Meetings of the Court of Governors - 22 May 2003

A meeting of the Court Of Governors held on 22 May 2003 in the Council Offices, Isle of Anglesey County Council.

- PRESENT: Paul Loveluck, President (in the Chair); Susan Davies, Vice President; G Wyn Howells, Treasurer; Wynford Evans; Peter Warren; David Egan; Huw Williams; Dafydd Bowen Lewis; Rhiannon Wyn Hughes; Colin Jones; Brian Willott; Jane Peirson Jones; David Rogers; Geraint Jenkins; Dafydd Parry Jones.

- IN ATTENDANCE: Iolo ap Gwynn (Council Designate); Mike Houlihan, Director General; Eurwyn Wiliam, Deputy Director General; Mark Richards, Director of Corporate Services; Robin Gwyn, Director of Strategic Communications; Jon Sheppard, Director of Finance & IT; Michael Tooby, Director NMG; John Williams-Davies, Director MWL; Dafydd Roberts, Keeper Welsh Slate Museum; Angela Gaffney, Research Project Officer: Partnerships; Ann John, Culture, Welsh Language and Sport Division, Assembly Government; Tony Lloyd, Head of Administration.

- APOLOGIES:
Apologies for absence from the meeting were received from Jonathan Jones; Murray McLaggan; Hefin Looker; Joan Roam; Helene Mansfield; Linda Quinn; Anthea Wellington; Mike Salter; Colin Rowlands; Win Griffiths MP; Malcolm Parry; Councillor Lewis Jones; Gwilym Humphreys; Mair Waldo Thomas; Frances Lynch.

- WELCOME:
The Chairman welcomed the Court of Governors to the meeting and he expressed his gratitude to Anglesey County Council for hosting the meeting.

220 – MINUTES:
Resolved: That the minutes of the Court of Governors meeting held on 4 October 2002 be approved.

221 – COURT AND COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS:
Resolved: That the following appointments be approved:

• Court to Court – Dr Iolo ap Gwynn and Professor John Last
• Court to Council – Dr Iolo ap Gwynn and Professor John Last

The above appointments being for an initial period of five years.

222 – GOVERNANCE OF NMGW:
Reported: That the President updated the Court of Governors that following the recommendation in the Quinquennial Review to review the role of the Court of Governors. A working party had been set up which had reported to Court and the President reminded Court of those decisions made at its May meeting:

1. Court accepted that in future it should not have a governance role.
2. The Museum be required to put in place such partnerships with stakeholders as the development and delivery by the Museum of its strategic plans from time to time required and keep such partnerships under review to ensure that they were working effectively for the benefit of all partners.
3. The Museum be required to hold at least two public meetings a year.
4. Council continued to have 12 ordinary members of whom 7 should be appointed by the Museum – by the Council itself – and 5 by the Assembly Government, with both consulting the other in making such appointments. All such appointments should be made in a transparent manner with the intention that the Council should have among its members the skills needed for it to discharge its role.
5. The honorary officers be appointed by Council with the agreement of the Assembly Government.
6. The terms of office of the honorary officers remain as five years save that consideration be given to reducing the term of the Immediate Past President to a shorter period (one year).
7. There be any necessary transitional provisions.

The Museum had already moved to a transparency of appointments and its meetings of Council were now open to the public. The decision of Court had been put to the Assembly Government who had not yet commented on the full report but proposed that the Assembly Government appoint seven members of the Council plus the Officers, and that Council appoint five of its members. Council had noted this proposition which was against what Court had agreed and would wish further discussions with the incoming Assembly Government administration before reporting back to Court.

All Committees and Panels had discussed this and in future there would only be three committees, Audit, Remuneration, Performance plus the Pension Trustees. Council had decided that there was a need to have an effective engagement between Council and the Directorate; effective systems to consult with its partners and effective systems to ensure that the core functions received appropriate external advice. It was hoped to retain the current Committee and Panel interest by involving them in the advisory body that would replace Court. The President noted that the National Library had completed its Quinquennial Review and the proposals for their Court were similar to that of NMGW's with the same considerations applying. The Vice President was the Museum's representative on their working group.

In response to a question from Geraint Jenkins, local authority representation would continue to play an important part as main stakeholders and a mechanism would be built in to include them.
Resolved: Accordingly and Court noted this position and that there were significant discussions required but that any modification to Court's decisions would be brought back to Court for approval as necessary.

223 – DIRECTOR'S REPORT:
Received: A report from the Director General that is attached at Annex A.

224 – DATE AND TIME OF NEXT MEETING:
Resolved: That the next meeting of the Court of Governors would be held on Thursday 23 October 2003 at the National Museum & Gallery at 2.00pm.

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ANNEX A -

Director's Report to Court of Governors

I am delighted to be giving my first report covering the last 7 months to the Court of Governors as Director General of the National Museums & Galleries of Wales.

As I join NMGW, I am impressed by the enthusiasm of the staff, the excitement of major developments and the energy of the organisation. As the institution nears its centenary in 2007, we enter a new era; the National Assembly of Wales starts a new term; Wales has a new Minister for Culture, Welsh Language and Sport in Alan Pugh, who I met on Tuesday when he opened the Thomas Jones exhibition at the National Museum & Gallery; and very soon I will be working with my colleagues, Council, Court and stakeholders to develop a new vision for NMGW and its connections.

I am keen to learn about the collections and the key issues facing NMGW and, particularly how we can build on the tremendous work that has already been achieved. During my first month, I have spent some considerable time getting to know our collections, museums and my new colleagues. I have spent several days at the Welsh Slate Museum and visiting our partners in the Sharing Treasures programme in North Wales and have now visited all of NMGW's sites. By middle of June, I will have met, albeit briefly, all 650 of NMGW's staff. All this has been extremely worthwhile – exhausting if not exhaustive!

I am particularly pleased that my first report is given to you here in North Wales and have been interested to hear of the long established determination from the outset to ensure that the National Museums & Galleries of Wales spanned the length and breadth of Wales. Back in 1937, the Museum accepted responsibility for the exhibits at the Roman site of Segontium, Caernarfon, the first purpose-built museum in the north-west of Wales. The opening in 1948, of the Welsh Folk Museum, gave all parts of Wales a real representational foothold at a site which, for visitors from the north of Wales soon established itself as an iconic venue. Staff based at St Fagans were very visible throughout Wales, while the growing collection of buildings – gathered from all parts of Wales – engendered a pan-Welsh sense of ownership. In 1972, the North Wales Quarrying Museum was established – now the extremely successful Welsh Slate Museum.

Partnerships

As the President has indicated NMGW is engaging itself in a whole range of partnerships throughout Wales. Following an open meeting held at Caernarfon, hosted by the Town Council, partnership arrangements at Segontium have seen the creation of a new company Segontium Cyf, which now operates the Museum. As part of the Welsh Assembly Government's initiative, Cyfoeth Cymru Gyfan – Sharing Treasures, NMGW has recently led the creation of a partnership to highlight and promote its work in areas other than its directly managed sites. Anglesey County Museums and Culture Service and Wrexham County Borough Museum were 2 of the 3 venues selected by the Council of Museums in Wales to take part. I am delighted to tell you that 'Recreations' the archaeological exhibition mounted at Oriel Ynys Mon between 7 March and 6 April 2003, attracted 6,741 visitors and of these 427 were from school groups.

An important collaborative research project is the South West Irish Sea Survey (SWISS). This is a joint Wales-Ireland project initiated and partly funded under the EU INTERREG programme, with the Welsh side of the partnership led by NMGW in collaboration with the Menai Bridge Marine Laboratory University of Wales, Bangor. NMGW's Art Department works closely with Oriel Mostyn at Llandudno and the Royal Cambrian Academy at Conwy. NMGW currently has 3234 objects on loan to 147 venues around Wales with a substantial number to locations in the North of Wales.

In its innovative "On Common Ground" project, NMGW,together with a number of partners, has been working with 16-25 year olds who are traditionally non-museum attenders, in 4 communities in Denbigh, Tenby, Swansea and Rhondda Cynon Taff to stimulate their interest in the work of NMGW.

Major projects

Work on all of the major projects has been progressing, with slight delays to the building works at MWWI and Big Pit. Outline proposals from Pembrokeshire Coast National Park are coming forward in relation to their proposals for a Sutherland Centre and work on the National Waterfront Museum Swansea continues satisfactorily on both architectural and exhibition design elements with the main works contract commencing on 1 April 2003. The concept of this project is unique – putting people at the centre of industry.

I am very pleased to report that following confirmation of £3.5m of capital funding from the National Assembly for Wales, an internal project team has been established to oversee the development of the National Conservation and Access Centre at Nantgarw which will ensure that the nation's collections are held in appropriate environmental conditions for future generations. The Centre will also be central to facilitating our ambition to let the national collections be seen across Wales through our partnership programme.

Fundraising continues to progress for these major projects and NMGW has strong support from its patrons who now number around 100. The new NMGW Trading Company (NMGW Enterprises) has been recently launched with non-executive Directors from the retail world.

Internal management

On internal management, I was delighted to read the excellent report of the recent Quinquennial Review on the National Museums & Galleries of Wales and am pleased to say that progress is being made with all the outstanding actions. One of these is to consider the scientific contribution of NMGW to areas such as environment, land-use, mineral resources and construction etc and to look at the scope to develop, and promote further, such scientific initiatives. NMGW has a strong scientific basis and we are making progress towards developing a strategy for an enhanced scientific contribution throughout Wales.

The Pay & Grading review which will improve our ability to recruit and retain key staff has now been completed and has been well received.

We also welcome 6 new members to Council.

At the end of the 2002/3 financial year, visitor figures were 11% above target and only 10.6% below last year's record levels. To exceed the set targets and maintain the visitor levels at a 67% increase since free entry was a significant achievement which compared favourably with other UK national museums who even within the first year of free entry had not obtained a 60% increase.

The future

Finally, I'd like to summarise some of the areas which I will be looking to take forward over the forthcoming months. I will, of course, be seeking to gain a fuller comprehension of the scope of NMGW's business: scholarship, stewardship, learning and access, development opportunities, communications and branding, commercial activities and internal management. I will look to increase the profile of the learning and access agenda, and build on the strengths and successes of the "On Common Ground" project and other educational initiatives. We will undertake a full assessment of the impact of free admission on the way in which the Museums interface with our visitors, wear and tear, quality of visitor's experience, etc; and the ability to maintain our buildings satisfactorily.

An important step will be to take forward an inclusive visioning exercise, which will involve colleagues at all levels and build a sense of ownership and clarity in the longer-term direction of the organisation.

I look forward to the future, and to working with everyone to build on the firm foundations of the work that has already been achieved.