British Association of Friends of Museums

GENERAL NEWS - 1

A Young Disabled Volunteer’s Point of View
by Sean Barlow, a Volunteer at the London Transport Museum

I first became involved with the London Transport Museum in 2007, when the museum asked my dad to provide information on a piece of track that the museum wished to replicate. Thus it was in November 2007 that I found myself at a preview event. I was coming up to my two weeks work experience the following July, so we asked the museum if they were intending to offer a work experience program. I was subsequently used as a guinea pig for the first placement in July 2008, and joined the Friends at the end of the second week.

The London Transport Museum operates across two sites, the main site at Covent Garden, open to the public, and the storage facility at Acton, known as the Depot, normally closed to the public, except the last Friday and Saturday of every month when the Depot opens for guided tours, and two weekends a year when the Depot opens to the general public. I mainly volunteer at the storage facility at Acton. My duties include washing and cleaning the vehicles, sorting of ephemera, maintaining the miniature railway and assisting with heritage vehicle operations. I also have to occasionally refrigerate wood for preservation. When assisting with heritage vehicle operations, it is important to ensure that the passengers do not eat, drink or smoke whilst on board, as these can be a nightmare to clean up if spilt on seats.

One of the things that the public do not seem to be able to grasp is that, I may be disabled, but I can still do quite a few of the things that most other volunteers can do. The only real restriction is that I cannot drive buses, I can only conduct them. It seems to me that, even in the 21st century, many people still regard disability as a taboo subject, and if you are unfortunate enough to have a disability, you are simply either regarded as alien, or simply an inconvenience. This was summed up brilliantly by Tess McManus in summer 2011’s journal, “We need to relax, address the person directly, and allow eye contact to be made. We will catch nothing untoward from this person, and may indeed gain a very good friend.” This was also demonstrated perfectly in Croydon in late October, when it was reported that a disability assessment centre, located on the first floor of an office building, was inaccessible to wheelchair users due to the lift being unusable in case of fire hazards. We have fire retardant lifts installed at Covent Garden, meaning that they can be used to evacuate during a fire.

In July 2010, I was awarded the Jack Petchey award by my college for my volunteering work and my work with ‘Childline in Partnership with Schools’ (CHIPS). The award is given each month by the school or college for a number of reasons, including volunteering and improvements in academic studies. Once a year, in each participating borough or district, a ceremony is held where all winners are presented with a further medallion.

So, What of the Future?
As of the end of 2010, only 13,072 16-25 year olds nationally, making 0.3% of all 16-25 year olds, volunteered in a museum or art gallery. (Information is correct, as at July 2011, following an FOI request to the Department for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport.) On such a low number, it is my opinion that, unless something is done soon, museums and art galleries will become a rare, or worse extinct, breed. The London Transport Museum is going some way to prevent this, with a team of young consultants. The young consultants are a team of presently four people between 16 and 20 who advise the museum on what young people wish to gain from a museum. This can be more interactive displays, more interesting galleries or more ways of interpreting objects. Unless action is taken now, transport enthusiasts will become an extinct breed, and there will be no demand for transport museums and other conservationists to show off their restored vehicles.

If you would like further information about young consultants, please email: vicki.pipe@ltmuseum.co.uk

[Spring 2012]

London's Museum Volunteers Honoured
Museums Awards 2011

Volunteers from London’s museums were commended for their commitment, dedication and hard work at the 2011 London Volunteers in Museums Awards this June. In an awards ceremony at the Museum of London, 150 volunteers from over 30 London museums were recognised for their achievements over the year. The Awards recognise and celebrate the work of the dedicated volunteers who support the capital’s museums, working across a range of museum departments, helping to enhance the visitor experience, developing collections knowledge and providing vital support to staff.

This was the third year the Awards have taken place, and they are organised by the Museum of London, as part of its regional work to support the capital’s museum sector, funded by the Renaissance in the Regions programme. The Museum’s Regional Volunteer Development Project works with non-national London museums to support them to develop sustainable volunteer involvement, and the Awards provide an excellent opportunity to highlight how important volunteers are to museums, showcase the range of roles volunteers undertake, and show the diversity of different people who offer their time as volunteers.

Professor Jack Lohman, Director of the Museum of London says, “Volunteers provide essential support to London’s museums, many of which would struggle to open without their help. We are incredibly grateful for their time, dedication and energy. The London Volunteers in Museums Awards are our way of thanking volunteers for helping to make London’s museums world class.”

The Awards have several categories: ‘Going The Extra Mile’, ‘Bringing Innovation’, ‘Special Youth Award’, ‘Best Team Contribution’, ‘Developing in a Role’, and ‘Long Service’. Sometimes volunteers contribute by bringing innovation and helping to change the way that museums work and sometimes their most important input is long-term commitment and reliability.

This year’s winners were a diverse bunch including a volunteer at the Natural History Museum who has helped to make the museum’s handling activities accessible to visitors with visual impairments, a team of volunteers at Harrow Museum who have repackaged, relabelled, and recorded over 100 boxes of archaeological finds, and a young volunteer at the Cuming Museum who stepped in when a staff member was taken ill, and put in the extra hours to ensure a key exhibition went ahead.

There is also an Award for people (paid and unpaid) who manage volunteers, recognising their achievements in supporting, encouraging and managing volunteer teams. The Award this year was won by the Front of House Managers at the Jewish Museum London who have put an incredible amount of time and effort into making sure that volunteers get the most out of their time with the museum, and that the museum is making the most of its volunteers.

An estimated 9,000 people offer their time for free to London’s museums, giving approximately £19 million worth of time a year, and many of London’s 250 museums simply could not open to the public without their support. Volunteers play a major role in caring for and interpreting London’s heritage and culture, and ensuring that this heritage is accessible to Londoners and tourists alike. All too often their hard work and vital contribution to the sector is not recognised, and these Awards are an opportunity to really draw attention to the amazing things volunteers are doing and thank them for their hard work.

For further information about the Awards or the Museum of London Regional Volunteer Development Project please contact Kate Bowgett.

[Autumn 2011]

What Is BAFM For?
A Proposition
by Peter Walton, BAFM Volunteer Training Project Officer

I wrote in the Summer Journal last year that ‘there is as yet no course of academic training’ in volunteering management. There is quite a proliferation of day release courses, a number of useful books – not least our own (I have to say that, don’t I?) – and lots of experience both good and bad. So, what is the problem now? Well, I think that two observations sum it up: one is mine and I report that I am noting in 2011 almost exactly the same problems as I studied in 1997-98 and attempted to address in drafting the 1st Edition of the Handbook in 1999; the other comes from a comment made during an excellent course in Cambridge in December last year and January this year: ‘what’ it was asked ‘is BAFM for?’ The answer offered was along the lines of a very good insurance policy for Friends and Volunteers, and a very good magazine, together with useful regional meetings and an interesting Conference in a place one might not otherwise visit. But, and it is a big but, this is all rather expensive at a time when every penny really does count.

I believe that the time has come for BAFM to make it known that it has a service to offer to its wider constituency which is the United Kingdom heritage sector comprising Museums and Galleries, Cathedrals and Churches, English, Welsh and Scottish National conservation bodies including Archives, members of the Historic Houses Association, and any other organisations whose aim is the preservation and presentation to the public of our history.

So what is the proposition? Well, the outline is simple. We need to do nationally what several Regional Co-ordinators already do energetically, that is to gather in evidence of good practice and promote it; and we need to attract and collect evidence of bad practice and counter it by offering sound advice whether specifically or in a general context so as to move forward. But in the meantime, if you are the Chair of a Friends Society, or the person in the Society engaging with the museum on volunteering matters, and you do not have our HVMA by you, please get one now. Similarly if you are on the museum staff and responsible for Volunteering Management or Administration and do not have our HVMA to hand, please send for one now. When it comes it may look boring and difficult to absorb. Well, trust me – don’t go by first impressions (nor by rumour) and try reading it. Okay, I know your organisation has been in existence for years and therefore (I can hear you say) you may not gain much by starting at the beginning. Trust me again – I think you will. Do you have a Volunteer Policy together with a budget all approved by the current Board of Trustees (or your Governing Body) and are the Trustees personally interested in what you are about? If the answer is ‘No’ to any of these, your Trustees need to read the book as well. It may have taken me a year to research and write but I promise you can read it in less. And after that you can dip into it as you need. And after that, if you cannot find the advice you need, you can email me for it via this website using the standard contact email address (please mark it for my attention):

admin@bafm.org.uk

At the outset of this article I mentioned a course at Cambridge. This was an initiative of the SHARE Renaissance East of England and BAFM, coordinated and funded by Renaissance East of England. SHARE is a framework for sharing time, expertise and resources across museums in the East of England and stands for Support Help and Advice from Renaissance East. In this instance, the course was designed to be attended by pairs of representatives defined as one each from the Friends group and the Museum’s operational staff. It was hoped that they would both be at a senior level and this was in the event realised: Museums were represented by their Director and most Friends groups by their Chair. The course was facilitated by George Gawlinski, the well known independent consultant on professional relationships, and was attended by Simon Floyd for SHARE and Peter Walton for BAFM. It took place in the Friends Room of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and the museums represented were: the Cambridge and County Folk Museum, the Chelmsford Museum, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, the Harlow Museum and the National Horseracing Museum, Newmarket.

There were four sessions over the two days of the course. Right at the outset, everyone was asked to collocate in their pairs, to sit round one table and to reflect in turn on their own aims, attitudes and problems. The process was to celebrate what was good and to note what was not so good with a view to progressing relationships between professional staff and Friends. I am not sure how difficult it was but I for one was impressed by the invaluable willingness of everyone to speak quite openly about their difficulties as well as their successes. While there were quite wide-ranging problems it quickly emerged and was accepted that bringing about a synergy between the work of the Friends and the mission of the Museum was a very important issue. Two others were identified: how to harness people assets, those already in the team and those not yet acquired; and how can one design autonomy (or self-reward) while still retaining control? Discussion was steered by George from there to methods of mobilising mutually meaningful and productive effort by Friends and Volunteers. Decisions needed (and need!) to be agreed amicably. George’s challenge: how to make this work so that everything is clear to all, that it gets to everyone, that its importance is made plain, that decisions are effective at once (or next week, or whatever is the agreed plan) and that an effective organisation is in place to achieve the objective.

The second day of the course, five weeks after the first, brought reports of closer liaison within pairs as well as some anxious consideration of the topical problems of keeping museums going if the professional staff were made redundant. There was news of revisions of structures and governing documents along with new plans for communicating with the wider public as well as with Friends and Volunteers themselves. The final session was centred on BAFM and under the banner ‘BAFM does not seem to realise how valuable it is and can yet be – is it more important than ever?’ delegates suggested that the subscription must generate more topical and timely advice. If, for example, the HVMA is a basic resource, the upshot of continuing experience should be made available to professional staff as well as to Friends and Volunteers. By constantly building on that basic resource both by evolution and extension and, where appropriate, by amendment, BAFM will be providing a service which actually and specifically benefits both the professional staff, Friends and Volunteers (or what I have imprudently referred to in an earlier Journal as the ‘love team’), and thus the museum. To the extent that this constitutes training, BAFM should consider revisiting its decision of 1999 not to be a training organisation. It should also realise the validity of its platform and acknowledge its ability to lobby at the highest level. If the benefits of the SHARE course are anything to go by there is hunger for BAFM support at all levels.

For us the time is now. The need is plain and the field is still surprisingly open. All that is needed is the determination of Council to grapple with the challenge.

BAFM Handbook for Heritage Volunteer Managers and Administrators (or HVMA) 1st Edition 1999; 2nd Edition 2009 (available from BAFM Administrator, see back cover for contact details). See also BAFM Journal, Summer 2010, p12.

The Art Fund Prize - Another BAFM Member Wins!
by Dr Elizabeth Mackenzie, BAFM Vice President

In 2005 and 2006 I was very privileged to be a judge for the Gulbenkian Prize (now the Art Fund Prize) for museums and galleries - the UK’s largest single arts prize. This judging experience gave me an insight into what is necessary to enter for these awards and what it takes to win. So I was delighted to witness the announcement in June that The Ulster Museum, Belfast, is the 2010 winner of the £100,000 Art Fund Prize for museums and galleries, because I know the tremendously exciting journey they have been on.

Entering for this prize is a very stimulating exercise which, at the very least, makes everyone involved with a project really analyse why it is valuable. The Art Fund winners demonstrate excellence, originality and imagination, show support from visitors and users and provide a lasting legacy. Being long-listed or short-listed can also be extremely valuable. It puts you on the map! Please encourage your organisation to enter if they have any suitable projects and be prepared to back them to the hilt. It is very heartening to hear that the Art Fund will continue to fund this prize at a time of such economic gloom.

For groups looking for worthwhile places to visit, recent Art Fund Prize short-lists can give you some great ideas. The Ulster Museum (whose Friends are BAFM members) hosted a very successful BAFM Conference in 2004 and we enjoyed a warm welcome from the staff and the Friends. Here are the other winners:

The Wedgwood Museum in Stoke-on-Trent was awarded the Art Fund Prize in 2009 and the 2008 winner was The Lightbox Museum & Gallery in Woking. Previous winners of the then Gulbenkian Prize include Pallant House Gallery, Chichester (2007); Brunel’s ss Great Britain, Bristol; Big Pit National Mining Museum of Wales, Blaenafon (2005); The Scottish Gallery of Modern Art for Landform by Charles Jencks (2004) - all of whom’s Friends are/were BAFM members - and the National Centre for Citizenship & the Law at the Galleries of Justice, Nottingham. Any one of these would be a wonderful venue for your next outing.

Honour for BAFM Volunteer
MBE for Ann Heeley

Among those honoured recently by Her Majesty The Queen, was Ann Heeley, volunteer and researcher at the Somerset Rural life Museum in Glastonbury for over three decades. She is a well-known local historian and, at present, is working with others on a forthcoming book on the project with which she has been so closely involved over so many years.

For some considerable time a team of volunteers has been working on the collection of oral archive recordings, now digitised, thanks to a grant from the HLF in 2005. Ann has worked as an interviewer, talking to Somerset people about their lives and occupations and helping to build up the collection of recordings and throwing light on local industries, such as cider-making, farming and agriculture generally, willow crafts, thatching and many trades such as coopering and peat-cutting that no longer exist.

Ann said that she was ‘overwhelmed’ when she discovered that she had been awarded an MBE. “I was very touched that somebody had thought that the work with the oral archive had been recognised and very pleased for the museum to have the publicity,” she said.
In addition to her work for the Museum, however, Ann also gave much of her time to BAFM, having been an Area Co-ordinator, Editor of the then BAFM Newsletter, Committee member and Honorary Secretary of BAFM. She has worked long and tirelessly for our organisation and we of BAFM congratulate her and rejoice in her honour.

MBE For Manchester Friend
Recognition for Joan Phillips’ work for MOSI

A Founder Member of the Friends’ group of the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) who has worked for the charity for 27 years as Friend, volunteer and on the executive committee, was awarded the MBE in the New Year’s Honours List. When Joan Phillips saw that there was to be a meeting to discuss plans to open a museum in the historic Liverpool Road Station and thus to preserve the buildings, she went along, listened to the arguments, became involved and the rest is history.

The Museum opened in 1983 and, from then on, Joan worked there in various capacities, as well as taking a leading role in building up the Friends (from 1982), acting as their Secretary between 1982 and 2007 and taking the roles of Membership Secretary and Magazine Editor, posts which she still holds today. Her many other duties even included working on the railway!

The MOSI Director, Steve Davies MBE, said, “If it hadn’t been for the foresight and determination of Friends like Mrs Phillips, MOSI would not exist today and our collections related to Manchester’s role in the transport and industrial revolutions would not be accessible to millions of people. Joan is the embodiment of the volunteering ethos which the museum community so heavily relies on and she is deserving of formal recognition. She has demonstrated diligence and commitment beyond the call of duty, showing a level of attention to detail normally associated with a paid professional.”

Joan has been a loyal supporter of BAFM for many years and is well known to our members, attending both Area and National Conferences. We in BAFM offer her our heartfelt congratulations on her justly deserved honour.