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THIS has been a most difficult year. It has
been an incredibly hard year.
THAT was the opinion of the
Chairman of Museum's Board of Management, Robert Stones, as he addressed volunteers and
others involved in the Museum at the 2011 Annual General Meeting of the
Museum Trust in May.
He went on: "I would pay a
particular word of thanks to my fellow Trustees for the amount of effort
that they have put in. This is effectively my second meeting today and
we have a meeting tomorrow and one next week. The Trustees are putting
in a phenomenal amount of work. It has been an extremely trying year.
"It goes without saying that
without the volunteers we would really be in a mess. And you, too, have
been absolutely brilliant the way you have supported the Museum. Having
a museum without a curator has been extremely difficult. There have been
all sorts of problems that have really made this a most difficult year.
"We are, I believe, getting to
the point now where we are getting a strategy together which will give
us a way forward.
"I do believe we have a better
year to look forward to and I thank you from the bottom on my heart for
all the effort that everyone has put in. There is light at the end of
the tunnel."
He paid tribute to Kate Dobson,
the Community Learning Officer, who had worked extremely hard and he had
a warm vote of thanks to her for all she had done in difficult
circumstances.
Robert congratulated everyone
involved in the museum because we had had an extraordinary year. "The
footfall has been amazing with more than 37,000 people coming through
our doors. That is something to be extremely proud of. The footfall is
up by something like 2,000 on the previous year."
A report on the
membership was given by Diane Slough. She also expressed thanks to
everyone who had arranged the Wednesday afternoon talks which had proved
popular.
The year's exhibitions were reviewed by the
Secretary, Sarah Hope. She mentioned Lost Farms of Nantwich which would
be followed up by a further one on the subject this year. The Polish Camp at Doddington exhibition was likely to be followed by
another one in the Millennium Gallery.
Sarah also mentioned two
acquisitions - the Roman coins and the Hurleston Brooch.
She thanked the Rotary Club of
Nantwich for their support and for a cheque for £250 which might be
followed by a further one this year.
Kate Dobson, the Community
Learning Officer, always seemed to be at work in the Museum or leading
parties of people around the places of interest in the town, she said.
The financial report was given by Steve
Lockett who said that the Museum had received £37,580 from Cheshire East
Council and £5,600 from Nantwich Town Council. Donations had been
£4,700.
Kate Dobson, in her report, said there had
been more outreach in going to schools. There was an e-mail address for
people to enquire about events, and a mailing list had been set up for
publicising events. The workshops were now advertised on two Nantwich
websites. There had been an Inset day at the museum attended by a number
of teachers. Tours of the town had been conducted.
Elected to the Board of Management for the
next year were Graham Dodd and Patrick Chesters.
The guest speaker, Helen Paton, Strategic
Commissioning Manager, Cultural Services, of Cheshire East Council, told
Trust members about "The Arts in East Cheshire." |
