1.2 Developing the Project Application
The historical roots of the Trust's application to the Heritage Lottery Fund can be traced back to 1998, when the archivist was sent on an early HLF-funding seminar run by the Society of Archivists, and an internal discussion was begun within the Trust about how best to approach the development of a project - what was most needed, and how would the demands of a project be met and gains sustained?
The fundamental outline for what became the project itself appears in a general discussion paper prepared by the archivist in 2003 for Trustees, under the title "What is needed?". The answer:
A. A national survey
a) Of such units and places and the organizations which run/ran them
b) Of surviving archives
B. An oral history survey
C. A web-portal, and supported web-sites
D. Linkage and co-operation with other organizations, of relevance
E. Cataloguing, conservation, packaging, storage and management of discovered archives
F. Promoting records management and active archiving among working units and organizations
G. Outreach
H. Cataloguing, conservation, packaging, storage and management of existing archives, including digitization for preservation and public dissemination
Concrete work on a grant proposal began in 2004-2005. The Heritage Lottery Fund application form and guidance were scanned, OCRed, converted into html, and transferred to a secure area on the Trust website, making it possible for Trustees to take an active role in planning and development. A working group was convened and progress accelerated in 2006, when the working group - consisting of former Hengrove School student Terry Jackson, former Finchden Manor boy Jon Broad, former Red Hill School child Ralph Gee, Executive Director of the Trust John Cross, and archivist Dr. Craig Fees - hammered out a name for the project, and agreed a document which laid out the premises on which the application and the proposal were subsequently based. Originally described as a 'Working Brief' and titled "An integrated approach to a neglected aspect of the nation's industrial, cultural and social heritage", this document formed the basis of widespread consultation throughout 2007 and into 2008. Retitled "Overview", and with revision in the light of feedback, this document formed part of the First Round application to the Heritage Lottery Fund in December 2008, and can be found in an appendix to this Report (see 9.3 below).
On this foundation, in October 2007 the Trust submitted a pre-application advice form to the Heritage Lottery Fund, the response to which indicated that the proposed project could be "broadly supportable", but that it needed additional detail, and a significant re-consideration of the size of the proposed grant. What had been proposed was a three year project (scaled down from the originally projected 5 year project), which asked £355,000 of the Heritage Lottery Fund. While technically possible according to the grant-making remit of the HLF, this asked substantially more than would normally be awarded in practice, especially to an essentially untried applicant: various sources explained that the more usual route to a Heritage Grant of any size was to first establish a track record through the successful delivery of a series of smaller HLF or other grants, demonstrating that the organisation was capable of delivering to agreed targets and outcomes, within budget and on schedule. Trustees were aware of this, and had begun actively looking at the organisation of the Trust as early as 2005 (see 5.1 below).
Through discussions with Heritage Lottery Fund Development Officer Kelly Spry-Phare in 2007 and 2008, and with considerable help from Project Advisory Panel member Dr. Tony Rees, an initial application was prepared for the April 2008 application round. Last minute computer-based technical and communication problems prevented submission, and bowing to reality the application was held back. It had been scaled down from three years to 21 months, comprised of a three month preparation stage followed by an 18 month stage of intense project activity; and the original request for £355,000 had been scaled down to £197,700. Recognising the immense workload created for the archivist and the small Trust team in completing the application process, the Trust commissioned consultant Patrick Webb OBE at the end of 2008 to help shepherd the application into the final stages of submission.
Submitted under new two-stage HLF application procedures in December 2008, in March 2009 the project was awarded a first round pass and a small development grant. Between this first round award and the submission of the second round application in August 2009 the Trust did an immense amount of developmental work, both on itself as an organisation and on the proposal, recruiting new partners, building the strength and diversity of the Project Management Group, and of the Advisory Panel. There were helpful meetings and discussions with HLF Grant Officer Philippa Davies, and a further extensive round of online and face-to-face consultations with potential participants, audiences, and beneficiaries.
The final application package, consisting of 57 separate documents as well as the application form itself, was submitted to HLF at the end of August 2009. In December 2009, a full year after the first round application in December 2008 and two years after the first approach to HLF in 2007, the Trust was awarded a second round pass. The project officially started life during the deep snows of January 2010, when the project director walked an hour through the snow to the office to make the start-up meeting phone call. The award from the Heritage Lottery Fund at the beginning of 2010 also marked the start of the 21st anniversary of the Archive and Study Centre.