BTC Honorary Museum Coordinator's Report 2 March 2010

1. Blake House building

The winter works programme planned in conjunction with the FOBM has brought further improvements to the fabric and structure. It is expected to be completed in time for re-opening to the public and within the overall budget. Cost savings are expected in future years from the initial investment in energy-saving measures such as the fitting of roof insulation and the new heating system. The building is revealing more of its historic character, within which is housed and displayed the collections illustrating Bridgwater's past and present.

In future, planned external annual maintenance is needed. The state of the whole of the eastward-facing roofs and valleys is poor (one valley currently leaking). The south chimney needs a structural survey, as does the west wall bordering Blake Street. The Town Council should plan to commit a minimum of £10,000 each year for the foreseeable future for essential maintenance of the Blake House.

2. Equipment

Further selective purchases have been made to ensure that the care and interpretation of Blake Museum collections are not impeded through lack of the best equipment. The reputation of the Museum for innovation in the past year has become well recognised within the museum community.

3. Museum Collections

(a) A small number of additions has been made to the collections, as given in the Chairman FOBM reports. I continue to recommend that only items of exceptional interest or value to the collections are accepted until such time as the cataloguing backlog has been significantly reduced.

(b) Proposed disposals under disposal policy

The Museum Archivist has identified a number of items which fall outside the Museum's Collections Policy, as per the appended list. He considers these are not relevant to the purposes of the museum. I endorse his recommendations to initiate the due process of disposal.

4. Meeting the Accreditation Standards

All the required documentation of policies and practices for the Accreditation Review were submitted to the MLA through the Honorary Curatorial Adviser by the deadline in September. A copy of the submission to MLA was provided to the Chairman of FOBM to be circulated and read by all the Trustees, for them to take appropriate actions to help the volunteer body acquire the necessary skills.

It is a disappointment that the considerable effort that went into drawing up workable policies and practices has not yet resulted in a suffusion of understanding within the volunteer body of the need to apply professional standards to collections care, documentation, and display within Blake Museum. The Forward Plan recognises the need for improvements in these areas through Key Objective O9, but to do so needs the stronger volunteer base detailed in O12. I recommend that the Museum sub-Committee should now take positive action by facilitating training to ensure that the volunteer base improves its knowledge and understanding of museum best practice.

5. My Retirement

I am grateful to the Town Council for the trust it has placed in me and for the opportunities it has provided for personal fulfilment in serving the needs of the community in Bridgwater through my voluntary work with the Museum. The new administrative arrangements from 1 April will lead to further improvements of which we can all be proud.