Dear colleague

Here is this week’s rather large crop of news:

1. SHARE has been awarded funding to help a handful of museums in the region to prepare an audience development plan. I would like a Cambridgeshire museum to be able to take advantage of this, so if you are interested, and have been collecting visitor data, please let me know.
2. I have just found out about modest scale digitisation grants open to museums but the closing date is 31 August. The details are at https://www.townswebarchiving.com/twa-digitisation-grant/ .
3. Just in case you missed it (which I have just discovered can be called ICYMI) the deadline for the AIM conservation grants is 30 September. See http://www.aim-museums.co.uk/content/aim_grants/ .
4. As I have previously mentioned (MiC News 62) the MiC AGM is at Ramsey on 15 September. I have had a request from the Treasurer for someone to give him a lift there and back from Cambridge, please? I may need a lift myself, because I’ve got vertigo (temporary I hope!) and have been told not to drive. Any help with this would be much appreciated.
5. I have decided to take out a ‘basic’ level countywide subscription to the emergency conservation service provided by Harwell Restoration. I will confirm when it is ‘up and running’ so that you can add it to your Emergency Plans. This should only take a few weeks to confirm.
6. I have had a request from a museum in the north of the County to run a labelling course. SHARE have such a course on 8 November in Colchester which I think is too far away for the museum concerned, so my question is: would any other members of MiC come to a local course if it could be organised?
7. So far only about one third of Cambridgeshire Museums (of all sizes!) have submitted their benchmarking returns. If you have not already done so, please send in your return before the 30 September deadline as it is very important for future funding (see MiC News 62).
8. The Farmland Museum is advertising for a Visitor Services Assistant, closing date 2 September. Please contact Ann Wise, Museum Manager at managerfarmlandmuseum@yahoo.com for more information and an application form.
9. The Accreditation Partners are seeking to recruit five new members of the Museums Accreditation Committee, for an initial three-year term from October 2016. To apply for this voluntary role go to http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/accreditation-scheme/accreditation-how-apply. Deadline 5pm on Friday 2 September 2016.
10. I attach the latest newsletter of the British Association of Friends of Museums (BAFM).
11. May I draw your attention to a grants scheme for the promotion of scientific heroes, closing date 30 September: https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/local-heroes/ ?
12. SHARE Museums East is advertising for a Museums Development Project Officer (Leadership & Resilience), salary £25,694 – £27,394 p.a. (Scale H), pro rata for 0.8 FTE. The application deadline for this post has been extended to Wednesday 7 Sept. Full details via this link View Vacancy Details.

Best wishes for the Bank Holiday

Dear colleague

There are several items to report:

1. The Museum of Cambridge is advertising for a Schools Education Officer (advert and other details attached), closing date 2 September.
2. The Museums in Cambridgeshire (MiC) 2016 AGM will take place on the morning of 15 September at Ramsey Museum (draft agenda attached). The AGM is open to all subscribing members of MiC.
3. The conference ‘Nurturing a Culture of Change’ will be held at Colchester Castle 29-30 September. For details go to website.
4. The South and East Museums Federation is offering four £200 Martin Howe travel bursaries to enable deserving members to attend the annual study weekend to Amsterdam 25-28 January. More information will be available soon.
5. Anglesey Abbey is advertising for a Senior House Steward at https://www.le.ac.uk/museumstudies/Jobs2/full_job_descriptions/45548.htm, closing date 26 August.
6. SHARE are looking for a room to seat 30 in central Cambridge for a training day on copyright. They do not have a budget to pay the venue but would offer places on the course to the host institution and bring nice biscuits! The course is on 21 October, but they would also be keen to hear from potential hosts for other courses. If your museum or heritage site could help out for this event, or in future, please contact Ruth Burwood: ruth.burwood@norfolk.gov.uk.

The deadline for submitting benchmarking returns (see MiC News 54) has been extended to 30 September. You can complete the survey on the form attached or online here http://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/SHAREBenchmarking1516

Dear colleague

In MiC News no. 60 I inadvertently attached two items without explanation; these related to items 1 and 2 here:

1. The latest newsletter of the British Association of Friends of Museums, no. 22, mentioning the next meeting which is in Bushey on 25 October.
2. A list of items on offer to museums from Paycocke’s in Essex. If you are interested contact anna.forrest@nationaltrust.org.uk.
3. A reminder please to complete your benchmarking return (if you have not already done so) by 31 August (see MiC News no. 54).
4. Artists are invited to enter an exhibition at King’s College Cambridge on behalf of Cambridgeshire Timebanking. Details are at http://www.cambridgehub.org/connections.
5. May I please encourage you to contribute to the Society for Museum Archaeology survey which can be found at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/GTF6QLS?
6. Congratulations are due to Ramsey Rural Museum for gaining first place in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ‘Valuing Volunteers’ awards. The Cromwell Museum also deserves congratulations for gaining third place!
7. Kettle’s Yard are advertising for a freelance Arts Award co-ordinator at https://www.le.ac.uk/museumstudies/Jobs2/full_job_descriptions/45488.htm, closing date 18 August.

Dear colleague

This week I have to start by passing on the sad news that Oliver Merrington died on Sunday. Oliver was Curator of the Waterbeach Military Heritage Museum and was one of the best known people in the County’s independent museums. He is a considerable loss to our community and to me personally. It is doubly sad that the aviation trail launched just two weeks ago in MiC News 58 was his in many ways his brainchild.

The good news is that the County Council’s application to ACE’s Resilience Fund for a project we are calling SWIM 2 has been successful. We have been awarded almost £124k to support the recruitment and training of volunteers and trustees for fourteen of the independent museums in the County. The money, plus partnership funding from MiC, will allow the employment of two Volunteer Co-ordinators who will work across the County from late 2016 to the Spring of 2018. They will focus especially on increasing the diversity of the volunteer museums workforce, for example by recruiting from groups who have not traditionally volunteered in museums. SWIM 2 (i.e. strengthening the workforce in museums) builds on the earlier project called SWIM which ran from July 2015 to march 2016. Among many other benefits, SWIM built up a group of volunteers to keep the Cromwell Museum open when it passed from Council control to an independent trust in April 2016.

Dear colleague

Here is this week’s news of relevance to Cambridgeshire museums:

1. The Museum of Zoology is advertising for a conservator at http://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/10994/, closing date 4 August.
2. The National Horseracing Museum is advertising for a workshop leader (see attached), closing date 3 August.
3. The Society of Museum Archaeologists is about to send out details of a survey they are carrying out on storage capacity. There will be six weeks for replies to be received. I hope to be able to circulate details in the next MiC News.
4. The Group for Education in Museums conference is 31 August – 1 September in Edinburgh and looks very interesting. See www.gem.org.uk for details.
5. Congratulations to the Museum of Zoology and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology on both achieving awards from the Designation Challenge Fund. See https://camunivmuseums.wordpress.com/2016/07/21/funding-success-for-two-university-of-cambridge-museums/.
6. The Arts Council are inviting applications to join the Accreditation Committee at http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/accreditation-scheme/accreditation-how-apply, closing date 2 September.
7. The report on the many excellent project funded by Cambridgeshire Museums small grants 2015-2016 is now available on the MiC website at https://museumsincambs.org/about-mic/cambridgeshire-museums-small-grants-2015-16/.
8. Creative Arts East has a budget to support internships for young unemployed people in the Arts sector  including museums. Any work/jobs in museums would be eligible and job shares between museums are possible. Each position can attract a grant of £2500 and has some T&Cs including latest start date of 30 September. If anyone is interested please contact Elly Wilson asap at elly@creativeartseast.co.uk.
9. I attach details of a freelance role at Kettles Yard for an Arts Award co-ordinator, closing date 18 August.
10. The Fitzwilliam Museum is advertising for an Exhibitions Manager at https://www.le.ac.uk/museumstudies/Jobs2/full_job_descriptions/45352.htm, closing date 8 August.