Stories, stories, stories. That’s what history is. But someone has to tell them. If you’re interested in the overlap between British and Sikh heritage then you can help.

With its organisational motto and mission statement of “bringing history and cultures together” ASHT seeks to highlight Anglo Sikh Heritage throughout the UK. Having secured funds from HLF for three years we are now entering an exciting developmental phase. Outreach, education and research are key to the future direction of our work and we are looking for dedicated and energetic volunteers to support our work.
We have several volunteer opportunities available:
• One volunteer is required immediately for 1-3 days a week based at our Walsall office, to assist in the daily operations, website development, image research and undertaking oral history interviews.

Contact Gurprit Basran for further details
01922 721 504
gsb@asht.info
www.asht.info

The BBC, Arts Council, Audiences Central and others has launched a hugely ambitious arts project for the West Midlands - one which you can join. I know from the Birmingham Flickr group how many people are passionate about taking pictures of buildings in the city. The Big Picture allows you to add you pictures (of anything or anyone in the West Midlands) as part of a bid to make the biggest photo montage yet created.

It has the added advantage of using photography, which is one of the most accessible art forms. Anyone with a mobile phone and some sort of internet access can join this project - and lets home they do! It’s not the first time the BBC has used flickr - Picture of Britain was also tied into the enormously popular photo sharing social-network. However there a little more to this project.

I just want to mention a couple of individuals working on the Big Picture. Jon Bounds has been helping to keep this website going for almost two years now (thank you Jon). Stef Lewandowski is (amongst other things) a key member of the Birmingham Flickr Group of photographers (both professional and amateur - all talented and passionate about this city). Congrats both.

You may have spotted on our website a little badge which says shop here to support the Birmingham Conservation Trust. If you use this link to do your shopping between now and January 31st 2008 we could win £1000.

Whether we win the competition or not we will still receive a small percentage of the money you spend on Christmas presents or perhaps holiday flights. With some things we get loadsamoney: if you sign up for Sky TV through the link we could receive up to £120!

I know it sounds a bit bonkers but you pay the normal prices. We are simply getting a share of the shops marketing budget for passing your custom their way.

http://www.buy.at/birminghamconservation

So please have a good browse and buy if the deals are good for you. Tell your friends. At the moment Aldershot Football Club is in the lead - lets make that Birmingham Conservation Trust!

Work will soon begin on cataloguing and storing the contents of Newman Brothers, a critical part of recording the story of the building and the business and preparing for building work.

Hundreds of you have already had a chance to visit the building and for some you may be keen to get involved in this part of the project. So we are looking for:

Volunteer Cataloguers for the Coffin Works

At least one half day per fortnight over four months, starting in June 2007

The contribution of the volunteer cataloguer will be invaluable to the development of the Coffin Works project and to helping us understand the significance of the contents of the factory. Cataloguers will be given an initial induction and training for the role, and on completion of the task there will be the opportunity to comment on the proposals for the factory and its interpretation, as well as discussing possible future involvement in other roles, such as demonstrators or guides.

The role will involve some physical work, including lifting. It should be noted that the Coffin Works was a working factory using some fairly unpleasant chemicals. The risks from these have been minimised but cataloguers will be working in quite dirty and dusty conditions. The building has been unoccupied for a number of years so it is does leak when it rains and it is not especially warm. Volunteers will be expected to conform to the health and safety requirements of the site so protective clothing will be supplied. For more detail of the work please download this pdf briefing.

Oral History Volunteers

We will be able to give you more details of this soon, but the work breaks down into two main areas:

Recording oral histories related to Newman Brothers
Transcribing existing interviews from DVD into word documents.

The latter work can be done at home for those with a computer which plays DVD and has Microsoft Word or compatible software.

If you’re interested in helping with any of these please use the contact details above.

Thank you.