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Category: Audience Development

  • Our Bostin’ Promise – update for Managers

    Our Bostin’ Promise – update for Managers

    Thank you all for your support so far in getting the message out to your teams about Our Bostin’ Promise. We hope it has landed well and that you and your teams are getting to grips with understanding what it means for you and our visitors.
    You will have seen posters going up in break spaces and work areas and hopefully, you’ve all had a chance to watch the video and start to think about how you can apply the promise to your work and set goals for your team. Progress Review time is a good moment to use Our Bostin’ Promise to highlight and commend best practice or identify areas for improvement. A reminder of the resources available to you including the FAQs and Guide with examples of best practice and where there is room for improvement. This has been updated with a Team Bostin’ Promise Template, which you can use to create your version of the Guide, making it relevant to your and your team’s work.
    We wanted to make sure there are opportunities for you to feedback about the promise so far. To hear from you about how the launch went, what questions colleagues are asking, whether you’ve used the Promise in 1:1s already, and what support you think you will need going forward for your teams to uphold the promise. All comments, thoughts, and ideas are welcome Our Bostin’ Promise Manager Feedback Form
    As we go into the New Year training will be provided for frontline staff to get more familiar with the promise and better understand their role and impact as they uphold it. As the New Year progresses we will be looking at how we recognise best practice around the Promise.

  • Staff Consultative Forum Nomination Open

    The Staff Consultative Forum (SCF) is a group of Museum wide colleagues to act as an important conduit and sounding board for many of the Museum’s key decisions around structure, policies, performance and wider activities that may impact staff. Chaired by the Museum’s Chief Executive/Chief Operating Officer, the Forum meets quarterly. The Forum’s members consist of an elected group of managers, front line colleagues and back office administrative staff to ensure representation of the whole Museum. Excluded from the membership are the Museum’s Leadership and People & Culture teams. The full terms of reference of the Forum can be found under the Documents tab here on the intranet (Documents/Information/Staff Consultative Forum (SCF)/Terms of Reference/Oct 2021).

    To ensure that the Forum remains fresh in its challenge and contribution, elected members can serve on the Forum for a maximum of two years per term and a maximum of two terms. As a result we would now like to invite nominations for the following post:

    • Administrative, Specialist & Managerial     x 1

    If you would like to be considered as a Staff Representative, you will need a colleague from the same Constituency as you to propose your nomination and the name of another staff member, again within the same Constituency, who seconds the nomination.

    To put yourself forward, please complete and return a nomination form SCF Nomination Form to the People & Culture team (based at Canalside) either by hand, deposited in the black post box outside the People & Culture office, or via email to [email protected].

    The closing date for nominations is Wednesday 22 June . Elections will be held following this date if we have multiple candidates for a single role.

    Unsure about which Constituency you fall under? Check the Constituencies paper saved on the Intranet (Museum Documents/Information/Staff Consultative Forum (SCF)/Constituencies) or contact the People & Culture team.

    *All contracted colleagues, bar the Leadership and People & Culture teams, are eligible to be nominated for any of the above Constituencies, excluding the “Casuals” Constituency. Casual colleagues are eligible to be nominated for the “Casuals” Constituency only.

  • People News Update

    People News Update

    We are delighted to confirm the appointment of Paul Crofts as the Museum’s Chief Operating Officer. Paul formally joins on 18 October 21, but is visiting the Museum on a weekly basis to get an early understanding of how the Museum works and meet new colleagues ahead of his ‘official’ start date.

    Paul brings a wealth of senior commercial and operational experience from the rail industry, where he currently holds the post of General Manager for Avanti and is responsible for all aspects of the customer experience.  During the pandemic he has been instrumental in supporting Avanti’s recovery and sustainability strategy having worked closely with the Department for Transport and other key stakeholders. Paul’s experience mirrors the complexity of challenges here at BCLM and we look forward to him being part of our Leadership Team.

  • Staff & Volunteer Support for Co-op Early Years Learning Space Fundraising (21-22 Aug)

    Co-Op Central England are launching an in-store fundraising campaign to support BCLM: Forging Ahead across its network of 36 stores. 

    The campaign will fund an Early Years learning space that will be constructed at the rear of the recreated Halesowen & Hasbury Cooperative Store, which is being built as part of our new 1940s-60s historic town.  The fundraising target is £15,000 and will equip an exciting learning space for 3-5 year olds within the recreated store at the Museum. Replica food items, miniature trolleys, costume, display units and a counter with scales and a working till will allow children to explore and learn through play.

    Fundraising activity will take place in Co-Op Central England stores across the weekend of Sat 21 – Sun 22 Aug.  For six of the larger stores in the network, the Co-op have asked if BCLM staff and volunteers dressed in 1940s costume would be willing to visit these stories over the weekend and support the fundraising efforts.  Ideally, we’re looking for two people per store who would be able to spend c.3 hours on Saturday or Sunday of that weekend and who could talk to shoppers about Forging Ahead and the Early Years fundraising.  A full briefing would be given.

    At this stage, we’re looking for an expression of interest from people who are available on these days and who would be willing to get involved with this project.  If you’d be interested in finding out more, please complete the expression of interest form below by Sun 8 Aug:

    Expression of interest form

  • Museum & Heritage Award Winners!

    We’re delighted to announce that BCLM won the Best Use of Social Media award for its TikTok channel at last night’s Museum & Heritage Awards (Thu 1 Jul).

    BCLM was up against some worthy competition in York Museums (who were highly commended for their work), the Tank Museum, National Museums Liverpool, and the Coffin Works.

    According to the award’s judging panel BCLM won due to its TikTok’s ‘seismic impact and for seizing the moment in such a robust way, connecting with a core target audience of younger people. The Black Country Living Museum is a real trailblazer.’

    Without the support of colleagues from across all Museum teams this success would not have been possible. Thank you to everyone. A very special thank you must also go to our talented team of Historic Characters who so consistently and wonderfully bring our videos to life and to Abby Bird for her desire to innovate and bring the Museum’s story to people in a bold, new way.

    With over 1.2 million followers BCLM is the UK’s most followed museum on TikTok and is providing inspiration for other heritage organisations in how to connect with future generations. We’re proud to be part of a movement that makes our sector a vibrant and stimulating digital space for people to engage with their history.

  • Reopening Week Update

    Although the weather has been less than favourable this week, reopening week has been a success.

    The Museum has received some great press coverage (examples below) and visitors have shown how eager they’ve been to come back to the Museum with some of the wonderful comments we’ve received from them.

    Reopening Day (Mon 17 May)

    On Monday, we hosted a journalist from Heart Radio who filmed the video report below. We think it’s a great testament to the work that staff have done to make the Museum a welcoming and safe place for visitors:

    West Midlands Mayor Andy Street also visit on Monday to celebrate our first day of opening and to advocate for the sector. The visit gained coverage on ITV Central News as well as online:

    #MuseumMoment

    On Tuesday we participated in TikTok’s global #MuseumMoment marathon, which saw 23 museums from across 12 countries – including London’s V&A and New York’s Metropolitan Museum – host a live broadcast from the platform. BCLM participated with a live tour of Old Birmingham Road which saw more 150,000 people tune in to meet our characters and hear about Black Country life from the 1930s. Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make this possible and for doing the Museum proud by taking the Black Country story global!

    Visitors Glad To Be Back

    The Museum also featured in Tuesday’s Express & Star with some great testimonials from visitors:

    Visitor Profile & Advance Bookings

    We’ve also been fortunate to welcome back some small education groups this week who’ve chosen to come to the Museum as their first trip since lockdown; and, our outreach talks are continuiung to be popular with schools who cannot yet make a visit. The number of enquiries coming through to the Sales & Ticketing team bodes well for the next academic year as we seek to re-engage schools.

    The weather has literally had a dampening effect on mid-week visitor attendance during our first week of opening. However, bookings for the coming weekend (22/23 May) are very positive with 99% of our target bookings achieved in advance at the time of writing. June half-term ‘Loff Out Loud’ is also selling well in advance with bookings increasing sharply (up by 33%) this week upon news of our reopening.

    Upcoming News

    We will launch our first on-sale of ticketed evening events soon with 1940s Evening as part of 1940s Weekend. We’re planning to go on sale to Members on 2 June and the general public on 9 June. An allocation of staff tickets will be available and we will update colleagues on details of this in a subsequent intranet post. However, most importantly and ahead of on-sale, we’ll share a programme preview with colleagues to let people know about plans for this year’s 1940s Weekend (17/18 Jul) and share some exciting news from the D-Day Darlings.

    Thank you again to everyone for their hard work and commitment in enabling reopening to be such a success. It’s been wonderful to see the Museum come alive again with colleagues and visitors as it fulfils its purpose to engage all generations with living history.

  • Museum Update – 10 Feb

    We hope everyone has been keeping safe and well and enjoying the sight of the snowy landscape, if not necessarily the temperature!

    In this update we wanted to focus on the positive role that the Museum is still playing in the community despite our closure to visitors.

    The Vaccination Centre

    The Vaccination Centre continues to run successfully; approximately 1,000 per day, seven days a week, are receiving their vaccination at the Museum and contributing to the total of more than 12.6m people who have received their first dose of the vaccine so far in the UK.

    The Vaccination Centre also continues to make positive headlines too; BBC Midlands Today presenter Nick Owen received his vaccination at BCLM last week.  You can see the report below:

    Community Engagement

    The Community Engagement team have taken some of their programme online to ensure that the Museum can still connect with audiences during lockdown.  A new monthly series of ‘Access Heritage’ films will launch from Thursday 11 February as an alternative to on-site specialist tours for visually impaired and deaf visitors.  The films are designed to be accessible and can be enjoyed by all audiences.  Visit BCLM’s YouTube channel from 11 February to see the first set of films.  This month’s content is themed around Valentine’s Day and features some surprising objects from the Museum’s collection.

    Work with community partners such as our Access Panel also continues, including the ‘Me, Myself and I’ group which supports carers and their family members living with dementia.

    Once a month the Community Engagement team participate in the talking therapies sessions offered by ‘Me, Myself and I’ where a Historic Character will make phone calls and sing songs and share traditional Black Country stories to a range of vulnerable older people who are lonely and isolated.  Through this work the Museum continues to reach out and make a difference to so many local people’s lives. Thank you to all colleagues who are providing their time and support to this vital initiative. 

    Connecting through Virtual Coffee & Catch Ups

    Within our own Museum community, the People & Culture team piloted virtual coffee and catch up sessions last week (w/c 1 Feb) which proved a real success both in terms of participation and feedback.  We’re offering more of these sessions over the coming weeks as a way of helping colleagues to connect with each other and share their experiences.  You can find more details here.  If you have any feedback, or would like to suggest a theme/share helpful advice at one of these future sessions, please do get in touch via [email protected].

    As ever, we’d also be delighted to hear how our colleagues are passing the time; any tips and stories would be very welcome. Please do send your experiences to [email protected] and perhaps we can share these with your permission.

    We know that colleagues are still connecting with each other, be that through virtual coffee mornings, or through checking-in in other ways.  We’d encourage everyone to stay in touch and support each other in whichever way works best for them during this time. 

  • School’s out for Summer!

    BCLM Community Roadshow continues to travel far and wide and will be at the International Glass Festival on Saturday 24 August and Moseley Folk & Arts Festival from 30 August to 1 September.

    We’re still on the lookout for memories from local people about the Elephant and Castle Pub and Stanton’s Record and Music shop.

    Music and cultural festivals feature throughout our Community Roadshow programme reaching a broad spectrum of diverse communities. We look forward to having a presence at Moseley Folk & Arts Festival for the first time, where we will be sharing Black County skills in the heart of Moseley Village.

    If you wish to get involved, please contact Community Engagement Assistant [email protected] for more information.

  • Dudley Play Week

    Tuesday 6 – Thursday 8 August

    Dudley Play Service will be holding its 11th Dudley Play Week during the first week of August to celebrate National Play Day on Wednesday 7 August.

    The Community Roadshow will be at the following locations on the following dates:

    • Tuesday 6 August – Silver Jubilee Park, Coseley
    • Wednesday 7 August – Mary Steven’s Park, Stourbridge
    • Thursday 8 August – Priory Park, Dudley

    Last year, we engaged with over 200 children with Black Country heritage and crafts. This year, we plan to engage with more children, exploring Black Country history and stories linked to our new development project ‘Forging Ahead’.

    For more information contact: Community Engagement Assistant: [email protected]

  • Spinsonic SEND Sensory Circus

    Spinsonic SEND Sensory Circus will be visiting BCLM on Tuesday 13 August. Up to 50 children with additional needs from the Dudley area, aged 16 and under, along with siblings and parents/carers will join in the inclusive and relaxed circus skills play session from 10am-12pm in Hall 2.

    Activities include ground based circus skills comprising: juggling balls, rings and scarves, hula hoops, plate spinning, pedal goes, starter stilts, diabolo, poi spinning, balance beam, free standing slackline, flower sticks, walk the rolling drum. There will also be a chill out corner with circus play tents, tunnels, books, cushions.

    To find out more contact: [email protected] Community Engagement Manager