Workshops

Six free workshops were held across the country over the summer of 2019 to train archaeological practitioners in the use of the Selection Toolkit and the development of project specific selection strategies.

The workshops were aimed at all archaeological practitioners that are involved in the selection process, including Project Managers, Planning Archaeologists, Museum Curators and Specialists.

Workshop Locations

12 Jun 2019	Birmingham, Birmingham Midlands Institute
4 Jul 2019	Cambridge, Central Library
24 Jul 2019	York, The King’s Manor
21 Aug 2019	Taunton, Creative Innovation Centre
4 Sep 2019	Manchester, The Mechanics Centre
18 Sep 2019	London, Marx Memorial Library

Outline

The workshops began by presenting the Selection Strategy Toolkit project rationale and the importance of preparing a suitable selection strategy at the outset of an archaeological project. The workshops then introduced the Selection Toolkit and its resources  to participants. Participants then carried out a practical exercise using the toolkit to develop a selection strategy for a examplar archaeology project. This activity encouraged participants to think critically and strategically about how to create a selection strategy, the workflow they should follow, the additional guidance or documentation they may need to consult, and the people they will need to collaborate with as part of selection strategy creation process.

Following this exercise participants were asked to present the selection strategies they have developed and justify the reasoning behind their choices. Guided by the session leaders, participants were provided with the opportunity to assess strengths and weaknesses of the strategies they developed and compare their selection strategise to a real life example.  The workshops concluded with participants thinking about the steps they would need to take to better integrate selections strategies within their own workflows and how they might best achieve this.

Programme

10:00	Coffee and registration
10:30	Introduction: Developing a Selection Toolkit for Archaeological Archives and background to the project (PDF file) Sam Paul (Sam Paul Heritage)
11:00	The Selection Toolkit Katie Green (Archaeology Data Service)
11.15	Selection Strategy Exercise: Planning for selection During this exercise participants were divided into groups and asked to use the resources in the Selection Toolkit to develop a suitable selection strategy for a specific archaeological project. Participants were required to think strategically about how to create a selection strategy, the workflow they should follow, the additional guidance or documentation they may need to consult, and the people they will need to collaborate as part of selection strategy creation process.
12:15	Lunch (provided)
13.00	Selecting the Material Archive (PDF file) Duncan Brown (Historic England)
13:20	Selection Strategy Exercise: Implementing selection A continuation of the Selection Strategy Exercise. This part of the exercise will focus on how to follow the selection strategy you have created and what to do when circumstances change.
14:20	Selection Strategy Discussion
15:00	Coffee/Tea Break
15:15	Advocacy and Next Steps Exercise (PDF file) Participants were asked to think about what steps they would need to take and what would be realistic targets to work towards to better integrate selections strategies within their own workflows. Participants were also be provided with a set of advocacy tools to help aid participants take the key learning objectives of the workshop back to their own organisations which are available from the resources page.
16:00	End