I am pleased to report that the Fed is going from strength to strength; the headlines are that we are making significant progress on membership growth, our training programme continues to thrive (with the support of Renaissance Yorkshire), and we are maximising opportunities for strategic advocacy.
However, as an overview we have been taking a good hard look at what we offer our members:
Does it represent good value for money?
Is the pricing package right?
Do we communicate with them well?
Do they value what we do?
To help us understand membership needs, this we compiled a comparison sheet which compared what we offered against what the other Feds were offering, and followed this up by commissioning Rosie Crook, a Committee Member on the Executive team, to prepare and distribute an online membership survey. At this point I must thank Rosie for her sterling efforts and commitment to this task, which was unstinting and remarkable, given the demands of her `day job’.
The response rate was excellent for a survey of its kind, and this yielded valuable and mainly reassuring information.
Essentially, though, the survey revealed that people mostly liked what we did, appreciated the services we offered but perhaps wanted a bit more advocacy; they also, however, still perceived the leadership and membership as being male-dominated, and would welcome a little more dynamism.
This is a commentary which we will as a team take on board, although I am pleased to reassure members that, if we were to have the current Fed `cabinet’ seated all in one room at one time, the women officers would actually outnumber their male counterparts (10 vs. 8), so perhaps this is in part an incorrect perception.
As a consequence of this, we looked at the link between the quality of our website and our membership needs. Another Executive Committee Member, Jim Garretts (whom I must also record profuse thanks for his diligence and support) undertook a detailed qualitative assessment of the web site, and this resulted in a number of recommendations about how it could be improved.
Mark Tindle of NE Lincs has stepped into the breach of the Memebership Secretary to begin implementing the recommendations of the website review.
In terms of populating the website and continuing the Fed’s modernising programme, our current First Vice President, Nial Adams has drafted clear roles for each of the Fed Executive (including, of course, the President’s) – the first time we have ever had such documents. This clarification of what is expected of each of our leadership team, will give us a sense of purpose and allow is to focus on our accountabilities and responsibilities to the organisation and our members.
He has also pulled together statements on the Fed’s mission, objectives and aims, and these have now been posted on the web site, so visitors can easily find out what we’re about, and (as if that wasn’t enough) he also has even written a recent history of the Fed for the site.
Another innovation is the introduction of an online Fed E-newsletter and blog, the first issue of which has already appeared; we believe that this will greatly improve communications between the leadership team and the membership.
I think it is also important that we examine the sustainability of the Fed – it’s something we are trying to move towards in securing the future viability of our workforce development training programme – and we are also critically looking at the income we derive from individual and institutional subscriptions.
We are in the process of completing an options study of all the different ways we could charge for membership in order to achieve the right balance of subscription and to ensure that we have enough money to do what we need (and are constitutionally expected) to do.
Another area of development is in events. We have deconstructed and analysed our offer in this area and thanks here must go to our Honorary Secretary, Rachael Walker, and our Events team, led by our Events Coordinator, Laura Turner, with support from Susan Capes and Jim Garretts. Our aim is to make the previously titled Fed General Meetings and more popular and accessible. Consequently, we have co-opted more Executive members on to the Events Sub-group so there is more critical mass and an immediate major change has been to review the structure and content of our general meetings, and morph them into day-long `mini-conferences’ – up to four a year – which deals with themes which are contemporary and relevant to the needs of our members. Rolled up in this is the need also to review the role of the hitherto-termed Fed Forum. More about this in due course.
Our other big commitment is, of course, to training. With the generous on-going support of Renaissance Yorkshire, we are continuing to deliver a varied and relevant training programme comprising our popular Museums Essentials menu and the Rapid Response Network training. I would just say at this point that the lack of appropriate venues and speaker costs often hamper our best efforts to develop and run training events in a cost-effective and attractive way; members can play a part in helping us overcome these hurdles by offering, in so far as they can, their own facilities and expertise so that we foster a collegiate training offer which is shared throughout our sector.
At this juncture, I really must offer massive thanks to our outgoing Training Co-ordinator, Emma King, who is leaving the Fed to pursue other challenges and opportunities. Her support and drive have been absolutely instrumental to us getting the training programme to where it is now; her commitment has been 100% and she has acted as a wonderful ambassador and advocate for the Fed and its ambitions.
In terms of a new Training Co-ordinator, we hope to commerce the procurement and recruitment process, as required through our relationship with Renaissance Yorkshire, very soon, and I am heartened by the amount of interest that has already been shown, with several potential and very viable candidates having already declared their interest.
Another big development has been to establish the Yorkshire Integrated Museums Training Group – a very clunky name but one which we shall be reviewing in the very near future. The aims of this body are to:
provide an integrated, one-stop training calendar that lists all the museum-related training and development opportunities in the region at www.yhfed.org.uk
develop a sound, evidence-based understanding of staff and volunteer training needs
co-ordinate our training and development provision
long term, to work towards providing a comprehensive and integrated training offer for everyone working in the region’s heritage sector, no matter what their role or organisation
A virtual manifestation of this aims has already been delivered – the Fed’s website now hosts an integrated training calendar which is beginning, quite successfully, to be populated by a range of training providers in the region. This will eventually, it is hoped, provide a one-stop-shop, whilst ensuring that all the different and diverse providers in the region don’t clash or cancel each other’s efforts out by having their events on the same date. Please do visit the website www.yhfed.org.uk and have a look at it.
Finally, we want you to play your part by:
Promoting and perusing events on the online training calendar
Finding training events for yourself and your organisation
Telling us about your organisation’s training needs
Contributing to intelligent planning – talk to us about your forthcoming training events and help us avoid duplicating provision.
Advocacy remains a mainstay of our ambitions. I already represent the Fed on the Yorkshire Museums Directors Conference, and am also a member of their steering group – rest assured, I will take any opportunity to promote the Fed and its good work.
Equally, and we are much more outward looking, and have given the Fed more national and regional clout by opening up lines of communications with other UK Federations and working with important regional and national partners such as MLA (I’m pleased to report that, subject to her busy commitments, Jayne Tyler, the Regional Manager of MLA, attends Executive meetings) and the Museums Association.
In terms of budgetary control, we are, as you will all know only too well, working under harsh and often difficult operating circumstances. You should be reassured that our outgoing Treasurer, Sheauran Tan, has delivered prudent, robust and effective administration of the Feds finances, with experienced and valuable support from our Fed Freelance Administrator, Keith Crawshaw, whom we will be engaging for a further year. Our budgets now are much more tailored to organisational need and now reflect what we must and want to achieve. We owe both a massive debt of thanks.
The current prevailing financial situation will inevitably mean an uncomfortable ride for many of us over the coming months. The new national coalition government has already begun to take severe measures to tackle the national deficit – indeed, my own organisation has already had around 3% shaved off its grant-in-aid for this year alone. This combined with sector specific initiatives, such as the review of the Accreditation process, and the reshaping of Renaissance, may well mean more uncertainty and more work.
However, it is in such times of uncertainty, we look to fixed points which reassure us during the day-to-day grind – I believe the Fed is one of those constants. You should be aware that we are not only one of the oldest but also one of the fastest-growing Feds in the UK. Our great strength and security is in the unity of our membership, and it is important that we maintain solidarity through difficult times ahead.
Finally, I would also like to pay tribute and offer my personal thanks to all of the other members of the Fed `cabinet’ whom I haven’t been able to mention. Their support – particularly during my first year as President – commitment and knowledge is amazing, especially when you consider that they are busy in their `day jobs’. As members, you should feel proud and reassured that the Fed is led by such an able and enthusiastic team, and is in such safe hands.
Have a wonderful summer!
Paul Goodman
President
