News from the Steering Group

In recent the weeks members of the Forum steering group have been actively involved in promoting the Forum; firstly by having a display at Beamish Museum's Heritage Cubes weekend event; secondly, by sponsoring a lecture at County Hall.

Dr Fred E. Woods, a visiting professor from Brigham Young University gave a fascinating talk on Latter Day Saints (Mormon) migrations to America. The lecture was based on his research into the Latter Day Saints in County Durham during the 19th century. A question and answer session ended a very interesting talk. Thanks go to Liz Bregazzi and the County Record Office staff for making the arrangements.

We are also very pleased to announce that John Grundy, architectural historian and broadcaster, has accepted our invitation to become president of the Forum. We hope to include news from him in future newsletters.

Over recent months members of the Steering Group have been putting the final touches to the Forum's constitution under the guidance of Julie Taylor, Principal Officer, Durham City & District CVS. The constitution will be presented at the business meeting in October.

In order for the Forum to continue to develop we need to move forward with the business side of things. Over recent months we have received donations from a number of societies which will provide us with the means to, for example, take out membership of the British Association for Local History. This membership will provide the Forum with public liability insurance.

As mentioned earlier a constitution has been written and this will need to be ratified. To do this we need to formalise under an elected committee and we would appreciate your support with this. Nomination forms and relevant information will be circulated in early September.

Membership forms for the year 2009/2010 are now available. It has been necessary to introduce a small subscription fee to cover, for example, admin and future events costs: £15.00 for groups; £5.00 for individuals; under 18's free.

Benefits of membership:

• Opportunity to promote events and activities around the county
• Regular e-newsletter
• Training opportunities
• Annual Conference
• Networking & skills sharing
• Listing on Forum website

Don't forget the two oral history training sessions planned. Details can be found in the Events section. We already have some bookings for these events so please let us know if you would like a place to avoid disappointment.

Spreading the Word

On Tuesday 8 September, the Gala Cinema will be screening a special compilation from the British Film Institute titled King Coal: A Century of Coal Mining on Film. The screening is part of a nation-wide project to be launched by the BFI in September 2009 exploring on screen the turbulent story of coal and the immense effect it has had on British life.

The King Coal programme combines some remarkable material drawn from the BFI National Archive's documentary and fiction collections – including rare films clips from the Mitchell and Kenyon collection, the GPO and National Coal Board Film Units, the BBC and campaigning videotapes made on behalf of striking miners – to create a riveting look at a century of coal. Introduced by a speaker from the BFI National Archive, the screening should be a very special event. I attach a document with full programme details: I'm pleased to say that Durham will feature in a 1962 film of the Miners' Gala.

By: Tamara Anderson, Gala Theatre