Cultural Officers Group (COG) update
Val Birchall as the COG Chair provided an update:
- The name of the group had been changed from Culture & Tourism Advisory Group to Cultural Officers Group to better reflect the membership and purpose of the group
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The next steps would include the development of regional (as opposed to localised) cultural priorities and objectives and to work with key stakeholders to further develop and resource these. CLB would also be a key stakeholder to be consulted. It was important to work together to make the case for culture.
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It would also be helpful to have more alignment in the messaging between the sector and Local Authorities/ Local Government Association to e.g. the Government
- COG has not had a meeting since July but the next meeting is scheduled for 15 October and feedback to CLB will provided following this
The board also raised a question how the Cultural Compacts in the area were linked to this work and if they were actively collaborating. VB concluded that given the development of Compacts was still in early stages and they were potentially still refining their purpose, there had not been high levels of collaboration as of yet.