Margate Museums Trust.
ANNUAL REPORT 2020
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Contents.
| Contents | Page 2 |
|---|---|
| Introduction: | |
| Reference and Administrative details | |
| Objectives and Activities | |
| Achievement’s and Performance | Pages 3-4 |
| Financial Summary | Page 4 |
| The Year Ahead | Pages 5 |
| Appendix: | |
| Business Plan Action List Update | Pages 6-11 |
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Introduction.
This report has been prepared for informative purposes to catalogue the work undertaken by the Margate Museums Trust (MMT) during the year 2020.
Reference and Administrative Details.
Registered Name of Charity:
Margate Museums Trust
Charity Registration Number: 1173031
Registered Office Address:
Registered Office Address: Margate Museum Market Place MARGATE Kent CT9 1ER Charitable Trustees: Nicholas Conington (February 2020) Robin Haddon Felicity Stafford Amy Waterman (February 2020)
Structure, Governance and Management.
The Margate Museums Trust was registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation in May 2017. We are governed by a “Constitution of a Charitable Incorporated Organisation” with voting members other than its charity trustees (‘Association ‘ Model Constitution) dated September 2016.
Objectives and Activities.
The objectives of the CIO
To benefit the residents and visitors to, the town of Margate by:
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1 Establishing and maintaining the Margate Museums;
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2 Advancing education for the public benefit by:
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(a) organising, preserving and conserving the collection of historic artefacts and
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(b) developing a greater knowledge and understanding of Margate’s heritage through displays, exhibitions and education activities.
The trust is the custodian of an extensive collection of historical artefacts of the town of Margate dating back to the Bronze Age on behalf of Thanet District Council. Its primary aim and justification of public benefit is to enable, the general public, schools, colleges and universities access to the town’s past by opening the Museums, displaying artefacts,
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mounting specific exhibitions based on local history and heritage, giving talks, arranging educational visits and assisting students, bodies and individuals with research into the town of Margate. Alongside this, we also have an ongoing programme of auditing and archiving the collection which is being done by our volunteers to arts Council Accreditation standards. We are currently underway with the process of accreditation with the Registration Scheme for museums and art galleries in the United Kingdom.
Achievements and Performance.
Along with other Museums and attractions in the UK, the Margate Museum and Tudor House were unable to open from March 2020 and for the rest of the year. (Both Museums finally re-opened in July 2021.) Because of the Covid-19 Lockdown, the MMT was unable to hold an Annual General Meeting (AGM) in 2020. Meetings of the Trustees were curtailed because of the inability to meet in person.
It seems appropriate here, to acknowledge the death of Ian Dickie, Trustee and Organiser of the Museum in late 2020. The Trustees would like to pay tribute to his love of the Museum. He was the driving force in its re-opening under the friends of Margate Museum and thereafter becoming a Charitable Trust in 2017. With the help and support of the Volunteers, the MMT is doing its best to continue the work.
An application to the Arts Council for accreditation was put on hold during the lockdown. This will form part of the Action Plan for the next year
Financial Summary.
The Museum and Tudor House were closed from March 2021 for the rest of the year with obvious effects on MMT’s finances. The combined takings for the Margate Museum and Tudor House were for 2020 were £8,763. These were down from the figures for 2019 of £12,631. Despite the lockdown there was an expenditure of £5,631 which again was down from the previous year (£18,871). Some of the expenditure figures reflect the change in operational conditions while other expenditures had to be maintained throughout. MMT was helped by a small covid grant from the Local Authority.
Visitor numbers and ticket sales were minimal, for obvious reasons.
The MMT currently holds a balance of £33,094 which is held in reserve for areas such as reopening expenditure, exhibitions and future development plans.
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The Year Ahead.
Looking ahead. one of the first priorities for the following year 2021 will be to achieve the re-opening of the Museum and Tudor House when lockdown is finished. After that, the next milestone will be working towards the Arts Council Accreditation scheme.
We will be looking to expand our board of Trustees and volunteer group. The Trustees have completed a Skills Audit checklist and will use this information to target missing skills sets and identify appropriate training courses. The Trustees will take the opportunity to re-visit documents to enhance internal protocols and processes. It is hoped to continue discussions with the Local Authority about formalising agreements.
Other priorities include reviewing any Conservation Assessments with regard to the collections and ensure that they are kept securely and in good condition.
Most crucially, the Trust will be seeking to increase our visitor numbers, enhance our public profile and increase our income by all possible means to help fund improvements to the Museum and Tudor House. We will be looking at obtaining grant funding both short term and long term to enhance the work of the Museums. We will be looking at updating the Museums website and use of social media plus traditional methods of publicity.
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APPENDIX
BUSINESS PLAN ACTION LIST UPDATE
The following tables have been extracted from the MMT Business Plan Action List which outlines points pertaining to targets set for 2019 and 2020.
| 1.0 | Governance | Completion Year Plan 2016 to 2020 |
Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | Recruit a Chair of Trustees | 2016/7 | RH recruited as Chair. Review succession planningfor future chairs |
| 1.2 | Review and ensure that all Trustees are aware of their responsibilities and legal requirement |
2016/7 | Trustee Handbook and Code of Conduct to be updated. The need for training to be given to new Trustees appointed in 2020. |
| 1.3 | Trustees ensure that all staff and volunteers comply with Health and Safety requirements |
2016/7 | Volunteer Handbook to be updated. Volunteers to be reminded of H and S requirements. New volunteers to be given information and training as they are appointed. |
| 1.6 | Establish criteria for identifying and recruiting trustees and effective Trustee succession |
2016/7 | Criteria and process for effective Trustee succession established in updated Trustees Handbook. |
| 1.7 | Recruit new Trustees | 2017/9 | Plan for recruitment of new Trustees to be established and put into operation as soon aspossible. |
| 1.8 | Trustees Meeting for strategic review and planning to be held at least bi-monthly and more often if necessary. Meeting to be held virtuallyor face-to-face |
2016/7 | Trustees meeting to continue to be held at least bi-monthly but more often if necessary. |
| 1.9 | Establish liaison group with Local Authority and meet quarterly |
2016/17 | This needs to be updated and continued. |
| 1.10 | Establish effective relationships with key potential fund raisers |
2017/19 | This needs to be continued. |
| 1.14 | Apply for Museum accreditation |
2016/17 | Accreditation had been applied for and eligibility confirmed by the Arts Council. Review stage of process and continue. (Archiving Leaders and Volunteers to be asked to contribute.) See 4.1 and 4.2. |
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| 1.15 | Agree formal Service Level agreement/Lease for operations with the Local Authority: |
2017/19 | Review current status of process for application of a Community Asset Transfer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.0 | Operations and Protocols |
Completion Year in Previous Plan 2016 to 2020 |
Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | Review and implement a new volunteer structure to ensure that it is fit for purpose for delivery of the MMT’s Action Plan |
2016/17 | Review volunteer structure |
| 2.3 | Develop and implement a volunteer policy. Reviewing volunteer’s role and tasks, recruitment, benefits, coordination, satisfaction and fulfilment |
2017/19 | The Volunteer Handbook will be discussed with the Volunteer Executive Committee. |
| 2.5 | Continue towards to work towards legal compliance in relation to Health and Safety |
2016/19 | The Executive Secretary has been ensuring that any current Government regulations are followed. |
| 2.8 | Emergency protocols, primary and secondary contacts and named key holders to be established with the Local Authority |
2016/17 | Review has been undertaken of current key holders. The need for further key holders will be reviewed. Liaison with Local Authority needs to be re-established. |
| 2.9 | Reporting procedures to Local Authority to be implemented |
2016/17 | These need to be reviewed in the light of change of Trustees. |
| 2.10 | Financial policy and best value protocols to be implemented |
2016/17 | The Finance and Best Value Policies are currently under review by the Trustees. |
| 2.11 | Rolling event and exhibition plan to be established and maintained |
2016/21 | To be reviewed. |
| 2.13 | Assess use of buildings and identify insufficiencies and potential opportunities to improve visitor experience, accessibility. Exhibition display and educational and communityofferings |
2016/17 | The Trustees need to re-visit the potential opportunities of displays and visitor experiences as a matter of importance. Ideally this should be done in conjunction with the Volunteer Education Officer and Volunteer Education Consultant. |
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Improving disabled access either for wheelchair, visually impaired or hearing impaired needs to be reviewed. External groups that could advise need to be consulted and grants applied for to cover the costs.
| 3.0 | Finance and Income Generation |
Completion Year in Previous Plan 2016 to 2020 |
Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | Establish formal accounting procedures and submit annual accounts to Local Authority |
2016/17 | Ensure that the financial procedures are securely in place and that new signatories have been added when needed. Update accounts regularly and report to Trustees at Trustee Meetings. Report to Local Authority. |
| 3.2 | Implement and maintain objectives of Finance Policy |
2016/17 | Ongoing |
| 3.4 | Identify grant funding opportunities |
2016/19 | Re-establish this as a priority. |
| 3.5 | Prepare and submit funding bids to enhance the Museum’s offer and visitor experience |
2017/19 | See 3.4 |
| 3.8 | Develop fundraising plan | 2017/19 | Work with Executive Committee to put this intoplace. |
| 3.13 | Identify income generation opportunities for both buildings |
2016/2019 | To be developed |
| 3.14 | Develop strategy for increasingdonations |
2016/17 | To be developed |
| 3.15 | Implement a membership scheme |
2019/19 | To be developed. Consider whether this could include fund raisingactivities. See 3.8 |
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| 4.0 | Collections and Building Conservation |
Completion Year in Previous Plan 2016 to 2020 |
Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4.1 | Apply to the Arts Council for the Accreditation Scheme for Museums and Galleries |
2016/17 | The Museum will continue to work towards accreditation. |
| 4.4 | Resolve collection ownership issues |
2017/19 | Ensure any items donated to MMT rather that the Museum are catalogued and archived.. |
| 4.5 | Arrange to house collection in suitable environment with controlled conditions |
2017/19 | Check environmental conditions for the collections in the light of the problems caused by bad weather. |
| 4.9 | Develop and implement a building conservation and maintenanceplan |
2017/20 | The state of both buildings remains a cause of concern. |
| 4.10 | Refurbish building fabric and implement identified opportunities for enhanced exhibition display, educational and communityfacilities |
2018/19 | The reception area was re=designed and rebuilt during 2018/2019. Further changes would need to be discussed with the Local Authority and funding explored. Disabled access and improved toilet facilities are two areas for review. See 4.9 |
| 5.0 | Education and Interpretation |
Completion Year in Previous Plan 2016 to 2020 |
Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.4 | Deliver a programme of temporary exhibitions in the museum and review the function and viability of the gallery spaces |
2016/2019 | From 2017 to 2019 there were a number of exhibitions including the Battle of Margate 1387, The Home Front in World War I and Holy Trinity Church and David Railton. In 2019 the Museum hosted a major exhibition on Turner with the help of Funding. This included community art projects for young and old, book signings, film evenings and an evening of Georgian Food. This was hard work and without enough support this level of commitment is difficult to maintain. |
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| Plan for future exhibitions with the help of the Volunteer Executive. |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.5 | Develop exhibitions plan driven by the collection, sense of place and audience development |
2017/19 | See 5.4 |
| 5.6 | Develop outreach programme for schools and community groups |
2016/19 | The Education programme on offer has flourished but will need to be revisited. New guidelines and risk assessments are likely be needed. See 5.1. |
| 6.0 | Communications and Marketing |
Completion Year in Previous Plan 2016 to 2020 |
Comment |
| 6.1 | Raise the profile of the museums buildings and collection |
2016/19 | Signage within the Museum needs to be updated using the MMT branding images as a basis. Consideration needs to be given to the needs of children and those with visual problems. Outside consultation might be needed. A dedicated programme for advertising in local magazines, newspaper and social media needs to be discussed and implemented. Participation in Heritage Open Days needs to be continued. |
| 6.2 | Communications and marketing of the current programme targeted at key visitor market to increase visitor numbers |
2019/19 | Key markets need to be reviewed and a targeted programme put into place. |
| 6.4 | Collect and use information about visitors and their experience to develop and improve the visitor experience. |
2016/19 | This needs to be a focus for the next few months to inform 6.1 and 6.2. Volunteers to remind visitors that a comment in the Visitors Book would be good. Use very simple exit questionnaires to gain information and identifycurrent visitors. |
| 6.5 | Improve networking with other local museums and review potential joint venture opportunities |
2017/19 | This needs to be revisited. With no day-to- day organiser there needs to be an identified person who can deal with this. |
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| 6.6 | Develop and implement a Communications and Marketingstrategy |
2017/19 | This continues to be a necessity. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.9 | Establish social media strategy and improve onlinepresence |
2019/19 | Social media strategy needs to be revisited as a matter of urgency |
| 6.10 | Establish autonomous website for communicating up to date visitor information and current and upcoming events and exhibitions |
2016/19 | A new website is a vital necessity if the Museum is to move forward. |
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