A guide for trustees
Authors: Ruth Lesirge and Hilary Barnard, HBRL Consulting
This guide is designed to be of practical help to Boards of independent museums throughout the UK.
Its primary readership is likely to be existing or potential Board members of smaller independent museums. However, a secondary significant readership may well include the Directors (or Chief Executives) and other senior executives of these museums, who will probably be offering substantial governance support to their Boards.
An important message to readers is that the good governance principles referenced and described in this guide will apply equally to museums that are still in local authority ownership/control.
Finally, our aim has been to make this guide useful to national museums established by all UK Parliaments.
This guide is intended to be a resource to dip in to rather than read cover to cover.
There are many and varied dimensions for Trustees to consider if the Board is to retain effective governance oversight of their museum. The challenge is therefore to develop and retain an holistic approach, ensuring the Board maintains a collective view of the inter-related parts of the governance process in order to achieve real improvements in the way it works.
The Board at its best can act as an engine for powering positive change. We encourage readers to recognise that progress is likely to be incremental and make space for improvements to its practice. The best Boards have an annual programme for developing their own skills and understandings that shapes their collective agreement about the direction of governance travel; and adding value to the mission and work of their museum.
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