By Joshua Robinson –
Succession Planning: A Guide for Community Archives and Heritage Groups is a free resource developed by the Irish Community Archive Network (iCAN), a National Museum of Ireland initiative in partnership with the Heritage Council, participating Local Authorities, and community groups across Ireland.
The Guide looks at ways volunteer groups can address some of the challenges that can influence their future success. Common challenges include attracting new members, getting young people involved, keeping adequate records, or losing access to accounts due to lost passwords or IT crashes.
Effective succession planning addresses these challenges so that groups can protect their work in the future.
iCAN was set up to support volunteer groups across Ireland to develop and maintain their community archives. It developed the Guide to provide a step-by-step process for good succession planning.
The Guide is now available to download for free.
Speaking at the launch, Lorna Elms, iCAN Development Officer, said: “iCAN works to empower local communities to document their history, heritage and culture. This Succession Planning Guide is designed for community archives and heritage groups to ensure their work is future-proofed. It provides a structured approach to forward-planning which, if carried out on an annual basis, will help to ensure groups are maintained and continue to thrive.”
Aalia Kamal, Cultural and Inclusive Heritage Officer with the Heritage Council and a member of the iCAN Advisory Group, also attended the launch. She said: “Local heritage groups are doing invaluable work developing archives and sharing knowledge, collections, stories and local history. The Heritage Council is delighted to support this work through our involvement with iCAN. The Succession Planning Guide we are launching here today is another great resource provided by iCAN to volunteer researchers and archivists in communities.”
Mary O’Malley, from the Louisburgh-Killeen Heritage Group in Co. Mayo and a member of the iCAN Advisory Group, attended the launch and said: “I am delighted this Succession Planning Guide is now available to download for free to groups across Ireland. iCAN members have drawn on their collective experience and contributed their thoughts and ideas to develop the guidelines, audits and checklists comprised in the guide and I am sure these will provide a very useful tool and resource for groups who are working to document their local history, heritage and culture and make it available to others. Indeed this Succession Planning Guide is a template for any volunteer led community group looking to plan for the future.”
Marie Mannion, Heritage Officer with Galway County Council, said: “There are 36 community archives developed through iCAN with heritage groups across Ireland and this resource will help to promote the long term sustainability of these archives and groups. It is hugely important to ensure volunteers can continue to access their websites into the future and to prioritise the ongoing feasibility of the volunteer group itself. The Succession Planning Guide provides lots of practical tips, advice and processes for that purpose.”
To download ‘Succession Planning: A Guide for Community Archives and Heritage Groups‘ for free, please visit: https://www.museum.ie/getmedia/f9f271db-c440-4b5e-9beb-dde5798cfc20/NMI_iCAN_Succession-Planning-Guide_FA-digital.pdf
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