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Update September 2005 to November 2005
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Update September 2005 to November 2005
Location: Isle of Wight
30 November 2005
Since the start of the project in September we have achieved a great deal and the project has started well.
The most critical achievement has been obtaining the necessary insurance cover so that we could receive the first 50% of the grant. It was far harder and took us a longer than we expected to get the insurance and at first it was a little disheartening.
Eventually, and with the help of the local manager of the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, we became affiliated to BTCV and obtained insurance under their umbrella scheme.
By this time we had already started with the things that we were able to do without funding.
• We have continued with our membership drive and our group continues to grow.
• We have weekly committee meetings and monthly meetings with the membership.
SEPTEMBER
• We met with local Bereavement Services officers to explain about the project and they have been supportive and encouraging about our plans.
• We presented the scope of the project to the membership, explaining the timescale and what we have been funded for.
• One of our members (David Earle) has taken on the task of producing computer drawn plot maps of the cemetery. The maps currently used by Bereavement Services are the original, ancient, hand drawn and fragile maps. The maps produced by David will be useful to our members who want to record the inscriptions and, because they will be made available to Bereavement Services, they will also be useful to anyone wanting to locate a grave in the cemetery.
• Some members of our group have been carrying out research at the local record office and others are working on recording the inscriptions from the graves in the cemetery.
• An induction pack with information for volunteers about working in the cemetery has been produced. The pack contains information about the cemetery, advice on good practice, and health and safety issues.
OCTOBER
• The induction pack was presented to the members.
• A full-page article about the group and the project was published in the local weekly newspaper, the Isle of Wight County Press.
• We lead a guided walk of the cemetery for new members of the group. Before the walk we discussed health and safety issues. On the walk, we pointed out some of the significant graves. We also showed comparisons between inscriptions that are easy to read and those that are worn and difficult to read. The walk was extremely popular and will be repeated again when the weather permits.
• We have been looking at our existing web site www.rydecemetery.org.uk and working up a brief of what needs to be included when the site is redesigned and rebuilt.
• In late October we finally received the necessary insurance cover and 50% of the grant was paid into our bank account.
NOVEMBER
• A half page article about the project was published in The Beacon, a free local listing magazine that is distributed island wide.
• We met with the web designers, www.matrixebusiness.com, who have hosted our current web site (for free) and discussed with them what is required for the new site. The main thing we need is a dynamic database that will allow us to store and update all the information we record from the cemetery. It also needs to be easily searchable to assist other people carrying out research.
• We started looking at the equipment we will need to purchase in order to achieve the aims of the project. We will try to get the best deals possible.
• David Earle gave a presentation to the members on his progress with producing the plot maps.
• We have been offered space in the offices of Ryde Development Trust, to display information about the project until the end of December.
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