THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIFTH
MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
OF THE NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM
23 MAY 2013
IN THE BOARDROOM
MINUTES
Trustees present:
Lord Sterling
Chairman
David Moorhouse
David Quarmby
Linda Hutchinson
Sir Robert Crawford
Eleanor Boddington
Professor Geoffrey Crossick
Chris Lintott
In attendance:
Kevin Fewster
Margarette Lincoln
Andy Bodle
Sandra Botterell
Richard Doughty
Anupam Ganguli
Mike Sarna
Christopher Gray
i.
Director
Deputy Director
Director, Operations and HR
Director, Commercial
Director, Cutty Sark
Director of Finance
Programming and Exhibitions Director
Museum Secretary
Recruitment and appointments update
Lord Sterling updated the meeting on the disappointing lack of progress on the
two current tranches of Trustee recruitment. Recommendations had been put
forward by Lord Sterling on 12 March and 26 April to Ministers and despite
constant enquiry from the Museum these very necessary appointments had not
moved any further forward.
Trustees considered that unless there was a swift resolution to the
recommended appointments these matters constituted a risk to the continuity
and vitality of the Board and requested the Chairman and the Nominations
Committee to pursue the appointments with the Department with vigour.
Regarding his own succession as Chair, Lord Sterling reported that the Museum
was now being required by the Secretary of State to proceed on a full scale
OCPA process, rather than the customary delegated process, to source a Trustee
that the Board could then elect as Chair.
Trustees noted with concern the potential timescale difficulties with this
procedure, the extent of their involvement with the selection process, and
requested further impetus be given to the work the executive recruitment firm
was undertaking to identify potential candidates.
Trustees were also concerned that the wider picture did not present the
Museum or sector in the best of lights to candidates.
ii.
Trustees then considered the potential (as had been spoken of for some time) of
the divestment of the current DCMS responsibilities into other departments.
Trustees considered that, should this come to pass, a background strategy was
needed to ensure the Museum was not marginalised in any way.
iii
Ratification of Committee appointments
Trustees ratified the appointments of:
David Moorhouse as Interim Chair of the Audit Committee
David Quarmby to the Nominations Committee
Linda Hutchinson to the Remuneration Committee
1.
Apologies
None.
2.
Declaration of relevant interests related to this meeting
None.
3.
Draft Minutes of the previous meeting: 334 of 21 February 2012
The Board agreed the minutes to be a true record of the meeting and the
Chairman then certified the minutes accordingly.
4.
Children's Gallery
In an addition to the agenda, and at the request of the Chairman, the Director,
Programmes and Exhibitions presented initial thinking on a new children’s
gallery to replace the existing Explorers gallery and utilise space in the adjacent
East Street.
Trustees heard that the gallery is being developed and specifically designed for
children aged under 7 (0-3 years: babies and toddlers, 3-5 years: pre-schoolers
and 5-7 years: young learners) and their parents, carers & teachers. The gallery
seeks to be a first introduction to the sea and the maritime subject in its
broadest context and create an appropriate foundation on which to build
relationships with the Museum.
The ideas were warmly received by Trustees who were committed to providing
an experiential resource for this important age group and their accompanying
adults.
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Trustees made the points that:
the gallery would need clear signposting to show where to go next in the journey
– linking to the Museum as a whole for a visiting family was very important
being a museum "in the community" was a vital strand of its charitable efforts
as was being understood by locals and others as being actively family friendly
the operation of the gallery needed to deal with the challenge of providing this
service at the time in the day that the audience wanted it
the gallery needed to be structured and focussed perhaps employing timed
access (perhaps allowing Members' families some priority)
In conclusion, Trustees were enthused with the development of the plans and
agreed that this is a preferred option to move forward. Nevertheless, Trustees
were mindful of funding exigencies and that therefore work needed to be done
to attract potential sponsors. It was agreed that an update on progress on
funding would come to the November Board for a decision on whether or not to
continue to the next stage.
Action: Programmes and Exhibitions Director
5.
Ansel Adams end report
Trustees noted the Ansel Adams end report and were very pleased that the
exhibition had been a great success in so many ways with 120,000 attendees.
Trustees were also pleased to note that ‘end reports’ were now an embedded
part of all exhibitions procedures.
The Programmes and Exhibitions Director drew specific attention to: costs
being accurate and controlled; the new exit survey providing much more depth
of data; 58% of visits being first time visitors; the good Flickr comments; 4,000
catalogues being sold; learning how to deal with larger crowds; and that visitors
had commented that they were inspired by the exhibition - which supported the
transformational ability of our exhibitions.
Though it had not reached its sponsorship target of £100,000, due to good costmanagement, admissions and trading performance the exhibition generated a
surplus of some £292k.
Regarding marketing and audience behaviour the Board noted that there was
powerful marketing through word of mouth and social media and requested the
executive look at the traffic on social media and consider an analysis of where
the visitors who went to the exhibition went next.
It was also agreed that the scope and specification of the new exit survey be
discussed with Chris Lintott.
Actions: Director, Commercial
6.
Visions of the Universe presentation
Trustees were grateful for the vibrant and engaging presentation from Dr Marek
Kukula, Public Astronomer; Matthew Lawrence, Senior Exhibitions Project
Manager, and Kristian Martin, Exhibitions Curator on the forthcoming
exhibition due to open to the public on 7 June.
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The aims and objectives of Visions of the Universe are to:
build on success of Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition and to test
the public appetite for presenting it on a larger scale
reinforce the brand of Royal Museums Greenwich, strengthening the link
between the Royal Observatory and the NMM by presenting an astronomy show
in the Special Exhibitions Gallery
control costs and logistics of turnaround by re-using configuration of gallery
from Ansel Adams
develop and strengthen the Museum’s relationships with the wider astronomy
community
The Director, Commercial took Trustees through the marketing aspects of the
presentation and confirmed that the show was being marketed via the Royal
Geographical Society and the National Trust.
Trustees noted and thoroughly approved that the exhibition be dedicated to
Sir Patrick Moore.
Trustees made the points that the show could very well attract large numbers of
Russians and Americans and the Chairman stated that he was confident of a
visitation of 80,000.
7.
Ticketing presentation
Trustees noted the presentation given by the Director, Commercial and Sue
Kennedy, the project leader, on progress with the ticketing project which will
provide the Museum with a ‘slicker and quicker’ transactional service and much
additional and useful data on the audience background to those transactions.
The project leader confirmed that this is a cross-museum project and all those
individuals and departments who were assisting with the design and would be
using the system were closely involved with its development. The structure was
based around a basket system to deal with RMG’s variety of pick-and-mix
ticketing options.
The plan was to go live with the first phase on a quiet day which was currently
scheduled for late September and to avoid parallel running with the existing
system.
8.
Director’s report
In taking Trustees through his report the Director focussed on:
The Great Map: The physical map flooring was laid and opened to the public
over Easter as planned but issues associated with the i-tablet tracking
technology have delayed the implementation of the full Great Map experience.
It is hoped that these matters will be resolved over the next few weeks.
End of Year visitor figures: In spite of the many challenges posed by the
Olympics, the Museum performed very strongly in 2012-13. Total visits (not
including Cutty Sark) were 1,929,199, 4% higher than the previous year and the
fourth highest in the Museum’s history. NMM’s galleries received 1,179,754
visitors, a 24% increase on last year’s record attendance number. The Peter
Harrison Planetarium welcomed a record 173,793 visitors (19% higher than
2011-12) despite being closed for nearly two months over the Olympics. Cutty
Sark received 321,102 visitors, 27% ahead of target and double the numbers it
was achieving before its major conservation project. Membership numbers
doubled during the year to a record 4,480 memberships (totalling over 8,500
members) with families now being the dominant segment of our membership
demographic.
Gift Aid on Cutty Sark: Clearance has now been received from HMRC to
implement Gift Aid on admissions to Cutty Sark. The necessary legal
documentation is now being arranged and staff training is underway.
Stubbs paintings: The Director reported that at very short notice, the
Museum had submitted an application for an HLF grant of £3,194,000 towards
the cost (total £4,981,400) of acquiring, conserving and displaying two
paintings by George Stubbs, commissioned by Joseph Banks in 1771
immediately after his return from Cook’s Endeavour voyage. The paintings are
the first European paintings of a kangaroo and a dingo. They were sold to an
overseas buyer in late 2012, but the Secretary of State has subsequently imposed
an export ban. The Museum has until November 2013 to raise the purchase
price of £4,455,000 but the outcome of our HLF bid should be known in
August.
Trustees agreed to come to a decision when the outcome of the application to
the Heritage Lottery Fund is known and the scope for additional fundraising has
been explored.
On this matter, the Executive recognised the requirement to keep the
Collections and Research Committee fully consulted and apprised of
acquisitions of this nature in future.
9.
Director of Finance & Enterprises Report
i. Finance Report Year ended 31 March 2013
The Director of Finance took Trustees through the management accounts, as
had been reviewed by the Finance Committee at its 9 May meeting. Trustees
noted the larger than budgeted operational surplus due to the excellent
performance of the Ansel Adams exhibition, good performance from retail and
the Peter Harrison Planetarium, and the growing conversion of Gift Aid.
Trustees noted that the Audit Committee would meet on 24 June to approve
the Annual Report and Accounts on behalf of the Board.
ii. Strategic Risks as at 31 March 2013
Trustees noted that the financial risk around the Museum’s operating costs and
potential operating deficit has been increased to ‘High’ following a request from
DCMS to plan for reductions in GiA of 5%, 10% and 15%.
Otherwise the Board had no further comments to make on the Risk Register
which was then approved.
10.
Grant in Aid: Spending Review for 2015-2016
Trustees noted the Chairman’s letter to the Secretary of State, the facts of the
paper and its ramifications.
11.
Disposals from the collection
The Chair of the Collections and Research Committee reported that the
Committee had received a high level of documentation on the disposals from
the ship model collection and was content to recommend the disposals to the
Board. For the paper record the Trustees requested the specifics about the
reason/s, such as poor condition or duplicate, for each item's disposal to be
noted and with that clarity approved the disposals to go forward to the
Department for the next stage in the process.
12.
Matters arising from Volume B
The Director confirmed that responsibility for the website is moving to the
Director, Commercial for reasons of commercial synergies. Trustees considered
that content management and digital media needed a unified and prioritised
approach and some trustees considered that there could be a long-term risk in
separating web and digital media and requested clarity on who would be
aligning these areas.
[Post meeting note: Chris Lintott met with the Director and members of the
Executive on 8 August and is providing on-going input.]
Trustees also requested an understanding of who and how many people were
actually visiting the website and how this compared with other museums and
galleries. [Post meeting note: This will be brought to the November Board.]
13.
Next Board Meeting:
Thursday 19 September 2013.
Distribution: Those present + apologies+ HIA
Minutes approved by Lord Sterling, Chairman
Date