August Issue 2005

The AIM Bulletin is the main communication channel for the UKs 1000+ independent museums and heritage organisations - half the total provision for the British Isles - which have been in the forefront of the museum movement for over 25 years.

IN THIS ISSUE 

• AIM is listed in the ‘Top Ten’ sources for business development information in a new publication by the Scottish Museums Council for Scotland’s independent museums. The Top Five are recommended as a starter pack for independent museums looking for the most useful and relatively inexpensive business tools. The list is based on resources available through the organisations’ websites.  AIM is promoted as an excellent source of information on project development, governance, funding and financing and trading activities. The Web Advisory Resource for Independent Museums for the Scottish Museums Council says advice is plentiful, but many independent museums may not be noticing it. AIM’s help comes in the form of a website development opportunity, information such as the AIM Bulletin and FOCUS papers on practical management subjects, a training fund, and membership with access to the annual conference, annual lecture and help from AIM Council members. Page 1
  
  
• Making Renaissance in the Regions work for independent museums is one of AIM’s priorities for the coming year.  The impact the project has made on independents - or lack of it - is criticised in this issue’s Comment by John Manley, chief executive of Sussex Archaeological Society which runs six museums. Those in the hubs are benefiting from extra cash, but there are few signs of the benefits cascading to the rest of museums,. He says the reality of the RR programme is that there was never a clear mechanism ensuring benefit for the entire museums sector, contrary to the impression given by Government and MLA press releases.   But he sees the start of some response to the programme’s critics and hopes that RR leaders will now engage with the rest of the museum community to address their concerns.    Page 3
  
  
• AIM advocates a single funding body through which all Government funding should be distributed – and not just to the national museums and hubs. In its response to the Department for Culture Media & Sport’s consultation paper on key issues facing museums, Understanding the Future: Museums and 21st Century Life, AIM stresses the need for structural changes to support museums more effectively and ensure a truly national strategy for museums.  What is needed, says AIM, is an entirely different kind of organisation than currently exists, one which would work cohesively and strategically to make more resources available to the whole sector.  “AIM has been very supportive of Renaissance in the Regions but it remains a fact that most hubs do not engage with the majority of the independent sector,” it says.  Page 4
  
  
• The Attractions Gift Aid Liasion Group (AGALG) is pressing ahead with plans for nationwide branding and marketing initiatives to promote Gift Aid on admissions now that the revised scheme seems certain to be introduced in April 2006.  The new rules will require visitors to donate 10% above normal admission price for Gift Aid eligibility, or they can be granted free access for a year for the single payment.  AGALG is now working on a branded national offer, with logos and standard wordings, to reduce confusion in the minds of the visiting public.   Page 5.
  
  
• In little over a year the Conserving Local Heritage project has assessed and benchmarked collections at five independent museums in Suffolk, training 35 museum volunteers and providing hands-on conservation expertise. Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the East of England Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, the project revolutionised skills in the museums concerned.  Georgia Butters, who led the project, says it acted as a catalyst for change, making collections care and conservation part of day-to-day management.  It provided the small museums with direct contact with professional conservators for the first time, and someone to turn to for advice in the future.   Page 9
  
  
• Smaller independent museums will benefit from AIM’s unique Sustainability Scheme supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.  Over the next three years museums with an annual turnover of less than £300,000 or with less than 60,000 visitors can apply for funds for projects aimed at making them more self-sustainable.  Grants will usually be between £3,000 and £5,000 and most applicants will be expected to attend one-day regional Sustainability Workshops, covering fields such as governance, business planning, collections management, organisational change, retail trading, marketing etc.  Full details of the grant application process is included with this issue of the Bulletin and is available from AIM Administrator Roger Hornshaw at the contact number below.  Page 16

Also in this issue 

• Seamus Heaney opens new Jerwood Centre at the Wordsworth Trust
• Aviation volunteers’ training initiative
• Medieval thatching project breaks new ground at Chiltern Open Air Museum
• Significance Recognition Scheme proposals gather pace in Scotland
• London’s Transport Museum closes for refurbishment
• David Lammy – new Minister for Culture
• Papplewick Pumping Station steams again
• Bottom Line – Community Interest Companies
• Museum wins VAT battle with HM Revenue & Customs
• Tramway Museum Society celebrates Golden Jubilee
• Heritage included in Lottery plans after 2009
• Hereford Waterworks Museum and its HLF project challenges
• New report puts collections at centre stage
• MuseumProfile: The British Postal Museum & Archive

Plus

Information on AIM’s latest events, AIM’s Trading Survey, the Bob Harding Training Fund Bursaries and FOCUS information papers, and the two-page AIM Directory – 30+ providers of products and services for the museum sector.
Further information contacts:
Roger Hornshaw, AIM Adminstrator Tel 02392 587751 aimadmin@museum.org.uk
Bill Ferris, AIM chairman - Tel 01634 823800  Fax 01634 832801 wferris@chdt.org.uk
Diana Zeuner, AIM Bulletin editor - Tel/Fax 01730 812419  heavyhorse@mistral.co.uk.