Court Barn Museum

Chair

The Museum needs to use the experience of people with a real investment in local culture and events to join our Board. Court Barn is currently looking for a Chair to take on the leading of the Board through a process of Co-Chairing with a current trustee.

The role of Chair of Trustees:

• Provide strategic leadership to the charity and the Board, ensuring that Court Barn achieves its mission.
• Work in partnership with the Curator and team to achieve our mission.
• Lead the board in ensuring that it fulfils its responsibilities for the governance of the organisation.
• Optimise the relationship between the board and Court Barn staff and volunteers.
• Plan and chair the board meetings and the AGM, with others as appropriate.

Act as a spokesperson and figurehead for Court Barn.

We are looking for:

• Experience of being a trustee and readiness to lead on the development of the board of trustees.
• A passion for the local Arts and Crafts heritage.
• A keen sense of strategic purpose to drive the Museum forward over the next 5 years through a period of uncertainty, taking confident decisions to act as a figurehead.
• An understanding of museums and their role and also of how small businesses operate.
• An inclusive leadership style: able to inspire and support everyone to participate on an equal footing to ensure effective management of employees, volunteers and trustees.
• Encourage trustee involvement/dialogue in relevant areas, lead on planning and ensure actions are followed up.
• The ability to listen and engage effectively and be comfortable with challenge and debate and are able to encourage that in others whilst fostering a collaborative board environment.
• Advocate – be able and willing to champion Court Barn’s work through personal networks, social media and other channels.
• A strong personal commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.
• Be responsive and able to support the management team on a regular basis, preferably in person.
• Share the same responsibilities and qualities of all trustees.

Treasurer

The Museum needs to use the experience of people with a real investment in local culture and events to join our Board. Court Barn is currently looking for a Treasurer to join the Board. As well as fulfilling the duties of a Trustee, the Treasurer maintains an overview of Court Barn‘s financial affairs. The Treasurer ensures that effective and appropriate financial measures, controls and procedures are put in place and reports to the Board at regular intervals about the financial health of the organisation. 

About the role:

• Overseeing the presentation of budgets, internal management accounts and annual financial statements to the Board of Trustees.
• Ensuring that proper accounting records are kept, and that appropriate accounting procedures and controls are in place eg Excel and online applications such as Quick Books
• Monitoring and advising on the financial viability of the activities the museum would like to organise.
• Advising on the financial implications of the charity’s strategic plan, including overseeing the charity’s financial risk-management process
• Oversee the development and implementation of systems for appraising, mitigating and reporting corporate risk.
• Lead on the liaison with the independent examiner.
• Ensuring that the accounts are prepared and disclosed in the form required by relevant statutory bodies, for example, the Charity Commission and/or the Registrar of Companies.
• Keeping the board informed about its financial duties and responsibilities and liaising with the Chair.
• The Treasurer works with the Chairman and Secretary to provide oversight and leadership to the staff as required between trustees meetings.

We are looking for:

• Whilst not necessarily requiring formal accountancy qualifications, the post holder will need to be confident in financial analysis, both on a day-to-day and strategic basis. The treasurer prepares the annual accounts using Quickbooks.
• A strategic thinker with an ability to balance risk and opportunity.
• Clear communicator with the ability to bring the financial information alive to non-finance specialists.
• Willing to play an active role in areas such as forecasting, setting budgets, liaising with auditors

Additional information

Number of meetings per annum/time commitment: Overall time commitment is estimated at 1-2 days per month, attending 4-6 Board meetings annually. Meetings are currently held at Court Barn. There are also monthly scheduled meetings with the management team with flexibility to respond swiftly to the occasional ad hoc issue.

Daytime or evening meetings: Daytime

Closing date for applications:       Friday 8 December 2023

Please visit our website for more information about the role and a downloadable Trustee Information Pack.

To express an interest in the role, please email Sarah McCormick Healy, Curator of the Museum, who will arrange for an informal chat with a current board member on the role and its specifications.

Organisation website: Court Barn Homepage: https://courtbarn.org.uk/

Role Information: https://courtbarn.org.uk/2023/11/03/the-guild-of-handicraft-trust-is-currently-seeking-a-new-chair-of-trustees-and-a-treasurer/