‘Thriving Museum Boards: Growing Trustee
Diversity’
Hampshire Solent Museum Development
Programme/University of Portsmouth Masters in Corporate
Governance and Law Student Project 2014-15
Information sheet
Why this project?
Trustees play a crucial role in the leadership of a museum. Their role is to make sure the
museum is running well and is doing what it was set up to do. Most museum Trustees are
volunteers and perform their important role without pay.
Many museums lack sufficient Trustees to ensure the sustainability of their organisations.
They find it difficult to recruit new Board members when someone retires from the Board.
Many also lack diversity in their Trustee populations. The two issues are closely linked.
When museums look for new Trustees from within their existing networks of contacts, both
the number and range of potential Trustees are limited.
Having a diverse range of trustees helps to ensure that the museum reflects the diversity of
the community it serves, increase public confidence and accountability. It helps to ensure
that the Board has the full range of skills it needs and to ensure that fresh ideas are
generated. In addition, many museum organisations have a public duty to promote equality,
for example under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 Disability Discrimination Act
1995 and the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003.
But museums often struggle to achieve Board diversity. Groups often underrepresented on
museum boards include: young people, people with disabilities and members of minority or
ethnic communities.
This problem is not unique to museums. According to the 2011 ACEVO Leadership survey,
97% of Trustee Chairs are white and seven out of ten are men; and over a quarter of
charities feel that their leadership team lacks sufficient diversity. The Charity Commission
estimates that only 0.5% of the trustee population is made up of 18-24 year olds – yet many
museums set engagement with young people as a top priority.
How will the project be delivered?
Over the next six months, working with the School of Law at the University of Portsmouth,
we'll be helping museums to gain the benefits of having a diverse Board of Trustees and
address their succession planning issues.
As a key element of the project, three museums will have the opportunity of intensive
support, which will equip them with the knowledge and tools to be able to successfully
recruit, develop and retain effective Trustees from a wide range of backgrounds. The
participant museums and students will also contribute to the development of a resource
package that other museums can use after the project ends.
The project will be delivered by a postgraduate students drawn from the University of
Portsmouth’s LLM Corporate Governance and Law programme. Entry to this programme is
for law and non-law graduates, practising lawyers and business professionals. It is
accredited by the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA) and is often
chosen by graduates seeking a career as a Chartered Secretary. As well as having support
from the School of Law faculty, the Museum Development team will provide the students
with a briefing on relevant legislation, good practice and information sources, as specifically
relevant to museum Boards. Each museum will be matched with one or two students.
The students will be expected to:
 Research the current diversity of the Board, managing any personal information in
line with Data Protection principles.
 Analyse the skills Board already has and which it needs.
 Analyse the extent to which the Board reflects the diversity of the community which it
serves.
 Identify the potential for the museum to benefit from increased Board member
diversity.
 Work with the museum to develop an Action Plan that the museum can implement
 Provide support to the museum as it begins to implement the Action Plan
 Develop a toolkit for the museum based on the Action Plan (e.g. relevant resources,
contacts or materials)
 Contribute to the development of a case study about the project for
southeastmuseums.org/case-studies
 Contribute to the development of a Trustee diversity resource bank for about the
project for southeastmuseums.org/resources
These overall objectives will form the basis of a specific agreement between each museum
and its recommended student/s. Museums that are accepted for the project will be expected
to arrange an initial meeting with their allocated student/s, to establish a working
relationship. The museum will be expected to demonstrate volunteer management good
practice, with a volunteering agreement, agreed museum-specific objectives for the project
and appropriate induction. The period of volunteering and any travel or subsistence costs
would be by agreement between the museum and the student/s.
To be eligible for the support package, museums must:
 Be Accredited, Working Towards Accreditation or able to submit evidence of their
serious intent to join the Accreditation Scheme;
 Commit staff/trustee/volunteer resource to the project – sending required information
in advance, hosting the student and taking action afterwards to implement
improvements;
 Share learning from the project through the South East Museum Development
Programme (for example via case studies and events) provide feedback and
contribute to evaluation.
The project will start in October 2014 and finish in March 2015.
Who should be involved from your organisation?
It is vital that the project has the active involvement of the Chair, a ‘critical mass’ of current
Trustees and, if the museum has paid staff, the senior staff member who reports to the
Board (e.g. Director.)
What will be expected from participating organisations?
Applicants are required to:
 Demonstrate a strong desire to take action to ensure a more resilient, sustainable
and diverse board;
 Provide a named lead who will be the main contact throughout the duration of the
project;
 Share information and documentation with the student and Museum Development
team as necessary to assess the current diversity of the Board and identify
improvement action;
 Sign an agreement form to confirm that the organisation will participate in the full
programme of support.
How will museums be selected?
Application is by submission of an Expressions of Interest using the attached form. The
applications will be reviewed by the Museum Development Team and the University of
Portsmouth’s School of Law. The following criteria will be considered:
 Desire to take action to ensure a more resilient, sustainable and diverse board;
 Need to diversify Board membership;
 Record of good practice in volunteer management;
 Scope for improvement in Board diversity;
 Capacity to participate fully in the project.
Museums are advised to ensure that they cover all of these aspects fully on their Expression
of Interest, within the bounds of the given word limits.
To express interest in the project, please return the attached form by 9.00am on Monday 22
September 2014.
Return your Expression of Interest form to Lucy Marder, Museum Development Officer at
mdo.office@hants.gov.uk