The following resources may be useful if you are looking at building your organisation’s resilience, improving your governance and maintaining a healthy museum operation.
Organisational health resources from the Collections Trust – particularly helpful if you are in the Accreditation scheme
Forward planning
- Top tips for forward planning (Share Museums East)
- Writing a Forward plan – Collections Trust
Volunteer management
- Example Volunteer policy – Leeds Museums & Galleries
- Example volunteer agreement: Volunteer Agreement Swaffham Musuem.doc (sharemuseumseast.org.uk)
- Example volunteer role profile: Volunteer Role Profile Collections Volunteer – John Bunyan Museum.doc (sharemuseumseast.org.uk)
- The Charity Commission (if that’s your relevant regulatory body)
Governance
- AIM Success Guide: Successful governance in independent museums
- AIM Guide For Boards Planning To Recruit A Manager
- AIM Guides for Boards – Doing a governance audit
- AIM Guides for Boards – Keeping up to date – reviewing your organisation’s governing document & legal form
- AIM Guides for Boards – Successful away days for boards of museums and heritage organisations
- AIM Guides for Boards – More Effective Meetings: engaging trustees and building a strong team
- AIM Guides for Boards – Running an open recruitment process
- AIM Guides for Boards – An introduction to museums for new trustees
- AIM Golden Rules for Good Governance
- Successfully Recruiting Trustees to Your Board – in Ten Steps – South East Museum Development (southeastmuseums.org)
Thoughts on Trustee Recruitment: Finding the right people for your organisation.
Notes from Frank Hargrave (Director of Colchester + Ipswich Museums) on recruiting for Colchester Museums Development Foundation (from a SHARE Museums East discussion session, December 2020)
Retail
- With income generation more important than ever, if you’re thinking about your gift shop and merchandise, you might find this AIM guide helpful: Successful retailing for smaller museums
- How to do retail, top tips: How to do Retail – wip.doc (sharemuseumseast.org.uk)
- You may also be able to find support from the Association for Cultural Enterprises: The Association For Cultural Enterprises – Sustaining Culture who focus on income generation for cultural organisations.
Becoming a CIO
Becoming a Charitable Incorporated Organisation – is it right for us? Presentation from Julie Cole: PowerPoint Presentation (sharemuseumseast.org.uk)
Freelancers
Guide to working with freelancers: SHARE-Museums-East-Guide-to-working-with-freelancers-compressed.pdf (sharemuseumseast.org.uk)
You can also contact Sally Ackroyd, SHARE Museum Project Officer, Leadership and Resilience for more support if you are in the Accreditation scheme: sally.ackroyd@norfolk.gov.uk
Museums Essex 