December 23 Board of Trustees Meeting

14/12/23 17:30

CRIEFF & STRATHEARN MUSEUM a registered charity in Scotland: SC 048238
Board of Trustees meeting, Thursday 14th December 2023 at 11am at Logie.
Minutes

1) Welcome and Apologies for Absence:
Present: Marnie Gauld (MG), John Cowie (JC), Dorothy Jones (DJ), Dave Ferguson (DF), Neil Rodan (NR). Ewen Honeyman (EH), Colin Crawford (CC).
Apologies: Ann McIntosh (AM)
Thanks to Ewen for hosting us.
2) Minutes of the previous meeting were agreed and signed.
3) Treasurer's Report £7838 in hand. £128.35 payment to JC outstanding awaiting AM authorisation.
4) Project Plan to March 2024:
a) Capital / Revenue Split and procedure for accessing funds: Split has been changed in agreement with Laura. 30 days for CC will amount to £9000. Leaving £8,800 for capital works. NR to take on funds reclaiming process.
b) Joinery/Paintwork etc: Alan Murphy is happy to do the paintwork. Pedro may also be available. MG is going to ask John Jack, an experienced builder, to take a look at the building and offer advice.
We need to get all the work done by end of February or we will lose out on the funding.
We need to get a proper project plan together - DJ suggested the possibility of subgroups being formed to push this forward.
We need to develop our vision of what kind of Museum we want. We need to have a flexible space. Do we want to display lots and lots of objects or focus on a few?
We agreed we could only do the basics in the current plan then look at further development as we get more funding.
Order a big roll of “our” tartan.
BOLD may refine our website as part of their branding exercise.
We can ask Pedro to do a “Story of Strathearn” board for display in the entrance.
We discussed the damp / drains issue and whether we should get a specialist company to send a camera down the drains to find out what we are dealing with.
It was suggested to put a secure letter box by the front door rather than cut into our new doors.

social media, etc.

sessions we are going to get from the Accelerate programme. CC thinks we need policies on a number of things - risk assessment, financial controls etc. CC has been added to the WhatsApp group for at least the duration of the project.

5) Feedback / Actions from Branding Workshop. The group agreed it was a very good session and we look forward to seeing what BOLD come up with. Ongoing.
6) Christmas Fliers/Poster: Poster done - MG to put it on display.
7) Development Day 17th January. Programme is finalised and distributed. JC will bring his portable router so we have wifi on the day. The main outcomes will be a Business Plan and a Development Plan.
8) External Repairs. AM has written to Mearns who is “taking instructions”
9) Electricity / Meter Readings. JC to take and send reading to EDF. EDF are
communicating via JC’s personal email. It would be better to use a Museum
address. Also EDF have still not told us what their tariff is.

10) Benefits in kind: DJ and NR 12 hours each + 4 volunteer hours. JC 12hours. MG 3 hours. BOLD session 6x2=12 hours. Total for November = 55 hours.

11) Accessioning: A museum quality vacuum cleaner costs around £300. DJ to send details to NR for purchasing.

12)New Trustee Appointments: According to OSCR guidelines a Trustee needs to be a member of the organisation first. We have been lax about this in the past. We need to formalise a process for onboarding Trustees in future. A member of the organisation needs to be over 16. It was mentioned we could have an associate class for under-16’s. There was a discussion on how membership should be structured - “Patrons” and / or Founding Members could get some kind of additional benefits. Could we have a reciprocal arrangement with other organisations?

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13)Strathearn Archaeological and Historical Society: Deferred

14)AOCB:
- There is a Heritage Trust Network Mentoring scheme. Probably not for us at this stage.
- MG mentioned that the new hospital will have been open for 25 years in 2025. There are some old chairs from the 1906 hospital which could possibly be displayed in 2025.
- Andrew accepted some old McNee Jam Jars for us...
- Glenturret sponsorship - could we tie up with them on a display?
- Meeting next month to decide what we want to display initially.
- Highland Games have a lot of artefacts which we may be able to help them with.
Next Meeting: Wednesday 25th January 14:00 at OTH .

November 23 Board of Trustees Meeting

16/11/23 17:23

CRIEFF & STRATHEARN MUSEUM a registered charity in Scotland: SC 048238
Board of Trustees meeting, Thursday 16th November 2023 at 11am at Logie.
Minutes

1) Welcome and Apologies for Absence:
Present: Marnie Gauld (MG), John Cowie (JC), Dorothy Jones (DJ), Dave Ferguson (DF), Neil Rodan (NR). Ewen Honeyman (EH), Colin Crawford (CC).
Apologies: Ann McIntosh (AM)
2) Minutes of the previous meeting were agreed and signed.
3) Treasurer's Report £6847 in hand. Agreed to donate £500 to Kilmartin Museum for the display cases. £1500 cheque for Santa's Post Office was deposited but not yet cleared. JC to be added as an approver for Bank Transfers. NR to apply for a Debit Card for small purchases.
4) Project Plan to March 2024:
a) It was agreed that we will apply “Type 1” funding reclaim where the Museum will pay invoices out of our own funds then apply with invoice and bank statement as proof of the work being done. We can claim for the £265 paid to Roddy McDonald for the joinery work to the gate etc.
b) Internal Joinery: We need to agree with the joiner and the painter what work we actually wish to have done. We discussed the possibility of, for example, oak doors with the metalwork being sandblasted back and lacquered. NR to discuss with the joiner if this would be feasible within our funding.
Paintwork on Stairs: “Neutralize” the walls. Would a mural by Pedro look good? MG to check availability of Alan Murphy to do the painting work.
Stocks: MG would like to have the stocks upstairs on the ground floor. It was pointed out that Mark Simmons of CPK would like us to leave the stocks as-is for the time being. MG to ask CPK if they would agree to a wall hanging in the cell where the stocks are to enhance the display. The joiner can be asked to build a plinth in the ground floor where the Gibbet could go with a view to eventually also having the stocks there.

c) Accelerate Program: We may get branding support from a company called BOLD - logo, typeface, business cards, visual identity, livery etc.
CC spoke about a technique where we think of an animal that represents us - red squirrel? Owl?. We need to set a date for an initial online session with BOLD so they can get a feel for where we are. . Overall we can get flexible Development / Business Planning support. Margaret O.Connor would like a full day with us in OTH - suggestion was mid-January. The branding and business planning initiatives are separate from each other.
d) Business Support: We are looking at engaging CC for 25-30 days by end-March. He will aim to provide Governance and Financial Plan, look at building works eg damp control. Next step is to formally contract CC to do the work. CC then gave us a printout with his background and his initial outline of what he aims to deliver. Specific items mentioned included Trustees Liability Insurance, financial controls, what to do about the damp issues. CC mentioned St Michael's Church ( not OSM!) where funding may be available for us to take it over for storage, exhibitions, concerts etc.

5) Old Town Hall
a) Fire Alarm. A company in Dundee has the contract to look after this. JC to find out if we can contact them directly in the event we need something done eg current error. Who pays for that contract?
b) External Repairs. JC & AM to pull together an email to Mearns re slates, guttering drains etc.
6) Tartan Design: MG to get Brian Wilton to go ahead. How do we link it with our branding?
7) Environmental Monitors. Mark Simmons can give us access to the online data. He needs 2 email addresses for this - info@crieffmuseum.co.uk and Dorothy’s email.
8) Additional Temperature and Humidity Sensors: The cost of 2 monitors to link up with that system for ground and upstairs was felt to be rather expensive right now. If there is money left at the end of our project we can revisit this
9) Timesheets: Agreed we should start recording our time spent volunteering. We should not put down time at Trustee Meetings but rather tasks which could feasibly be done by someone we paid. Bring our time spent on such tasks to Trustee Meetings for recording.

10) Accessioning: NR & DJ have worked through what we have received from Martin Boyle. Next step is to figure out how to label items. DJ to ask Moulin how they do it.
11)New Trustee Appointments: JC wants to write up a procedure. AM and DJ have people in mind as a possible Trustee. DJ to find out how Innerpeffray do it. CC suggested having a process where we’d identify the skills / aptitudes currently missing and find people who can cover that. We should aim for a board of <> 10 Trustees.
12)Strathearn Archaeological and Historical Society: Deferred
13)AOCB:
- Start recording timesheets from now.
- Could use upstairs as a Reading Room (buy a Strathearn Herald every week).
- David Campbell is happy to help us with the design..
- Drovers Walk next May. Route will be Trowan to Baird Monument to Laggan Hill. This was the route where Rob Roy’s son was killed.
- Friend of NR has some slides of Lednock Dam construction - scan and keep online?
- Pedro leaflets - MG to contact Danscot.
- CC to send formal terms of business to CASM. £300 / day up to 30 days. Billed monthly in arrears.
Next Meeting: Thursday 14th November 11am at Logie.

October 23 Board of Trustees Meeting

13/10/23 17:17

CRIEFF & STRATHEARN MUSEUM a registered charity in Scotland: SC 048238
Board of Trustees meeting, Friday 13th October 2023 at 11am at Old Town Hall, Crieff.
Minutes
Present: Marnie Gauld (MG), Ann McIntosh (AM), John Cowie (JC), Dorothy Jones (DJ), Dave Ferguson (DF), Neil Rodan (NR).
Apologies: Ewen Honeyman (EH)

1) Welcome and Apologies for Absence:
Present: Marnie Gauld (MG), Ann McIntosh (AM), John Cowie (JC), Dorothy Jones (DJ), Dave Ferguson (DF), Neil Rodan (NR).
Apologies: Ewen Honeyman (EH)
2) Minutes of previous meeting agreed and signed.
3) Treasurer’s Report: £9085.85 to hand. £3550 received from the Gannochy Trust. First Gift Aid application submitted for a total of £3500 kindly donated by AM. £893.55 in Gift Aid received for that. AM to fill in Gift Aid forms for each donation for our records. Solicitors Bill for £1984 received. NR to set up transfer. Cost of projector and laptop was £626.99 - refunder to NR. £74.50 for sale of cards deposited by AM.
4) External Funding Application: No confirmation to date but JC is hopeful. There are some jobs we need to get done regardless of whether we are successful or not. Agreed to wait for news on funding before taking any action. JC has applied to the “ACCELERATE” program which would provide us with 5 days free Business Support and it looks as if we would be eligible for that.
5) Old Town Hall
a) Earth Removal. We need to remove buddleia roots. We can see there are slates missing from the roof - can use a drone to get a proper look? Maybe a cherry picker? AM has reported the missing slates to Mearns. Also AM understands that Mearns / PKC is responsible for changing the fire extinguishers if necessary. Mike Melville is providing a skip for us from MaM. Mike is not charging us for this and has just asked that we acknowledge his generosity and civic-mindedness on social media etc.

b) Joinery / Paintwork. It was noted that the joinery quotes we had received were based on slightly differing work specs. Agreed that work on the front door and fuse box could proceed, but that further discussion would be required to confirm the full detail of the joinery/painting workplan for the period to March 24. This will be progressed at the next meeting when the decision on the funding application will be known. MG to contact David Campbell.
c) Heating: AM would like to explore the idea of getting an Air Source Heat Pump for the OTH. She handed out copies of an article for us all to read.
d) Access / Keys 3 sets of keys are in existence. We again discussed changing the combination on the keysafe. If we do that we will give David McCann a set to use for Santa’s Post Office so we don’t give out the number. Jane Moncrieff from Disability Scotland will come and advise us on access to the building.
e) Tourist Leaflets. JC reported that Direct Distribution Scotland will provide us with a rack which they will restock monthly. Zero cost to ourselves.
6) Accessioning: DJ and NR visited Andrew so he could go over his system. DJ and NR thought it was quite a resource-intensive system and worried it could take more time than we have available to fully implement. Andrew thinks we should ultimately have a set of paper print-outs of all the information but NR thought this would be an enormous amount of paper and essentially unworkable. Andrew is correct though that “The Cloud” eg Google Drive is not 100% secure so we’d need to come up with a method of ensuring we could never lose our data. Agreed that DJ and NR would develop accessioning system.
7)
8)
9)
DJ made the point that we should have a Purpose of Museum policy to help us decide what is appropriate for us to accept for our collection.. DJ mentioned the SPECTRUM system and the Collections Trust as possible sources of help.
We need to decide what we will display when we open next year and prioritise those items for accessioning first.
Trustee Appointments: Do we need a process to get new trustees? Some kind of set of criteria for who we’d like. JC to draft a suggested process.
We also discussed taking on volunteers - it might be good for volunteers to have specific tasks that line up with their own preferences. AM suggested volunteers be given specific times and dates.
Strathearn Archaeological and Historical Society: Deferred Timesheets: Deferred
10)Purchase of Printer: NR gave his opinion that the printer was not supported on up to date Windows and needed to be used every week to prevent the inkjets being blocked and would be expensive to fix if it ever did go wrong. Decided to decline Andrew’s offer.

11)Insurance: we have moved over to the Village Halls Policy which gives us cover for equipment though not the collection. Also £5m public liability.

12) Tartan Design: MG to talk to Brian Wilton with ideas along the lines outlined in Brian’s email. Others to send any thoughts on it to MG.

13)Christmas Flyer: DF to meet Pedro. Pedro might be able to change the wording on the flyer and also have a little write-up on the back about when we plan to open in the spring etc.

14) Logo: Deferred

15)AOCB:

- NR reported new web hosting has been set up. NR will be able to modify the website as well as Andrew.
- MG reported that a group who do History and Horror tours might like to use the Museum.
- DJ would like to purchase a special museum standard vacuum cleaner for use on our artefacts.
- AM had invited Colin Carr to the meeting but he was not able to attend.
Next Meeting: Thursday 16th November 11am at OTH.

September 23 Board of Trustees Meeting

14/09/23 17:13

CRIEFF & STRATHEARN MUSEUM a registered charity in Scotland: SC 048238
Board of Trustees meeting, Tuesday 12th September 2023 at 5pm (and continued on Thursday 14th September 2023 at 3pm) at Old Town Hall, Crieff.
Minutes
Present: Marnie Gauld (MG), Ann McIntosh (AM), John Cowie (JC), Ewen Honeyman (EH), Dorothy Jones (DJ), Dave Ferguson (DF), Neil Rodan (NR).

1) Minutes of previous meeting agreed and signed.
2) Board Membership. DF resigned as chair. AM proposed by JC and
seconded by EH and was appointed interim chair until the AGM. JC appointed Secretary, MG Vice-Chair and NR Treasurer and minute-taker. The Board recorded their thanks and appreciation for Dave’s efforts. DF will remain on the board as a Trustee. It was recorded that Nick Brewster had resigned as a Trustee.
3) Treasurer’s Report: £4702.31 to hand. Gift Aid code to administer it online has been applied for. Letter should arrive at OTH.
4) OTH:
a) Lease Contract: agreed but not yet signed by 2 Trustees. After this is done it can be officially registered.
b) Next Steps: We need to move everything from Crieff Connexions.
NR to bring Hygrometers.
Some of Martin Boyle’s clothes need to be dry cleaned.
DJ & NR to set up a Google Sheet to begin accessioning. First meeting on this next week.
DJ & MG will clean OTH.
DJ to change the number on the Key Holder.
c) Doors Open Days. DJ will do both days. AM & Magda can do all day Saturday. EH to do Sunday. NR & AM to bring membership forms.
Idea to attempt to raffle one of Blanche’s photographs.
Open 10-4 on Saturday, 11-3 on Sunday.
d) Care of Monuments Training: Mark Simmons + Conservator + Kenny McWilliams to meet on Monday 18th September. AM to confirm. NB: this has now been changed to Monday 25th at 11:00.
e) Santa’s Post Office: Agreed it is a good idea. Give Key Safe access to Santa P.O. team. Inform them of the correct name of our group. Pedro to be asked to design a flyer to promote the museum. This can be handed out to visitors to Santa’s PO.

5) Funding:
a) P & KC External Funding Need to put in the application form very soon Need 3 x quotes from joiners and painters. NR to do a cash flow spreadsheet. NR to provide the last 3 months banks statements to JC. MG to provide evidence of community consultation / engagement. AM to get letters of support from Councillors, and to provide 3 years of accounts and profits. Also to provide C&SM Constitution and 2 Protection policies.
b) Gannochy Trust: AM to send missives to Gannochy Trust. The grant is £3550.
c) Thomson Trust: JC reported this is still a long way off.
d) Trustees noted the donation of a 32” Technika TV from Andrew Rodger’s mother Mrs Barbera Rodger formerly of Gwydyr Cottage, Crieff.
e) Insurance: Buildings Insurance will be £1300 per year.
Public Liability Cover up to £5,000,000: Lorraine Hays recommends we move to “Village Hall” style cover from 1st October as this likely suits our need better.
There is a form to complete deciding the contents insurance. This led to a discussion whether it would be better to only insure specific high value items rather than everything.
6) Accelerate Community Enterprise Programme: We can access support to Strengthen the Board and other areas. JC to apply for the programme.
7) Accessioning: DJ and NR to make a start on this in OTH at 11:30 Tuesday 19th September.
8) Strathearn Archaeological and Historical Society: They run a series of talks at the Campus during the winter months. There is a possible opportunity for co-operation with them. AM had been invited to a meeting at Colin Carr's house, and will invite him to our next Trustee meeting.
9) Logo: We should approach Crieff High School and Morrison’s Academy Art Departments with a view to having them come up with a logo. This would provide community engagement and children’s involvement. BUT this approach may cause resentment from parents whose child’s design was not selected. An alternative approach might be to put it out to the website mentioned by Nick Brewster for £25.

10)Retail Activity: Some ideas were put out: Local Stories, Nick’s ex-wife’s products, David Cowan may have something we can sell, Blanche is happy to work with us with photos etc, the brothers David & Ian Robertson have a series of about 9 booklets eg Lost Country Houses of Perthshire/ Lost Gardens of Perthshire etc which have been published through Friends of Perth & Kinross Archive. We need to begin looking at our own resources such as the John McGregor Collection images and old postcards/ photos in our collection and explore what we can do with them - prints/ bookmarks/ mugs / calendars etc etc.
11)Reports: Tayside Museums: no update. Crieff Community Funding - joins up more than 100 organisations. JC attended this.
12)AOCB:

- DJ raised concerns about cash flows going forward. It was agreed this is an issue but this is one of the areas where we hope Colin Crawford will help us.
- AM mentioned that she is hosting a Canadian lady called Pat. She has a silver plate set which is of interest because it belonged to a Miss Macbrayne who was a local resident.
- Keys need to be rationalised / sorted out.
- John Harding Edgar wrote a book about a member of the Murray family
who was Wellington’s adjutant called Next to Wellington: General Sir
George Murray. We will ask if he can do a talk in May.
- DF to deliver talks about Old Crieff to Women’s Guild, Crieff Probus
Club and the Friendship Guild.
- JC suggested having regular meetings on a fixed day of the month. It
was noted that DF and MG may struggle with this owing to shift patterns.
Next Meeting: Tuesday 10th October 2pm at OTH (TBC).