Rich Rewards: Cultural Diversity and Heritage Practice

Part 3 Establishing a Heritage Committee

10.1 Aims of the Heritage Committee

Where there is broad interest in developing culturally diverse heritage practices it may be beneficial to establish a committee. The functions of the committee could include

• Acting as a point of liaison for the cultural network and ethnic communities. This would ensure that consultation with ethnic communities could become a part of all relevant heritage decisions
• Working to ensure that cultural diversity features in existing programs
• Generating new programs and initiatives for culturally diverse heritage
• Ensuring that the heritage of ethnic communities is protected for future generations to enjoy.

Establishing a committee could be the central output of the workshop. Ethnic communities may like to adopt the workshop to develop community wide awareness of and interest in heritage with the aim of developing ongoing initiatives.

10.2 At the Workshop

Having identified further initiatives in the final session, the facilitator could begin a discussion on how these initiatives may be achieved, and invite people to develop a committee. If there is agreement that this is the best way to proceed, you should set a date for a meeting - where the committee can be formed. It is important to allow communities and organisations the opportunity to discuss representatives for the workshop. You can also use this time to follow up any new initiatives or organisations identified on the day. The date of the meeting should allow for plenty of notice.

The facilitator may not be available to participate in the committee. If this is the case the meeting will need to nominate a person to organise the meeting.

10.3 Planning the meeting

To plan the meeting you should adopt a similar approach to the used to prepare for the workshop. To plan for the meeting

• Update your invitation list with any new contacts made through the workshop
• Send out invitations to all of the people and organisations on your list, not only those attending the workshop
• Make contact with those on your list to discuss any concerns and promote the aims of the committee
• Set up your venue for discussion
• Plan refreshments

10.4 The Meeting

Set aside between 1-2 hours for the meeting

The agenda for the meeting should include

• Welcome people and thank them for coming
• Describe the initial workshop, its aims and outcomes
• Explain the committee and how it might would work
• Discuss options for establishing the committee
• Establish the committee
• Set dates and times for the next meetings
• Discuss the agenda for the next meeting

10.5 The Make-Up of the Committee

The committee should be as representative as possible. It should include members of ethnic communities, the cultural network and any other organisation or individual that has a valuable contribution to make to diverse heritage practice in your area

Each community will have a range of ideas as to the nature and representation of the community, its size, the formality of its positions and how these positions should be filled. It is important to allow time for these issues to be resolved through discussion

They may agree that the committee have formal positions with a quota of representatives or be more comfortable with a loose structure. As a minimum, however, it is recommended that the meeting agree on a chairperson and secretary.