Category: Front slider

  • BCLM appoints new Trustees to the Board

    BCLM appoints new Trustees to the Board

    We are delighted to have made two appointments to the Museum’s Board of Trustees, who will be bringing a wealth of experience to the Museum. Read on below to find out more about each of our new Trustees, Louise and Tarlok.

    Louise Jones

    Louise is currently the Chief Finance Officer at Dudley College of Technology and has worked in the Further Education sector for over 20 years, in Birmingham and the Black Country.  In addition to being a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, she holds a degree in Economics and Management from Cardiff University and a Professional Graduate Certificate in Education from Wolverhampton University.  Louise has a keen interest in contributing to the regeneration of Dudley town centre through her work at the College and at the Museum, particularly ensuring that young people from all backgrounds are able to get full access to education and the important heritage of the Black Country.

    Tarlok Singh Mander

    Tarlok is a Chartered Global Management Accountant and works as a Finance Manager at Amazon where he is responsible for some of Europe’s largest warehouses.  He has over a decade of experience working in finance functions across the public and private sectors, including at Network Rail and Jaguar Land Rover, with expertise in driving operational efficiencies and providing advice on large-scale capital projects.  Tarlok grew up in Walsall and studied at Wolverhampton Grammar School after which he completed an undergraduate degree in Money, Banking and Finance at the University of Birmingham.  Tarlok is a sports enthusiast and currently coaches boxing classes after competitively boxing for nine years himself.

  • Colleague tickets for Back Home (evening)

    Tickets for our first special event of 2022, our Back Home evening event, went on sale this week to BCLM Members from 12 noon on Wednesday (11 May). Discounted tickets for colleagues will be available for purchase from this Friday (13 May).

    For this year’s 1940s themed evening event Back Home, on Sat 9 Jul 7pm – 10:30pm, visitors can discover how the people of the Black Country came together against difficult odds to support the war effort. Learn about the fearless contributions of ARP wardens, the resourcefulness of those at home, and the vital contribution of the home guard. Headline act the D-Day Darlings will be making a welcome return for this year, as well as the vibrant swing sounds of Kal’s Kats who will be bringing an exciting mix of vintage classics throughout the evening. Plus, snap up some vintage ephemera, from 1940s dresses and suits to homewares at the Museum’s memorabilia markets.

    In line with previous years we’ve been able to ring-fence an allocation of discounted tickets for colleagues this event. An allocation of tickets per event night at a 50% discount will be available for colleagues to purchase for our Back Home Evening event and for other special events that will go on-sale later this year.

    To purchase tickets, please speak to the Sales and Ticketing Team in the Canalside offices.  Colleagues are able to purchase up to four discounted tickets and two additional full price tickets per event. (Subject to ticket availability.) To review our full staff ticket policy please read the document below.

    [embeddoc url=”http://pmm.d88.mywebsitetransfer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Colleague-Tickets-for-Events-Policy.-May-21.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google”]

    Please note that tickets for the Back Home daytime event are not yet on sale – please check back for future updates on when tickets for the daytime will be available for staff to book. 

  • Museum to be visited by Queen’s Baton as route confirmed for Commonwealth Games

    Ahead of the start of the Commonwealth Games, which will be hosted in Birmingham between 28 July – 8 August, the Queen’s Baton Relay has been making its way around the globe. The journey brings together and celebrates communities across the Commonwealth during the build up to the Games.

    The Relay has recently been confirmed to visit Dudley borough during its final journey through England this summer.

    On Sunday 24 July, the Baton will visit several locations in Dudley, Brierley Hill, Halesowen and Stourbridge. As part of its route around Dudley, we are thrilled to be included as one of the locations that the Baton will visit on this date.

    More details regarding the Baton’s journey through the Museum will be confirmed closer to the time. More information about the Baton’s relay around the Dudley borough can be found here.

  • Pension Guidance

    Making the most of your workplace savings

     The Museum’s pension provider, Aegon are running a series of sessions designed to help you get the most out of your workplace savings.

    Key areas that will be covered in these sessions include:

    • How to get the most out of your pension.
    • Your pension contributions and combining your pension pots.
    • Your investment fund options and retirement planning tools.
    • Reaching your retirement.

    Please find details of the sessions below, to book your place follow the relevant link below and register your details:11 May 10:30am
    How to get the most out of your pension
    11 May 12:00pm
    Your pension contributions and combining your pension pots
    12 May 10:30am
    Your investment fund options and retirement planning tools
    12 May 12:00pm
    Reaching your retirement
    18 May 10:30am
    How to get the most out of your pension
    18 May 12:00pm
    Your pension contributions and combining your pension pots
    19 May 10:30am
    Your investment fund options and retirement planning tools
    19 May 12:00pm
    Reaching your retirement

  • ‘A Cracking Easter’ Holiday Programme: Staff Survey 2022

    As you may be aware, our 2022 Cracking Easter programme saw the most successful Easter at the Museum to date, welcoming over 24,000 visitors! As staff members working in direct contact with guests, our frontline staff are key to our understanding of how visitors experience our public programmes and events. They are also key to their success.

    To better gauge the public (and frontline staff) response to this programme, we are asking for your help in providing some feedback. Your valuable insight will inform how we plan programmes going forward and ensure that you have the tools and training to support you to deliver the very best visitor experience.

    Please see the following link to access the survey:

    https://tinyurl.com/3ued373h

     

  • Event Update: “Back Home” – a 1940s Event

    Event Update: “Back Home” – a 1940s Event

    You will be familiar with the Museum’s 1940’s event. We have decided to shift the focus of the event this year to better reflect the domestic Black Country experience. The event, which will be called “Back Home”, will explore civilian life and stories of life in the Black Country and the wider region during the 1940s.

    Visitors will discover stories of how the people of the Black Country came together against difficult odds, and will commemorate the huge efforts of those at home during this pivotal period of history. Stories of the home guard, reserve occupations, make do & mend and dig for victory will be the key focus for the weekend.

    We appreciate that this may be different to what you may have expected. In order to support any questions you may have or may be asked by members of the public or re-enactor groups, someone from the Programming Team will be attending briefings over the course of the next week to answer your queries. A Q&A will be published based on the questions raised in these sessions.

    As we are yet to publicise the event and may not yet have informed re-enactors and traders at the time of publishing this update, please consider this information as confidential until such time as our event details have been made public via our website and social media. If you have any comment or question about the above we appreciate your discretion in bringing it to Team Managers or to the Programming team.

    In the event that you come across comments about this event on social media, please can we ask that these are directed to our Audiences & Communications team, who can be contacted via [email protected], and not addressed directly by yourselves. A copy of our social media policy can be found for your reference in the intranet documents file here. 

    Thank you for your cooperation.

     

  • Record Breaking Easter!

    Following the end of the Easter holidays, the Museum enjoyed fantastic success and welcomed more visitors for this holiday period than ever before, with 24,626 visitors joining us to celebrate A Cracking Easter, smashing the budgeted target of 23,000. This puts us in a strong  position as we move into our busiest periods. We are excited to continue this trend with our Marvellous Machines Bank Holiday this weekend and our May half term Jubilee-themed week at the end of next month. Plans are currently being made for Summer too, with updates on our programme to follow.

    Just some of our excellent feedback from our visitors for Easter:

    Anjan, Google Review: “An amazing place that offer something for everyone, especially kids. It takes you back in time and the visit never feels rushed so that you can enjoy the variety on offer. A must visit”

    Daltonspencer, TripAdvisor Review: “This is a fantastic museum. Be prepared to spend a full day there if you want to experience as much as possible.

    It really is a living experience where you can get right into the history and appreciate what life must have been like back then. The museum caters for all ages & is easily accessible. The staff are fantastic & really make the day even better. If you like Fish and Chips then I recommend trying the ones on site. It is a treat in itself!”

    We’d just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their input and hard work to deliver an excellent programme and visitor experience for all of our visitors during the Easter holidays.

  • Staff Discount

    Staff Discount

    The Museum currently offers the following staff discount on purchases at the Museum:

    15% on Gift Shop purchases
    25% on Food & Drink purchases
    50% on selected items in the WI

    These discounts are discretionary and may be altered by the Museum at any time. Some exclusions may apply.

    Please note that from Monday 9 May 2022 the above discounts will be available for card payments only (minimum spend of £1 required).

  • Learn Some Bostin’ BSL Phrases For Deaf Awareness Day!

    This year, we’re doing things a little differently in anticipation of Deaf Awareness Day. We need your support to help us to welcome deaf audiences on Saturday 7th May. We’ve listened to your feedback and have put together some simple BSL phrases that could be useful on the day to help you to better engage with our deaf visitors. See the video links below to learn how you can give a bostin’ BSL Black Country Welcome!

    Simple welcome phrases: https://youtu.be/uFmmxrZdRck

    Phrases for Front of House Staff: https://youtu.be/b9_TLvZ7c8w

    Phrases for Food and Drink Staff – https://youtu.be/9lA8VfjaGsY

    We have also placed a number of BSL handbooks in staff break areas – why not have a flick through and brush up on some basic phrases?

  • Elephant & Castle – Can you help?

    Elephant & Castle – Can you help?

    The Museum is calling out for donations of furnishings and objects to set dress the recreation of The Elephant & Castle. Today, we invited selected press members for a behind the scenes visit to help with our appeal.

    Look out for us on BBC Midlands Today (6.30pm, Tues 26 Apr), BBC WM (The morning drive time show) and the Express & Star in print and online.

    What are we searching for? The Collections Team are interested in collecting bar items from the 1960s, specifically: wooden tables and dark mahogany spindle back chairs, beer, wines and spirits bottles and promotional glasses. To help set dress the walls and tables, they are also looking for promotional materials such as wall plaques, mirrors, coasters and in particular, items that were marketed to women such as Babycham, Cherry B and Golden Godwin.

    Do you think you can help? For more information – see our web news pages