Volunteer conference

Today I’ve been at the first Volunteer conference of the year. The Trust are running three, this one in Elstree, one in Sheffield and one at central office: Heelis in Swindon.

It went really well. Which was a pleasant surprise. I wan’t sure how interested our volunteers would be in the Trust as a whole, as many volunteers tell me they volunteer for the places they help look after, not the organisation. And indeed we didn’t get as many volunteers as we originally hoped for signing up to come to the conference. But that turned out for the best, the 130 (approx) who came all had a good time, all had a chance to say their piece, and all contributed to the workshops and activities. More might have been a little unwieldy.

Fiona Reynolds was there and people really seemed to appreciate the chance to talk to her, face to face. I made good contacts with a number of volunteers who wanted to try new things, an internet forum for newsletter editors for example. And I also made contact with a supporters’ association in Belgium, who’d like to come under the wing of a region, so of course I offered them space in the South East’s nest.

All in all, a very good day, apart from getting on the wrong train with the Director General…

The invasion of the iPhones

A little footnote to the conference blogs. I saw a good number of colleagues using their iPhones, among the NT supplied Nokias and Blackberries. When I found one wasn’t using his for his Trust calendar and email. I showed him how. I should have checked with all the other owners, to make sure they also knew how. We want a groundswell of popular iPhone use to make sure that our IT department don’t turn off the the OWA function that pushes us our email and diaries!

While I was writing this post, I was interupped by our head of e-engagement. We talk about all sorts of stuff, but I ended up briefing a new colleague if his on how to use her iPhone for exchange access. The march continues!

A local National Trust

Fiona Reynolds speaks this morning about the curious dichotomy that is the strength, a local treasure looked after by a National Organisation. Last night after dinner Ellen MacArthur spoke about sustainability. And Fiona today talks about how for an organisation like he, sustainability is the only option. She talks about how we should use renewable resources.

She reminds us that some years ago (when I started) the big issue was “20% net gain”, which was the need to make a “profit” or operating contribution of 20% of turnover. She wonders whether now, we should have a carbon net gain. Part of the way to to that might be to become even more local.

A vision for the future

Simon Murray is our Director of Operations. He’s talking now about putting properties at the heart of everything we do, and strengthing the operational line, that is to say the cline from the properties themeselvestjrough the property managers, area managers, regional directors, and Simon himself, to Fiona Reynolds, the Director General.

He thinks the functions (Enterprises, Conservation, my own department) feel accountable for the delivery on the ground. But, he reminds us, they are not. Yet property managers still feel they are being made to deliver everyone else’s objectives.

If stretching targets (for example 75% visitors find their visit very enjoyable, rather than 55%) are required they will want, need, demand, functional advice.

If you delegate power to properties, you need to reduce all the guidelines to an absolute minimum.

He talks if the property manager coming into a Dragon’s Den of functional advisors. S/he comes with with their ideas if how to support the strategy, and seeks the function’s support. If the plans are good enough the he gets guaranteed funding for three years (or whatever) and then is let off the leash.

He also says there are too many projects, not enough little and often funding for continual improvement.

Sounds good, it does to me, and it’s the way I’ve been thinking since the talk about General Managers started. I’m glad, because it suggests I’ve been moving my own team in the right direction.

There’s a challenge, discussed afterwards, about how properties might be rewarded for acheiving those stretching targets. And how complicated must that reward structure be, when four out of five places don’t generate a surplus? If it is too complicated it becomes another layer of burocracy.

One property manager asks what happens to their head of department, for example Visitor Services Managers at properties. Ideally the General Managers should have the freedom to spend their wages budget where it suits the property best. But there is also of course the current economic climate to consider.

I think another question sums it up: as we go forward we’ll be making it up as we go along.

Leadership Conference

Arrived late for the conference, so we listened to the end of Fiona’s speech before our new Chairman, Simon Jenkins, got up to speak.

Simon started by talking about why he took the job. And right now he’s making us feel good by comparing us favourably to English Heritage. Almost all things to almost all men and women, he says, balancing the high art with the working farm. He senses moving from an era of protecting and preserving places for the nation, to one where we are almst handing the places over to the nation, engaging people in the work so much that we should almost put places at risk.

Now his knocking us off our pedestals, telling us that we present our houses to art historians, while people actually want to know what it’s like to live in the house. We should treat our houses like we treat our industrial heritage. Putting the houses to work: “if it’s a dining room, people should eat in it”.

He says we shouln’t shy away from controversy, but we should be carefull. We should respect the diverse views of our members, embrace those diverse views, not alienate the members that hold them.

His last point is about beaurocracy, and quotes Adam Nicholson saying “is the Trust slow because it’s big, or big because it’s slow?” He is shocked by the quality of the language in internal papers, too full of the jargon of large organizations.

He is followed by Peter Nixon. He onteiduces the theme of the conference, Conservation. He talks about it being the the carefull managementnif change, and highlights the uncertainty of the current times. He would like all staff to feel that conservation us their objective, not just the remit if the conservation department.

He mentions the controversy over Erddig, and talks about the lessons learned from that controversy. Especially, not assuming that if every who comes to meetings agrees, that everyone in the community also agrees.

He goes on to talk about how conservation (and other) advisors need to be supportive, to be realistic, to be positive and to be aware that the advice they give will have an impact beyond the specific area they are looking at, and beyond the properties too.

Interestingly he says it’s no longer acceptable that when there’s a irreconsillable conflict between access and and conservation, then conservation will prevail. Instead, he says, the irreconsillable has to be reconcilled.

Buttonhooks

Another quickie. I’ve been passed a copy of The Boutonneur, the journal of the Buttonhook Society. Issue No 172, for September has half a page on Scotney Castle, praising us for putting Mrs Hussey’s buttonhook on display. As the correspondant writes “Many curators seem to be a bit sniffy about [button hooks] as if they are artefacts of little importance, whereas we know that for a long period history civilised life would have come to halt without a buttonhook.” I’m glad we’ve managed to recognise their importance at Scotney Castle.

Virtual Tours Shortlisted for JODI award.

I just wrote a long post about virtual tours in the NT, and lost it. It’s late, but the cool news is we’ve been shortlisted for an award!

Against the wall

Things are tough financially. They have been all year, but today the first day of what used to be the “closed season”, really brings it home. This is the point when even though all our countryside is free to access all year round, and more and more pay-for-entry places are open during winter, people have less opportunity to visit.

As an organisation, we aim for a 20% operating contribution, which is to say, that we want to generate from our operating turnover an extra 20%, which next year can be allocated to conservation projects. We’re way below that target right now, and we’ve only got the lean months to try and scrape a little of it back.

Why? Well the credit crunch hasn’t helped, but frankly, in my region, the biggest problem has been the weather. It rained, it seemed, all summer, and especially, it seemed, at week-ends and when we had an event on. Obviously we should try to be less dependent on visitor related income. But that learning point doesn’t help the present situation. My region is responsible for over half the operating contribution shortfall. What are we going to do, in these lean winter months to try and narrow that gap?

I’ve been thinking about what my team is able to do, and I’ve been charged by our regional committee and by our regional management team, to come up with a “tactical plan” in improve income. There are some no-brainers , investing in promoting the winter openings that are going on before Christmas.

This year, more of our houses will be open and dressed for the season than ever before, including Ightham Mote, where the Great Hall with be decorated with a traditional tree for visitors to enjoy from Thursdays to Sundays from 6 November through until 21 December.  At Bateman’s, visitors can enjoy a Kipling Christmas during the first three weekends in December.  At Standen, the original light fittings will illuminate the house while traditional decorations will add a festive touch, for four weekends from 29 November.  At Uppark, you can experience life ‘below stairs’ and discover how the servants prepared for the seasonal celebrations from 6 to 11 December.  And finally, from 4 – 7 December, Polesden Lacey will be treating their guests to a true Mrs Greville welcome with staff in period costume, decorations, festive music and a 16 foot tree.

But can we do more to change people’s perceptions that everwhere is closed during winter, and what can we add regionally to the adverstising and press releases that properties themselves are doing? Can we agree promotions with properties that give people 10% off on the shop for instance, and cane we market all the different offers that tea-rooms and resturants have on, under a simple to communicate regional theme? I think we also need to make sure that the properties are all doing what we may be taking for granted, devising their own appropriate offers, marketing them effectively not just with advertising, but in press releases and roadside banners.

And after Christmas, how best should we be promoting visits in January and February? We’ve already decided that the region will create a couple of calendars, one of things to do during half term, and and another for adults of all the lecture lunches and the like, and distribute them on-line at properties and in the papers (if we are lucky). We just tried a viral e-marketing campaign offering a kids go free voucher for this last half term, it’ll be interesting to see how successful that was.

One exciting thing may be happening. I’ve been banging on for years about putting our Father Christmases in his old pre-Coca-Cola costumes. Well… I hear he’s been routing about in his wardrobe…