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The ambition for these results is that they will inform MDEM support in this area over the coming 12 months, and will feed into the national understanding of the impact of Covid on volunteering in museums. A dashboard of the main quantitative results can be found here.

The report explores the findings from the survey and makes recommendations for tackling emerging challenges for volunteer management and development. You can see the full report here: MDEM Volunteering Needs Report 2021

Summary of results:

The results can be broken down into two main sections: An analysis of the impact of Covid on operations over the last 12 months and the imminent future; and the wider challenges and opportunities for volunteer workforces in the longer term.

Impact of the last 12 months on operations:

• On average museums reported losing 22% of their volunteer workforce over the last 12 months. Organisations in rural areas, villages or small towns lost on average 18% of their volunteers, whereas organisations in larger towns or cities lost 29% of their volunteers on average.
• When comparing the number of actively volunteering individuals in February 2020 and February 2021 we see a 76% decrease in numbers.
• The governance structure of an organisation had no effect on the number of volunteers lost over the last year. Showing all museum types faced similar issues, and other factors had more of an influence when determining the impact of Covid on the workforce.
• Almost 50% of museums are unsure or certain that their lack of volunteering capacity will affect their ability to operate to normal levels in 2021.
• Areas which were felt would be hit most hard by reduction in volunteering numbers due to the pandemic were;
  • • Schools and learning opportunities
    • Events and on-site experiences
    • Visitor engagement
    • Weekend and holiday cover
    • Front of House
    • Collections Care

Recommendations:

• Many volunteers although intending to re-join the museum workforce, have not volunteered for many months. Consideration needs to be given to how to maintain volunteer engagement so numbers don’t drop off further.
• Infrastructure into remote and micro volunteering will allow a more flexible volunteering model, more resilient to lockdowns and other changes.
• When able to volunteer again some roles may be less suitable then others to carry out in a safe and appealing way. Therefore, museums may need to rethink location and format of volunteering.
• Particular operational pinch points may come during weekends and summer holidays as volunteers may be less inclined to work these times due to other pulls and commitments.
• Recruitment needs to ensure a core group of volunteers that can operate the museum in a basic way is drawn from a diverse range of people so that issues such as shielding do not disproportionately affect the workforce.
• Recruitment also needs to focus on audience engagement, interpretation and digital skills, especially at governance level.
• There needs to be skills development opportunities for volunteers in audience development, marketing and digital
• When creating museum support programmes, it is important not to group participants by museum governance model, but instead consider relevant characteristics such as locality e.g. rural/urban.

For more information about the report, please contact Sarah.

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In this short training film Heather Lomas, Organisational Health Consultant for Museum Development East Midlands explores what business planning museums can do during the current Covid-19 crisis. It looks at what steps to currently take to ensure management of finances, collections and operations.

We recommend any individuals responsible for museums to watch this video for tips and advice on meeting current challenges. Its suitable for museum boards as well as staff in leadership roles.

You can view the video here:

And download the PDF of the PowerPoint presentation here: Business-Planning-in-a-crisis-MDEM-April-2020

You can also find the video on our YouTube Channel.

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In this introductory video Accreditation Advisor for the East Midlands, Heather Lomas provides an overview of the Museum Accreditation Scheme in the UK. This video provides information on what the scheme entails, how museums can get involved and what support is out there.

You can download a copy of the PowerPoint presentation used including all of the referenced links in the video here: Accreditation-Scheme-New-Applicants-Presentation

You might want to also look at the range of resources that the Arts Council England have put together to support museums when considering Accreditation.

Want to take the next step? Get in touch with our Accreditation Advisor Heather Lomas to find out what to do next and to receive support for the process.

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It is designed as an indicator to help you highlight your museum’s current best practice, understand where the museum has areas of development and to feed into your forward planning.  This will enable you to prioritise areas of working over the next 12 months and provide you with a benchmark for future work.

It helps MDEM to provide bespoke support for your museum as well as tailored programmes and grants across the East Midlands which respond to the regional need. As such we are asking all Accredited museums in the region to complete the tool to access our support programmes and grant schemes over the next 12 months.

By completing the Museums’ Organisational Health Check you will receive a bespoke advisory report with a summary of your results and suggestions of where to access support in your highlighted areas of need. We expect a museum to receive this within 8 weeks of completing the online form.

Submitting A Museums Organisational Health Check

You can view the tool here MDE Organisational Health Check 2022-23 however we ask that all respondent museums complete the tool via our online portal. Please contact the MDEM team for a link to this.

Please note: We ask all museums to return the Health Check who have received a grant. We also ask that it be completed ahead of application to any support programmes once it has been launched.

Want to know if your organisation has submitted a Health Check before? You can find a list of all of those who we supported in this area here: MDEM OHC Responses 2020

Further Support:

To help you to complete the tool, Heather Lomas has, Organisational Health Consultant created a supporting film and PowerPoint presentation which can be viewed below. This is aimed at anyone completing the tool, and can be used in advance or whilst completing the online form.

Note: This relates to the 2021 Health Check and the 2022 tool has some slightly updated questions.

You can view and download the supporting slides to the film which explain the process of completing the Health Check here: Museums Organisational Health Check slides for online film June 2021

If you are using the film whilst you complete the form, you can use this timing script to skip ahead to the relevant sections:  Organisational Health Check Timing Script 2021 

If you have any questions about the tool, how to submit or previous submissions then please email mdem@leics.gov.uk.

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