Preparing to Welcome Back Visitors
As we look ahead to potential reopening, WMMD is working in partnership with Welcome to Excellence to offer a series of short online Zoom training sessions on how to offer exceptional customer service in these extraordinary times.
The programme will draw from ‘Exceeding Visitor Expectations’ and ‘Welcoming Everyone’, covering a refresher on excellent customer service skills, with added focus on how to create a great visitor experience whilst maintaining Covid-19 safety standards.
Pre-course activity for each session will be sent to attendees in advance.
Objectives
The objectives of the sessions are to:
- Offer a series of engaging and informative online training sessions which will help to maintain and improve customer service standards
- Support museum front of house teams in handling challenging conversations and situations around maintaining new safety standards – both on the phone/at booking stage, and face to face
- Discuss the changing demographics of visitors due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and how best to meet the needs of this new visitor mix
- Help equip teams with the knowledge and confidence to handle feedback and pass it on constructively to senior teams
- Ensure that museums are continuing their focus on accessibility, including how to overcome some of the new challenges to accessibility presented by current restrictions and procedures
Session 1: Exceeding Expectations
Tuesday 20 April, 10am-12noon
This session will look at:
- Understanding visitor expectations
- Booking and pre-arrival
- Welcome and first impressions
- Engaging visitors and building confidence
Session 2: Handling Challenges
Wednesday 28 April, 10am-12pm
This session will look at:
- The challenges presented by ‘the new normal’
- Anticipating ‘niggles’ and managing expectations
- Handling complaints
- Encouraging visitors to ‘repeat and recommend’
Session 3: Welcoming Everyone
Wednesday 12 May 10am-12pm
This session will look at:
- The benefits of an accessible service
- Visible and hidden disabilities
- A positive, welcoming approach
- Tailoring service to be accessible to all
You do not need to attend all three sessions but places at each session will be limited to two delegates per organisation. Priority will be given to delegates from non-NPO and non-National museums in the West Midlands which are Accredited or officially Working Towards Accreditation.
Each webinar will be live captioned by MyClearText, through StageText.
All participants will receive an email containing a Zoom link to the training prior to the event. If you have not received an email please contact us. You don’t need a Zoom account, simply follow the link provided and enter the password.
If the booking link for one or more of the sessions doesn’t work it means that session is fully booked. To join the waiting list please email wmmd@ironbridge.org.uk stating the session(s) you wish to attend.
Do You Want to Banish the Backlog?
Over the last three years West Midlands Museum Development (WMMD) has been working closely with Collections Trust to deliver Banish the Backlog. The programme supports small groups of museums, helping them to improve procedures and develop realistic plans to improve their documentation. We are now seeking museums who would like to take part in the next round of the Banish the Backlog programme.
How will it help you?
Banish the Backlog will help you if you’re struggling to make documentation a priority or find the time to dedicate to your documentation plan. The programme will support your work to meet the 2018 Accreditation Standard, particularly the requirement to follow the Spectrum primary procedures (requirement 5.2).
The programme is led by Sarah Brown, Outreach Officer with Collections Trust. She will meet with the group two to three times a year to provide focus and an environment for sharing ideas and discussing issues. Sarah and the WMMD team will provide advice and guidance on tackling practical issues and developing planning tools. The museums involved will all be at different stages but you’ll all be keen to get to grips with your documentation.
Success looks different for each museum and we’ll tailor the support to help you meet your organisation’s goals. In previous rounds, many museums looked at their procedural manual for the first time in years and made updates so that it’s more usable, hopefully preventing any future problems building up. Others now have a more realistic plan with achievable goals, which they’re starting to put into action. Several are tying up the last few loose ends, like making decisions about un-accessioned objects found during an inventory and deciding on their next set of priorities.
What we need from you
If you are interested in finding out more about the Banish the Backlog programme please complete the Expression of Interest form or email Olivia Basterfield for an informal chat.
Every Object Tells a Story: Developing Confidence in Talking about Our Collections Online
We use our collections to tell stories every day but how confident are we in speaking publicly about our wonderful objects to different audiences online?
West Midlands Museum Development is hosting a workshop on 9 and 10 March. It will be led by collaborative theatre maker, project coordinator and writer Tom England. Museum staff and volunteers will be supported to build their confidence in talking about objects and collections online, giving them the skills to speak effectively and imaginatively about their museum’s part of the region’s collections story.
Part one will concentrate on the different tools and techniques that can be used and will include case studies from other museums. Part two will look at practical delivery. It will include the opportunity for participants to put into practice what they have learned.
This workshop will be useful to anyone who wants to build confidence in talking to visitors and audiences about objects and collections, whatever their role within the museum. The skills and tools that will be shared by Tom will be of use for both online delivery and in-person sessions in our museums when we are once again able to welcome visitors through our doors.
No more than one delegate per organisation. Priority will be given to delegates from non-NPO and non-National museums in the West Midlands which are Accredited or officially Working Towards Accreditation. Delegates must be able to attend both sessions.
The Zoom webinar will be auto captioned through Zoom.
All participants will receive a Zoom link to the training prior to the event. This will be emailed to the address given in your booking. If you have not received an email one hour before the event please contact us. You don’t need a Zoom account, simply follow the link provided and enter the password.
Book here. If the booking page doesn’t appear the event is fully booked. To join the waiting list please email wmmd@ironbridge.org.uk
Covid Secure Volunteering
Heritage Volunteering Group has worked with DCMS to produce guidance on Covid Secure Volunteering which has now been published. Read it here.
Museums Facing Closure: Legal and Ethical Issues
Museums Facing Closure: Legal and Ethical Issues is a document first published in 2017 by the Museums Association which has been shared again by our colleagues at North West Museums Development.
Drawing on research into over 20 recent museum closures in the UK, the document looks to understand how the governing bodies, employees, and the individuals involved responded.
Topics covered include how museums have dealt with a crisis that may lead to closure, how museums have planned for closure, and considerations around staff and volunteers, managing collections, museum buildings and sites, partnerships and contracts, IT and data, and the legacy of the museum.
Read more here.
Free 1 hour bid writing support sessions
Are you a small to medium sized museum exploring funding opportunities?
Do you dread writing grant applications and don’t know how to start?
Want a better understanding of what funders are looking for in your application?
Jenni Waugh can help! Jenni has a solid track record in bidding for funding, delivering and evaluating projects supported by National Lottery Heritage Fund, Arts Council England, AIM, Esmee Fairbairn and others.
In partnership with WMMD, Jenni is offering a limited number of free 1 hour mentoring sessions to help you plan for, and write, a confident funding bid.
If you’re interested please email wmmd@ironbridge.org.uk.
Sessions are on a first come first served basis. Priority will be given to non-NPO and non-National museums in the West Midlands which are Accredited or officially Working Towards Accreditation.
Back to Basics: Assessing Collection Risks for Emergency Plans (part 2)
West Midlands Museum Development is running a series of collections care courses with Jane Thompson-Webb, Conservation Team Leader at Birmingham Museums Trust. The sessions are designed to keep museums in touch with collections care and to give staff and volunteers the confidence and skills to carry out basic work when capacity is limited. The sessions will support emergency planning around Covid-19 in relation to collections.
Back to Basics: Assessing Collection Risks for Emergency Plans
Are you confident that you know the most vulnerable areas of your collection and that your emergency plan is up to date?
This course is held over two sessions.
No more than one delegate per organisation. Priority will be given to delegates from non-NPO and non-National museums in the West Midlands which are Accredited or officially Working Towards Accreditation.
The webinar will be live captioned by MyClearText, through StageText.
All participants will receive a Zoom link to the training prior to the event. This will be emailed to the address given in your booking. If you have not received an email one hour before the event please contact us. You don’t need a Zoom account, simply follow the link provided and enter the password.
Booking is via the details for part one on 12 January.
Back to Basics: Assessing Collection Risks for Emergency Plans
12 and 19 January 2021, 11am-1pm
Stop the Rot: Recognising the 10 Agents of Decay in Museum Collections
West Midlands Museum Development is running a series of collections care courses with Jane Thompson-Webb, Conservation Team Leader at Birmingham Museums Trust. The sessions are designed to keep museums in touch with collections care and to give staff and volunteers the confidence and skills to carry out basic work when capacity is limited. The sessions will support emergency planning around Covid-19 in relation to collections.
Stop the Rot: Recognising the 10 Agents of Decay in Museum Collections
What are the main threats to museum collections?
This session gives an overview of what we can all look out for to protect our collections. It is aimed at those staff and volunteers who do not work directly with collections on a daily basis; front of house staff, support staff or new team members.
No more than one delegate per organisation. Priority will be given to delegates from non-NPO and non-National museums in the West Midlands which are Accredited or officially Working Towards Accreditation.
The webinar will be live captioned by MyClearText, through StageText.
All participants will receive a Zoom link to the training prior to the event. This will be emailed to the address given in your booking. If you have not received an email one hour before the event please contact us. You don’t need a Zoom account, simply follow the link provided and enter the password.
If the booking button isn’t visible the course is fully booked. Please email wmmd@ironbridge.org.uk to join the waiting list.
Stop the Rot: Recognising the 10 Agents of Decay in Museum Collections
8 December, 11am-1pm
Business Planning in Challenging Times
Webinar and One-to-one Surgeries
Operating in the current environment is challenging to say the least. West Midlands Museum Development is holding an online webinar on 5 November (10am-11am) which will cover approaches to business planning when you are planning for the unknown.
The session will take you through the business planning process, including:
- an excellent overview of the development of an appropriate and relevant business plan
- exploring the difference between a business plan and a business case, and which is most appropriate for you
- how you balance the knowns with the unknowns and what that means for how your work may need to change
A limited number of half hour one-to-one Zoom surgeries are available to webinar delegates on 5 and 12 November to explore business planning issues that are more specific to their organisation. Surgeries are available on a first come first served basis and will be arranged once you’ve booked your webinar place.
The webinar and surgeries will be led by Dr Dawn Langley, co-author of Business Planning Guidance for Arts and Cultural Organisations and regular blogger on organisational development for arts and cultural organisations at Alchemy Research & Consultancy
To book the webinar click here.
No more than two delegates per organisation. Priority will be given to delegates from non-NPO and non-National museums in the West Midlands which are Accredited or officially Working Towards Accreditation.
Expert Eye
Museum of Royal Worcester took part in Expert Eye last year to learn more about Islamic art on items in its stored collections such as the photo below. This has resulted in a new display ‘Worcester porcelain and the Arts of Islam: creativity, commerce, and exchange‘ which opens on 10 October.
Read the Museum of Royal Worcester press release here.
