Team Pink are the team of the Executive Officers and Assistants who are responsible for the running and development of the National Student Scout and Guide Organisation.
Charlotte Simmons
Hi, I'm Charlotte and I will be taking over the Archivist role. This is my fifth year in SSAGO, and my second as an Indie, having finished at Nottingham in 2020. Whilst at Nottingham I was involved with the archive that SNoGS run in conjunction with the University of Nottingham archives and really enjoyed it, and I believe it's important that clubs are supported to set up and run their own archives if this is something that they wish to do, as well as maintaining and building the national SSAGO archive. I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in to this role and to working with members of SSAGO to build our records for future generations. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions relating to archives either at a national or club level.
June 2023
Report
- March-May: After largely taking from late March until late May off from Archives matters due to personal reasons, I spent the end of May easing myself back in and catching up on general team pink stuff.
- Club queries: I have responded to a few queries from various clubs regarding archive matters - if you ever have any queries regarding club history (which may be mentioned in the national SSAGO archives), or anything related to your own club's archives, please do get in touch with me and I will do my best to help you.
Aims
- Archives online: To finally make archive online a reality - I'm not totally sure about the how of this because if I'm honest, I'm a bit of a technophobe, but I'll be looking to make some real progress on this in the coming months.
- Supporting clubs: Continue to help and support clubs with archive queries
- Coronation helpers: I am planning on collating stories from those ssago members who were involved in helping at the Coronation.
- Archives stories: I will also be collating stories from wider SSAGO regarding a variety of events - from the Jamboree this summer all the way down to local camps. Now feels like a good time to do this as we fully get back to normal after the pandemic.
November 2022
Report
- Ran a successful museum at Amalgam, as well as an Ask the Archivist session. This included a tribute to Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who died the day before camp. This involved spending my Friday evening at Amalgam rewriting some of the timeline sheets, which I'd managed to leave at home.
- Lots of behind the scenes things towards love your archive week.
- It's been a busy couple of months for me personally so I've not had as long as I'd have liked to move ongoing projects forward.
Aims
- Start working on making archives online a reality.
- Hopefully doing some sharing of archive material for Love Your Archive week later this year.
June 2022
Report
- Sadly its been a quiet few months for me due to personal circumstances (the rest of Team Pink are aware of the reasons) however I have been involved in IOW Revolution and have been working recently with Team Pink and the Rally of Games committee to help get a SSAGO camp blanket to exist alongside the necker banner.
- I have also responded to some archive enquiries although if I have forgotten to reply to you please feel free to prod me!
Aims
- Continue to work on Amalgam ideas as well as the archives online project.
- Work to support the SSAGO camp blanket going forward
February 2022
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- Amalgam: Continued to develop plans to take the archives to Amalgam in September - I don't want to say too much at this point though as that would spoil it!
- Working with clubs: I've continued to answer questions from clubs regarding the archives searching through the collection to find several pieces of information....
- Archives online: I now have a plan for what will go where and how to structure the roll out of info onto the public archives site, so look out over the next few months to see this happen!
Aims
- Archives online: I have finished the planning for how this is going to look, over the next few months I aim to get significant amounts of info online onto the public site.
June 2021
Report
- Exploring the archives: Following taking over the role from Larah I have been continuing to explore the archives to see what is in there and to try and learn more about the history of the organisation.
- Archives online: I have started to work towards getting some of the archived materials onto a public facing website over the next few months.
- Club closing policy: Had a meeting to discuss a new policy to help us protect club records when they close.
Aims
- Archives online: I will be working to try and get some of the materials in the SSAGO archives onto a public website so that more people can access it.
- Photo archiving: I will be working to archive some of the photos that were uploaded into the SSAGO facebook group in the days before Google photos were used to compile photo albums at SSAGO events.
- Amalgam: I will be working over the next year or so to put together an archiving drop-in activity session for Amalgam.
February 2021
Report
- Handover: I am currently in the process of attending handover training sessions with Larah to learn about the role, having been appointed in January.
- Guidance document: I have worked with Larah to produce a guidance document for clubs wanting to set their own archives up.
- Meeting with Clubs: Larah and I met with Liverpool to discuss their plans for setting up and archive in preparation for their anniversary celebrations next year. I am, of course, happy to meet with other clubs to discuss archives as well.
Aims
- Handover: Continue handover sessions with Larah to learn more about the role.
- Projects: Spend the next few months thinking about projects that I would like to run as I take over the role properly.
- Physical archives: Whenever I am allowed (post covid), I intend to visit the physical collection that we have at Gilwell Park, and to ensure that any items that need to be deposited are.
- Working with clubs: I would like to continue to work with clubs to help them to develop their archives - so if you'd like me to meet with you, please do get in touch.
- Digital archive: continue to develop the digital archive project.