Scottish Records Association
Scottish Records Association
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SRA conference 2017 and AGM
Putting on the Writs
Scottish Court and Legal Records
This year's conference will be on the theme of the records of Scotland's courts and legal system.
Date: Friday, 10 November 2017
Venue: National Records of Scotland, New Register House, Edinburgh
9.15am to 4.45pm
Session 1: Civil and Ecclesiastical Courts
• Dr. Tom Green
Catholic, Commissary, and Reformed Church Courts and Their Records, 1500-1580
• Loren Moulds and Dr Jim Ambuske
Recovering Hidden Histories of Early America and the British Atlantic World with the Scottish Court of Session Records Digital Archive
• Dr. Alan Borthwick
Court of Session Case Study: Donoghue v Stevenson or the Snail in the Bottle
Session 2: Sheriff and Franchise courts
• Charles Fletcher
Barony and Regality Courts: a case study
• Fergus Smith
Sheriff Court Records
• Alison Diamond and Professor Allan MacInnes
Heritable Jurisdictions in Argyll, 1707-1730
Session 3: Burgh Records
• Dr Jackson Armstrong and Dr William Hepburn
Law in the Aberdeen Council Registers (LACR)
• Dr Edda Frankot and Dr Claire Hawes
The Records of the Medieval Burgh Courts of Aberdeen
Plenary session:
• Professor Hector MacQueen
Ae Fond Kiss: A Private Matter?
Annual General Meeting
The Annual General Meeting of the Scottish Records Association will take place in the lunch interval of the conference at 1pm. It is expected to last approximately 15 minutes.
Conference and AGM 2015
Image courtesy of the National Records of Scotland, BR/HR/4/27: Photograph of Inverness Station platforms (north side) on arrival of London train, c 1906
In her report to the meeting, the Chairman, Mrs Elizabeth Roads, remarked upon the successful shift from paper to electronic distribution of Retour during 2014-2015, and on the enjoyable nature of last summer's visits to the Advocates Library and the Signet Library in Edinburgh, and the Scottish Theatre Archive and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Archives in Glasgow. She observed, however, that the consistently low turnout of members for the AGM may be a cause for concern.
The Chairman then recorded her thanks to all the office bearers and members of Council for their work on behalf of the Association. Miss Sophie Volker resigned as Honorary Treasurer, and Ms Josephine Dixon was elected as her successor. Dr Maria Castrillo, Lady Coulsfield, Dr Alastair Durie and Dr Jan Merchant demitted office as Ordinary Members of Council, while Mr Robin Urquhart, Mr Keith Adam and Miss Sophie Volker were elected as Ordinary Members. Mrs Ingrid Thomson and Lady Hopetoun had been co-opted as Ordinary Members during the course of the year, and their co-option was ratified by the meeting. Finally, the Chairman intimated that, despite having given notice of her intention to step down, she would remain in office for a further year. This decision had been taken with the approval of Council, as the only candidate who had expressed an interest in succeeding her in the Chair had been unable to stand for election this year. She hoped that they may be in a position to do so next year.
Conference and AGM, 6 November 2014
This year's Annual Conference addressed the theme of researching Scotland's common lands and common good. In the elegant setting of Linlithgow Burgh Halls, 70 delegates enjoyed a fascinating programme of speakers, augmented by a lunchtime showing of film footage from the Scottish Screen Archive and a slide show of records from the National Records of Scotland. We are grateful to all the speakers, to those who chaired the various sessions, and to the staff of Linlithgow Burgh Halls for helping to make the day such a success. Particular thanks are due to the Association's conference committee - Kirsteen Mulhern and Robin Urquhart - for their smooth and efficient organisation. A blog about the conference, written by two of our Council members, Fiona Musk and Anne Cameron, is now available to read on the History Scotland website.
The Thirty-Seventh Annual General Meeting of the Association took place during the lunch interval of the conference. At the meeting, the Chairman intimated that the SRA's biannual newsletter, Retour, will be distributed by email as of Spring 2015. This will be faster and more economical than posting out paper copies to all members; however, any members without an email address will still receive the newsletter in hard copy, as will anyone who specifically requests a paper version. The Chairman also referred to the recent difficulty that had arisen with the distribution of issue 22 of Retour. The filled and sealed Retour envelopes had been taken to the Post Office to be weighed for dispatch, but the Post Office counter staff had applied the wrong postage rate. Members had consequently been obliged to pay a surcharge in order to receive their envelope. It had been suggested that the underpayment of postage was due to the inclusion of a plastic advertising insert, which had made the envelopes heavier than usual. However, the Chairman pointed out that all the envelopes had been weighed with the insert inside, and so the underpayment was entirely due to human error on the part of the Post Office staff. She apologised to members for the inconvenience, expense and annoyance this had caused, and assured them that the Association is currently pursuing the matter with the Post Office.
Two members of Council, Mr Keith Adam and Dr Kirsteen Croll, were due to complete their terms of office in November 2014, and accordingly stepped down at the meeting. Dr Annie Tindley of the University of Dundee was elected as a new Ordinary Member of Council to fill one of the two vacancies. Any members who are interested in filling the second vacancy are encouraged to contact us.
Conference and AGM 2013
Image displayed with kind permission of the artist, © Kyra Clegg
The Thirty-Sixth Annual General Meeting of the SRA was held during the conference lunch interval. Members voted to amend the Constitution to introduce a new office of Honorary Web Editor, and ratified the co-option of Dr Stefanie Metze to this office. Dr Alison Rosie stepped down from Council on completion of her three-year term as an Ordinary Member, and three new Ordinary Members were elected: Dr Kirsteen Mulhern, Mrs Olive Geddes and Mr Douglas Roberts.