additional large expenses are still to come (conference fee subsidy, grants).

- I suspect our income this year will be negative, which is something we welcome as it will redress the past few years’ imbalance in income-expenditure.

Treasurer’s suggestions

We still have suitable funds to invest in outreach materials (and any other initiatives we want to proceed with).

We decided to pay a proportion of every member’s conference fees up front to lower the overall expense. Cranfield University have yet to bill us for this amount.

We have yet to award and pay for grants.

5. PayPalNothing to report, everything is working well.

6. Charities management

I have submitted our 2018 accounts to the accountant for review. The deadline is Oct 2018.

Other business

These are all items from last time that need checking:

- The Charities Commission have recently made an update with advice regarding making grants to other organisations that are not charities. The new grants secretary will need to check up on this – update?

- We have now paid for Trends Vol. 2. This was just under £8k.

5. Membership Report (Anwen Caffell)

As of 18/08/2018, BABAO has 500 active members: 495 members have paid in full (268 at the waged rate, 227 at the concessionary rate)

We are waiting for payment from five recently-joined members, although one of these has now received a final notification for non-payment (membership will be cancelled unless payment it received).

Three people joined this year but then failed to pay their membership fee, and their membership was cancelled. The two members who had previously underpaid have paid the balance owed.

New Members

A total of 101 new members have joined in 2018 to date, including those re-joining; 57 have joined since the last Board of trustees’ report (April 2018, when active members numbered 443). Trends in joining patterns are shown in Table 1, Figure 1 and Figure 2, with data from 2018 to date compared with data from the last two years (individually and as an average). Typically, there are two main ‘peaks’ in month of joining: in January and June. This year, the second ‘peak’ has occurred in July, and rate of joining has been higher than usual throughout late July and into August.

Table 1 Numbers of new members joining per month (including members who re-join)

Month2016

20172018

Average 2016-17 Difference Compared to Average

Jan 15 21 20 18.0 +2.0

Feb 15 3 9 9.0 0.0

Mar 11 12 9 11.5 -2.5

Apr 8 6 11 7.0 +4.0

May 13 8 9 10.5 -1.5

Jun 21 10 15 15.5 -0.5

Jul 2 5 18 3.5 +14.5

Aug 7 2 10 4.5 +5.5

Sep 4 2 3.0

Oct 3 4 3.5

Nov 5 5 5.0

Dec 1 4 2.5

Total 105 82 101 93.5 +7.5

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec0

5

10

15

20

25

2016 2017 2018

No. N

ew M

embe

rs

Figure 1 Numbers of new members joining per month: 2016-2018

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

Average 2016-2017 2018

No. N

ew M

embe

rs

Figure 2 Numbers of new members joining per month: 2018 compared to the average for 2016-2017

Membership Composition

A breakdown of the membership is provided in Table 2. Over half the membership comprises members in employment (53.2%), with students (full and part time) making up 37.0%. These data are harder to compile, since the amount people have paid does not necessarily correlate with their given status. Compared to the data from April 2018, the strongest rise in membership numbers occurs among student members (up 34 overall), which is positive news after the downward trend in student numbers seen previously.

Table 2 Active Paid-Up Members– membership categories

Category N % Difference Compared to April 2018

Retired 13 2.6% 0

Student174

34.8% +33

Part-time Student 11 2.2% +1

Unwaged 35 7.0% +2

Waged266

53.2% +21

Institutional Membership 1 0.2% 0

Total500

+57

Overseas Members

We currently have 121 overseas members (Table 3), who make up 24.2% of our active membership. The proportion of overseas members is identical to that at the last Board of Trustees’ meeting. The majority of our overseas members continue to come from Europe and North America, but the proportion of European members has increased.

Table 3 Active Members by region

Region No. of Members % Difference Compared to April 2018

Europe 70 57.9% +11

North America 36

29.8% +2

Antipodes 9 7.4% 0

Other 6 5.0% +1

Total 121 +14

Other – includes Chile, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Africa

Europe – Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands

Members from Qualifying Countries

We have seven members residing in qualifying countries. None of these are paying the qualifying country rate: four are voluntarily paying the full rate, while the other three are paying the normal concessionary rate (unwaged or students).

Updated new membership form/ updated records

The new membership form is ready to go on the website, but the data protection documents need to be updated to reflect the changes. Discussion with CMK (Data Protection Officer) indicated that it would not be appropriate to collect data on ethnicity and gender as part of the membership form given the GDPR, so alternative ways will need to be found to monitor diversity.

The membership database has been updated ready to receive the new data. DE suggested that the new forms could be included in the conference registration packs, with a request that existing members complete and return them.

BABAO Conference 2018

Carrie Baxter has been in regular contact concerning conference registrations, and all delegates registering for the conference at the membership rate have been checked. Two non-members registered at the membership rate. These were followed up and have now joined BABAO.

The list of students entering for the student prize will also need to be checked – will need to remind the conference organisers to send it.

Trends Volume 2

A list of members and addresses as of 02/07/18 was sent to Oxbow, and the volumes were sent out. Nine volumes have so far been returned as undeliverable. The members concerned have been contacted to check their addresses, and six have responded with their new address. These six have been informed that they will need to pay the cost of second postage if they wish to receive their volume; so far none have replied. If they chose not to pay, then we need to decide what happens to their volumes.

6. The Communications Officer Report (David Errickson)

1.0 Previous Actions

1.1 Set up online voting for new posts. (done)

1.2 Combine Digital and Social Media Code of Ethics (ongoing)

1.3 Generic Emails (all done except section 3.2.1).

1.4 Generic email of anonymous questions. (done)

1.5 Database of volunteers (see below)

1.6 Supply images for Outreach (done)

1.7 Commercial section of website to update (ongoing)

2.0 Digital Guidance

2.1 Ethics

There has been a bit of a change here. The guides have been combined, but Rebecca Redfern is now editing these sections into the existing BABAO guidance documents. This should be completed by the AGM in September 2018.

3.0 Communications

3.1 Website

3.1.1 Database

The administarion pages of the website have now been changed. This will allow the committee members to share and store files, if necessary. However, there has been some concern over GDPR regulations with ensuring the website is secure. I am currently in contact with Web Integrations, exploring options on this. However, there may be a small cost to upgrade the website so that anybody logging into the website is done in a secure way. Currently, we are at risk from someone hacking into another members account remotely. This is not a concern at the moment. However, if we were to use the members’ area as the database, we store some sensitive information here.

3.1.2 Website

I have been a little slow on the front side of the website. However, I have been given a number of changes by Lauren, Claire and Emily. These will be updated next week.

3.2 Emails

3.2.1 General Emails

Again, a number of emails have come through. One to deal with from BAR:

Jacqueline Senior, commissioning editor BAR: We have just booked at stand at the BABAO conference at Cranfield and I wondered if the organisation had a policy of publishing proceedings?

3.2.1 Trustee Emails

There has been a bit of an issue setting up these emails because emails are forwarded to our current accounts. They are also copied into a central email system. The problem is that we cannot actually access this system. This is being worked out by Web Integrations.

3.3 New trustees posts for 2018

Online voting for the new trustees was sent out to the BABAO membership this morning.

7. Outreach Officer’s Report (Claire Hodson)

1. Matters Arising from last meeting and Action Points(i) Standardised email response:

a) Email response has been sent to Emily and Anwen and should now be being used when non-members attempt to access our groups, pages and mailing lists.

(ii) Contacting Volunteers:a) All volunteers who had already signed up to the volunteer database prior to the new data

protection regulations have been contacted to ensure that they are ok with their details being held on a volunteer database. No one from that listed contacted me to opt out and as such the database for volunteers remains the same.

(iii) Social Media:a) Facebook Outreach/Publicity Page

a. Need a cover photo from Dave, then can be publishedb. Am I handing this over to communications/making admin also once roles have

changed over.b) Instagram Account

a. Instagram has been set up. Account is: babao_outreachb. Need stories, images, facts etc. to publish.c. Again currently linked to my account but do I hand this over to new communications

officer once established. c) Twitter

a. Link from Instagram, Facebook and Twitter established. All platforms can now post.

(iv) Skeletal Casts for Outreach Activities:

a) Cast list and costingsa. Lizzy has suggested a budget of £3,000-4,000 – does this sound feasible to

everyone?b. Based on this budget, I have put together a list of material most needed and which

will be used most frequently/what I take every time for outreach events.c. Have also created a master list (total wish list) of everything we could get that would

be useful. Thought this could be kept on file so that we could buy a couple of pieces each year to add to the collection.

b) Outreach ‘goodies’, volunteer T-shirts and branded table cloths. a. ‘Jelly Skellies’ were a big hit at London Anthropology Day and cost £15 for 100

skeletons. It definitely made more people interact with us and were worth spending the money.

b. I would like to have branded T-shirts for volunteers when doing outreach. People will then know who we are, and the logo is clear. This way we will not be confused with members of the public. I was thinking of a design with the BABAO logo and ‘BABAO’ on front with full title on the reverse. Depending on how many we order, these cost around £12-15 each.

(v) Outreach Events

a) York Festival of Ideasa. Very positive weekend of outreach associated with York University, and a lot of

positive feedback.b. Over 1700 attendees over the two days and managed to get 6/7 volunteers each day

to help.c. In contact with the organised, Katherine Leech, and looks like this can become an

annual event for BABAO to attend.

b) London Anthropology Daya. Took place on 9th July at the British Museum, with myself, DE and CVB in attendance

for BABAOb. Over 500 attendeesc. Ran a workshop as an introduction to biological anthropology.d. Received good feedback and lots of Twitter activity. Lots of people asking for web

addresses etc. so good that we are increasing our social media presence.

c) Deer Shed Festivala. Three-day festival held near Thirsk which is billed as a family-friendly science

festival. Science tent runs each day with a series of activities for kids to get involved with.

b. Lecturer from Teesside University is the coordinator for the Science Tent and so looks like we will be able to have a larger input at event in the future.

c. This year we helped with an underwater forensic scene and team are happy for us to me more involved with next year’s workshops. Have already begun brainstorming though will have to wait for theme to be released before activities can be confirmed.

d. Costs of tickets and one meal a day are covered by the festival. Asked BABAO to pay for car parking costs and maybe next year also for one meal a day?

d) British Science Festivala. Signed off on promotional material and web listings etc.b. Risk assessment completed

c. Within the next couple of weeks, contact speakers to discuss panel session.

e) Manchester Science Festivala. Signed off on promotional material, catalogue listing and website listingb. Will be going live in the next couple of weeksc. Session is on Sunday 28th October 10.30am-4pm: Human Evolutiond. Throughout September, I will be encouraging volunteers to help at event. Given that

last year we had almost 2000 visitors in a day, we need more volunteers in attendance. I would ideally like around 15/16 volunteers to help with the running of the day.

e. Need to liaise with Heather and/or Lizzy regarding the borrowing of palaeoanthropology casts for this outreach event.

f) STEM Events a. Have made contact with Lizzie Wheeldon, who is the STEM coordinator for

promoting partnerships between businesses and schools in the North East and Yorkshire.

b. It looks as though we will be attending Scarborough Science Festival. She has also asked me to attend various school science events for mock interviews, talks about science and also females in science.

c. This is a very good partnership which I would like to nurture and encourage. d. Going forward I would like to look for similar partnerships in other areas of the

country. Actions:

- ECA feels that BABAO can afford to fund plastic casts to the value of £3-4,000 this year. This will be discussed with members at the AGM (see above).

- The purchase of branded T-shirts displaying the BABAO logo (to be worn at outreach events) was approved by the trustees, as was the purchase of low-cost ‘goodies’ (e.g. jelly-skellies). CH will send the trustees a mock-up of the proposed T-shirt design for approval. She estimates the cost at £12-15 per shirt.

- BABAO will pay for meals of BABAO volunteers at the Deer Shed festival in future years.

- At least 15 volunteers are needed for the Manchester Science Festival. CH will advertise this opportunity to the BABAO membership.

- STEM programme: LM pointed out that many large commercial archaeology units have in-house outreach officers. CH will liaise with them regarding future outreach opportunities across the country, in particular, the STEM programme to encourage more school-leavers to consider a career in archaeology or anthropology.

- As the outreach programme is becoming ever larger, CH will need more assistance from BABAO volunteers. LM proposed the development of network of outreach ‘deputies’ in different parts of the country, which may alleviate the workload on CH.

- The trustees approved CH’s proposal to get feedback for events on the day from visitors via social media.

- CH’s proposal of an ‘Ask an archaeologist/ anthropologist’ approach on social media (e.g. Instagram) in order to facilitate links with younger people and promote archaeology and anthropology as career choices was approved by the trustees. She will implement this in the future with the assistance of volunteers prepared to answer questions from the general public. CH also highlighted the need for a greater presence on Twitter.

- The Facebook Outreach page is ready to be launched when DE or his successor are able to do so. CH and the communications offer will edit and update this forum.

- Similarly, CH will liaise with the communications officer regarding the Instagram account, which is now ready.

8. Student Representative Report (Emily Carroll)

1. Student Feedback:

I have not received any requests or queries from the student cohort to report.

2. BABAO Conference 2018:

Thanks to Carrie Baxter, we have a venue booked for the 2018 BABAO pre-conference get- together. The event will be held at the CMDC bar located at the Cranfield conference from 7pm. All members are welcome. We have included a short advertisement on the conference website for further information, and we have added a tick box to the registration form, so we will have an idea of how many people will attend.

3. Recruiting new members:

I have contact the BABAO trustees and sent an email to the BABAO emailing list asking academic staff to circulate the attached BABAO information around their home institutions/departments to encourage further student membership. I have also continued sending the information to U.K. universities that run both undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the appropriate fields to try and recruit more student members.

4. Student Placements:

I have sent the list of commercial units that are open to take on placements, alongside their contact information to DE, so it can be added to the Student Hub on the BABAO website. I have also continued to contact commercial organisations and will continue to update the list when appropriate. After Lauren’s query about Oxford Archaeology’s involvement, I have amended the list.

Actions:

- ACC requested EC to send a reminder to academic staff to encourage their students to join BABAO in the next academic year.

9. Commercial Representative report (Lauren McIntyre)

I have nothing to raise on behalf of members the meeting agenda.

Commercial Hub

I have been working on the updates discussed at the last meeting, and subsequent edits discussed via the Trustees mailing list. Permissions granted from almost everyone asked (regarding weblinks to report/resource repositories). A separate document of text has been set to the trustees to be included on website. This has all been passed to DE to include on the Commercial Hub.

CIfA Osteo SIG

I have been in touch with Sharon Clough for an update on how the Osteo SIG is progressing.

Sharon acknowledges she was supposed to contact CAR after the last BABAO trustees’ meeting, but she hasn’t done so yet. She sends her apologies.

OsteoSIG had their AGM so are now ‘official’ (minutes available from CIFA). People may join free if they are a CIfA member, or pay £10 per year if a non-member.

After some debate, the decision was made to name the group the Human Osteoarchaeology Special Interest Group, so as to emphasise the archaeological side of our work, as most commercial osteologists engage with the entire process of excavation and analysis of human remains.

The group plans to run workshops to help people with CPD, starting with one on radiography, as suggested by Louise Loe. The group would like to advertise this via the BABAO mailing list. It is likely to happen next year.

With regards the updating of the IFA Technical Papers, it was decided that complete re-writing wasn’t necessary because much of the information within them is still valid. Instead, the group will explore whether CIfA will allow the addition of bullet points with updated information (or citations where to find detailed information of updated guidance) and to make the updated document (especially Technical Paper 13) into a “dynamic document”. When changes have been made, it is planned that these will be available via the CIfA website.

When the group know whether CIFA like the proposed ideas, the group will contact CAR and Margaret Cox (Crypt guidance document) for their input.

Another idea proposed by the group includes short online videos detailing excavation methods, which may be accessed instantly on site (via smart phones). These videos would be hosted on the CIfA website (LM comment: Need to clarify if these will only be available to CIfA membersor to Osteo SIG members).

Lastly, the group propose to run a session at the 2020/21 CIfA conference (2019 is too soon to be able to get organised).

ArchaeoDuck Interview

LM was asked to do an interview with the YouTube channel ArchaeoDuck for their series “Meet the Archaeologist”. This is run by Dr. Chloe Duckworth (University of Newcastle). The aim of the interview was primarily to discuss careers in osteoarchaeology and to give advice to people interested in developing a career in this field. LM used the video as an opportunity to promote BABAO. The interview is now live, and DE has permission from Chloe to include a link to it on the BABAO website.

Changes to the terms of Minister of Justice burial licences

I have spoken to Richard Finlay of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). He wished me to pass on the information to the BABAO membership that the MoJ has recently been working in partnership with APABE, and that both parties have agreed a change to the MoJ burial licences in England and Wales. From 1st of September 2018, MoJ licences will be valid for five years rather than two, as was

previously the case. This applies to any burial licence applications that are received by the MoJ on or after this date. Any licences or deferrals issued prior to this date are still valid until the date given on the licence or letter (i.e. two years). It will still be possible to apply for an extension to the original licence, if required.

Actions:

- LM will continue to liaise with Sharon Clough and the CIFA specialist group with regards updating of existing IFA guidance documents. CAR is keen that these new editions stress links between other guidance documents (e.g. APABE).

- CAR suggested that a key document that requires updating is the Law and Burial Archaeology document. LM will discuss this with Sharon.

- CAR suggested that LM promote links between commercial osteology and academia by making students more aware of the grey literature available online on commercial unit websites and on ADS.

- LM will also explore the feasibility of promoting links with academia to facilitate commercial osteologists’ access to published literature, particularly online journals.

- CAR also suggested that hosting min-interviews of commercial osteologists, as well as forensic anthropologists and museum curators of human remains, may prove a useful tool for encouraging school-goers and other interested parties to take up a carreer in osteology/ biological anthropology.

10. Museum Representative (Heather Bonney)

My apologies that I cannot going to attend the meeting. I have a few museum updates, but the full report is to follow as I haven’t yet heard from the Museum of London (MoL) osteologists: Becky Redfern has just returned from overseas and I’m just waiting to hear from Jelena Bekvolac.

- Work has begun on refreshing and expanding the Ethics and Practice documents, where necessary.

- Daniel Antoine of the British Museum is pleased to announce the opening of the Barbara Mertz Bioarchaeology Laboratory.

- In terms of the Natural History Museum (NHM), it is currently open to research visitors with the collections in their temporary space. However, access will close again in mid-late September, when the collection is moved back into the refurbished store. It’s likely that the NHM will open fully again in January 2019.

- With regard to BAFA, GMK has summed up the position very well (see below). The BAFA committee was quite small, so this has been expanded to nine members, and specific roles have been defined and ratified. There aren’t any specific updates, but we’re working very hard behind the scenes, so hopefully more developments soon.

- Next year’s BABAO conference at the NHM: I’d really like to pin down a date but need to make sure that the conference does not clash with the ESHE conference, so I’m trying to find out whether they have a date yet.

Actions:

- The Ethic and Practice document will be prepared by Becky Redfern, and reviewed by the trustees before being presented to the membership.

- Re. BABAO conference 2019: It was agreed that a date should be announced at the AGM. DE & CH confirmed that the date of the EAA conference was 4-8/9/2019, and that this weekend should be avoided. The ESHE conference is 10-12 January 2019, and hence, will not clash with BABAO 2019. CAR will contact HB to confirm a date.

11. Representative from a Professional Organisation’s report (Gaille MacKinnon)

There are a number of updates that can be provided to the Board of Trustees of BABAO and these are from the following organisations/government body: British Association for Forensic Anthropology, the Royal Anthropological Institute for Great Britain and Ireland, and the Forensic Science Regulator.

11.1 British Association for Forensic Anthropology (BAFA)

The BAFA Committee comprises the following individuals:

- Chair: Dr Julie Roberts (Cellmark Forensic Services) - Secretary: Dr Catriona Davies (Dundee University) - Treasurer: Dr Helen Langstaff (Dundee University) - Membership Secretary: Amy Rattenbury (Wrexham Glyndwr University) - Communications and Outreach Officer: Linda Ainscough (Cellmark Forensic Services) - International Liaison Officer: Dr Jan Bikker (most recently, ICRC) - Commercial Officer: Dr Nicholas Marquez-Grant (Cranfield University) - Academic / R&D Officer: Dr Heather Bonney (Natural History Museum) - Student Representative: Claire Fitton (Dundee University)

The key and current objectives for the BAFA Committee are as follows:

1. To increase the membership of BAFA

2. To improve communications and clarify the relationship between BAFA and the .RAI

3. To strengthen the links between academic institutions and commercial forensic service providers

4. To review the forensic anthropology certification process via the RAI Forensic Anthropology Committee working group

5. To produce a mentorship proforma

6. To provide at least one BAFA CPD event every year

I believe that the Committee are working hard to address these objectives and know that they are expanding the membership, discussing the separation of BAFA from the British

Association for Human Identification (BAHID), and actively exploring and forging links to other institutions and organisations.

The membership was last updated with the work of the Committee in April by Chair Julie Roberts, however, as Heather is a member of the BAFA Committee, if there are any additional updates, she may be able to provide the Trustees with this information.

1) Forensic Science Regulator (FSR)

The Forensic Anthropology Code of Practice was published on 23 May 2018 in association with the Forensic Science Regulator (FSR). This document has been developed by the RAI and the Office of the FSR and details the standards of practice which are expected for forensic anthropologists undertaking casework in the criminal justice systems of the United Kingdom.

The link to the Code of Practice document can be found at the FSR’s website: www.gov.uk/government/publications/forensic-anthropology-code-of-practice.

The FSR’s guidance on legal obligations for expert witnesses, legal issues in forensic pathology and tissue retention, and archived guidance was updated on 6 August 2018 and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fsr-legal-guidance

The FSR has also produced technical guidance on various forensic disciplines and these can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/forensic-science-regulator-technicalguidance

2) Forensic Anthropology (FA) Committee, Royal Anthropological Institute for Great Britain and Ireland (RAI)

Prof. Sue Black announced at the RAI FA Committee in May 2018 that she would be stepping down as Chair and resigned from the Committee with immediate effect. Nominations had apparently been received at the preceding Committee meeting, and Dr Lucina Hackman was subsequently voted on to the Committee as Chair.

The Forensic Anthropology Committee of the RAI now comprises the following individuals:

- Chair: Dr Lucina Hackman (University of Dundee) - Chair of the Examination Board: Professor John Gowlett (University of Liverpool) - Moderator of the Examination Board: Professor Niamh Nic Daeid (University of Dundee) - Chair of BAFA: Dr Julie Roberts (Cellmark Forensic Services) - Director of the RAI: Dr David Shankland - Secretary for the Forensic Anthropology Committee: Ms Gemma Aellah - Ms Linda Ainscough (Cellmark Forensic Services) - Dr Catriona Davies (University of Dundee) - Dr Stephen Maclean (University of Edinburgh) - Professor Louise Scheuer

There is also a sub-Committee of the RAI Forensic Anthropology (FA) Committee which currently comprises Prof. Sue Black, Prof. Niamh Nic Daeid, Dr Julie Roberts and Prof. John Gowlett. This Committee has been formed for the purpose of reviewing the paperwork and procedures associated with the RAI FA certification and recertification processes.

In response to feedback from RAI and BAFA members, it was agreed that all aspects of the certification process for all levels, would benefit from review including:

• All communications surrounding certification • The application processes • The examinations • The appeals process • Re-certification • Systems for mentorship and peer review

The draft versions of the relevant documents were circulated to all accredited forensic anthropologists (FAI, II & III) for feedback on 18th May 2018 and it was announced on 19 June 2018 that they had been subsequently ratified by the RAI Council. There have therefore been changes to the accreditation documents (particularly in regard to FAII), and these can be found at: https://therai.org.uk/forensic-anthropology.

The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) disseminated the 2017 Annual Report from the current President Professor André Singer to the Institute’s members this week. The election of officers and ordinary members of Council will be undertaken at the RAI’s Annual General Meeting which will take place on Thursday 4 October at 3.30pm in the BP Lecture Theatre, Clore Education Centre, British Museum, London. It will be followed by the 2018 Henry Myers Lecture will be given by Professor Simon Coleman and a drinks reception.

12 Any Other Business

1. Role of the Museum Representative

CAR suggested that the role of the museum representative should include the whole country, and should include liaison with the wider museum curatorial community. Currently, HB’s attention has focussed exclusively on museums in London, namely the Natural History Museum and Museum of London osteological collections.

CVB raised the issue of the closure of almost half of county or regional government archives to new artefacts, including human remains. This issue was raised by commercial member Sharon Clough in a general email to the BABAO membership two months ago. For commercial archaeologists, this situation is extremely serious, as there is increasing difficulty for commercial units to deposit new artefacts discovered during excavation. Human remains boxes are bulky and thus take up a great deal of valuable storage space in museums. CAR also raised the problem related to curators’ ignorance or lack of resources regarding the maintenance of optimum storage environments for human remains. There are separate issues regarding inadequate cataloguing of skeletal collections in many smaller museums and regional repositories, and the declining number of curators employed in museums to care for collections, as a result of local government cuts. These factors all impact on the availability and curation of existing and future skeletal collections. It was generally expressed by the trustees that the BABAO museum representative should be more actively engaged in working with curators to address these wider issues. CAR also suggested that active recruitment of more museum curators to BABAO was highly desirable.

2. Guidance documents

Several guidance documents are available on the BABAO website. These include the digital representation of skeletons, ethics and practice pertaining to osteology and destructive sampling of human tissue. Becky Redfern has been approached to update these disparate themes, and will combine them into a single guidance document, which will be available on the BABAO website in due course.

13 Date and place of next meeting: AGM at the BABAO annual conference will be held on Saturday the 15 September 2018.