Scotland Regional Network
 Angela Bartie Research Fellow, Scottish Oral History Centre University of Strathclyde, McCance Building, 16 Richmond Street, Glasgow, G1 1XQ Telno: 0141 548 4376 Email: angela.bartie@strath.ac.uk Arthur McIvor Director, Scottish Oral History Centre University of Strathclyde, McCance Building, 16 Richmond Street, Glasgow, G1 1XQ Telno: 0141 548 2212/2236 Email: a.mcivor@strath.ac.uk  Howard Mitchell 53 Charterhall Grove, Edinburgh, EH9 3HT Telno: 0131 667 7602 Email: hmitchell07@talktalk.net Aberdeen and Region Oral History Association (AROHA) http://www.arohascotland.org/index.php Telno: Email: Oral history activities in Scotland continue to flourish. Prominent among these currently are the Forestry Commission 'Touchwood' Oral History Project now entering its second phase following a pilot interview and training phase carried out in the past year. A number of former foresters are recording interviews and it is hoped that the project will eventually cover all the forestry areas in Scotland. Other projects include the Isle of Gigha, in which, again, local people will carry on recording interviews following a pilot project now completed; and the Glendoe Hydroelectric Dam Construction Oral History Project which is being carried out as the dam, probably the last of its size to be built in Scotland, is completed over the coming year. The Scottish Oral History Group (SOHG) plans a round-table symposium early in 2008 on the state of oral history in Scotland. Invited speakers from different areas of oral history activity will discuss current issues and plans for oral historians in institutional and community work. AROHA, the Aberdeen and Region Oral History Association, is - as you can see at its website http://www.arohascotland.org/ - as active as ever. With the SOHG and other groups, it will be involved in the 2009 OHS national conference to be held in Glasgow on the theme of 'Hearing Voice in Oral History'. Finally, an exciting development is the development in Inverness of a new archive which it is hoped will incorporate an audiovisual centre that will act as an archive and service-point for oral history projects. Hugo MansonOrkneyOver the past year or so I have been carrying out basic oral history training for the Skills Building for the Future, a museums based training programme for the Highlands and Islands. The training programme has revealed a healthy interest in oral history across the region with local museums, community radio stations and community history groups actively pursuing recording projects. Training took place in Stornaway, Shetland, Ardrishaig, Strathpeffer and with one sceduled to take place in Forres and an additional day in Fochabers. There is a year to run for the training project and further workshops are scheduled. The days have proved to be a unique opportunity for groups from different areas to meet up to compare notes and share experiences and hopefully the networks started on these days will provide a fruitful base for mutual support for years to come. In Orkney Sanday still has an active recording project with two more in the development stages in Eday and Hoy. Orkney and the Land, an oral history survey of farming in the islands hopes to come to fruition this year with an exciting collaboration with a photographer in residence, Rebecca Marr (working with the agricultural community) providing an additional perspective to the project. Kate Towsey |