New Trustees for the Cambrian Archaeological Association

A message from Heather James, our General Secretary, who can be contacted at h.james443@gmail.com

Calling all Cambrians! The CAA is in need of two new Trustees who can help CAA to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Our Trustees are fundamental to the functioning of CAA. As members know, they organise its business and activities and are elected annually at the AGM. The membership also approves the election of ‘executive officers’ – namely a chairman, a secretary, a treasurer and an editor who are also Trustees. The names of Trustees are published annually in our journal Archaeologia Cambrensis and can be found on this website (https://cambrians.org.uk/board-of-trustees/). Our Constitution can also be viewed here (https://cambrians.org.uk/about-us/). The Board of Trustees (14 is their maximum permitted number) meet three times a year – in Shrewsbury in November and February, and in Aberystwyth in June – and are entitled to travel expenses.

We now have 2 vacancies in the Board of Trustees, and invite members to put themselves forward or suggest others for Trusteeship. Nominations will be considered at our AGM this autumn. New Trustees will be joining a group who seek both to continue the existing Programme of our activities by means of our long and successful tradition of field Meetings, the publication of Archaeologia Cambrensis and disbursement of Research Grants, and also to develop new initiatives. To this end our website has been overhauled and updated and we now have a social media presence. We are conscious of the need to extend the reach of CAA among younger members of the archaeological community and have established a one-day Darganfod/Discovery Conference to showcase new CAA-supported research and the work of early career researchers. A members’ email list has been set up, and this has been particularly useful and appreciated during the current restrictions.

We are in need of new Trustees who can involve themselves in carrying forward these activities, whether it be events, emails, website or social media. We would like to invite potential new Trustees to submit an expression of interest, a short CV and a statement of what they could offer the Association. These should be forwarded to Heather James, the General Secretary (h.james443@gmail.com).

The Trustees also wish to widen the number of members who, even if not wanting to serve as a Trustee, would like to help in the organisation of the Association’s activities. We are conscious that we have moved from a position in the late 20th century when large meetings were organised by large committees, and are now at an opposite extreme when Meetings are often the sole responsibility of a single person or couple. We would like to widen the organisation to a small group under the direction of the main organiser. Please contact Heather James if you would be interested in helping in any of these ways.