The Committee's primary aims are to:

• promote awareness of the Society's activities by publicisng in the media all its involvements with the regional community;
• encourage research into, and knowledge of, all aspects of Cumbria's past;
• seek new members from all sections of the community;
• establish the Society as a leading consultee for all matters concerning Cumbria's heritage.

The Outreach Committee is the newest of the Society's committees and under the Chairmanship of Professor Keith Stringer of Lancaster University, a Vice-President of CWAAS, it has dealt with and developed the Society's responses to The Twenty-first Century questionnaire.
One important aspect of that survey was the general agreement that, however the Society might be re-branded for the purposes of recruitment and website communication, the word 'Cumbria' should be used.

Cumbria Past hence takes pride of place in this website's banner over the Home Page. It is supported to the left by the Society's 'badge' (the original Collingwood seal) and the traditional full name of the Society.

The more recent logo, which appears on the Transactions (Third Series), Newsletter and the spines of the Society's published books, continues to be used in those contexts, all three being produced under the direction of the Publications Committee.

For some time, the Society's name had been felt to be a problem in C21 communications between the Society and the outside world: both of the county names in that proud title ceased to exist in 1974. Since then, Cumberland, Westmorland, Lancashire-over-Sands and the Sedbergh district of Yorkshire had been identified by a new name: Cumbria. This name was now familiar throughout the land: and it was felt that the time had come for that change to be acknowledged in some way by the Society.

In due course, The Outreach Committee's proposal that Cumbria Past should be the Society's name for outreach purposes (such as leaflets, displays and the website) was fully endorsed by the Council.

This development was announced to the Society through the Newsletter (Issue 60; Spring 2009) by the CWAAS Membership Secretary, Dr Bill Shannon, who sits on the Outreach Committee.