British Association of Friends of Museums - South East

Members from ten BAFM groups in the area heard Mike McCarthy from Suffolk Volunteering Federation introduce a five step approach to looking for new volunteers. 1 Define the role: be specific and be imaginative, identifying what you are looking for rather than simply seeking new people. 2 Work out who might fit the role. 3 Consider what might motivate people and the barriers: why might they choose your museum rather than other volunteering opportunities. 4 How do you make the role appealing. 5 Outline the message: what will they gain, what experience will they have. And perhaps offer a taster opportunity to see if your organisation and the volunteer fit. Helpful web sites were www.volunteering.org.uk and www.do-it.org A He went on to explain the many ways Friends and their museums could devise exhibitions around Olympic themes for 2010.

We were moved and inspired by the presentation by Tony Butler, Director of Museum of East Anglian Life (MEAL), whose colleague Jo Rooks had won last year's Robert Logan Award. His theme was the social value of museums and how MEAL uses their 80 acre site towards helping cohesion in the community. They involve learning-disabled and other volunteers and offer NVQs in land industries helping people with work based activities and therapeutic placements back into the community. The objective is to make people happy with a good and meaningful life. We should identify a vision for our organisation beyond our collections. We can aim outside our mission statement but he warned that the growth of the museum sector cannot go on forever so we do need to start thinking more smartly.

Susie Dawson, BAFM vice chair lead a discussion asking each of us to talk about our experiences which brought up the considerable differences even in the ten groups represented. It flagged up the sometimes muddled relationships between friends, volunteers, trustees and professionals. But we remain a fellowship organisation as well as our crucial role as fundraisers while always having a potential combative role to play when there are problems. Ken Burton talked about the BSM Friends who had been crucial to the saving and restoration of the historic school buildings - their origin going back 200 years. After a delicious lunch prepared by Friends, Terry Ransome, trustee of BSM, explained the teaching methods at the Schools. We then filed across the yard for a Victorian lesson doing sums on slates and handwriting in copybooks - one of us got the cane and another had to wear the dunce's cap for an incorrect answer!

After tea and home made cakes we visited the Lancasterian school room of 1837 in which up to 300 children could be taught by the monitorial system. We ended a full and stimulating day with a visit the headmaster’s house of 1857.

Love Museums

In March, April and May the Museums Association rolled out a series of twelve free training workshops on advocacy to help show ways to make the case for our museums. The object was to help us better understand the importance of advocating for our museums and to learn some skills. Stacey Arnold lead the event assisted by Maurice Davies Head of Policy and Communications at the MA. We started by writing our choice of words that summed up advocacy and came up with: spreading the word, effective, engaging, good news, sphere of influence, clear message, two way dialogue, and so on.

It was all about finding a level of support for engaging people outside the museum, raising aspirations and developing relationships. We need to ask how we can help the decision makers and people who can influence without pretending that we are not asking for something: it is a two way relationship if we are to be successful and it is not just about marketing or fundraising.

We should not have too many messages and our arguments must be well-constructed. We must also remember to say thank you when we have been helped - and keep in touch. No quick fix. A Friends group can sometimes make a point that museum officials can not and that in many cases members of a Friends group will have been supporting their museum for a far longer time than their professionals or the political portfolio holders, so can provide continuity and informed comment.

We should involve influence-makers including when appropriate our MP or MEP, but be sure that what we ask is at an appropriate level. Choose our friends carefully and meet others’ agendas where that is appropriate. We broke into groups twice to look at a theoretical scenario and to discuss a problem in each of our own organisations. Finally, Maurice set out the national context for advocacy mentioning some of the many organisations whose resources we might access in order to get ideas and leads. These included The National Campaign for the Arts and the National Museum Directors’ Conference. We all need to keep our eyes open and be up to date never forgetting our local stakeholders: advocacy begins at home.