A charity steeped in history has welcomed a new trustee thanks to the recruitment support from The Experience Bank.
The Fusiliers Museum of Northumberland preserves the history of the Northumberland Fusiliers, displaying artefacts from its rich history within the British Army from as far back as the 17th Century. The regiment is part of the modern-day Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.
Due to the generosity of the Duke of Northumberland, the museum has permanent residence in a tower within Alnwick Castle, which can be seen as part of a visit to the Castle.
Alongside Chair of the Board, Neil Salvesen, the charity has a board that looks after the Trust and a small operational team comprising of three members of staff who work all year round. This is then supplemented with extra front of house staff during opening times from March to late October together with a team of volunteers.
Neil has been involved for 9 years and chairs a board that is made up of people from all backgrounds, but they agreed they were all keen to widen the range of expertise. Neil said:
“Our board is an interesting one but many of us have been there for some time – some trustees have a military background, to keep the military connection, the Duke of Northumberland is a trustee, and then we have people from the local community and business to bring diversity.
“We like to ensure we recruit people with empathy for what we do, and we started to realise that we needed a succession plan, a way to refresh our thinking and to focus on how the charity will look in the future.
“I have personally known Peter Neal, founder of the Experience Bank, a long time so I got in touch and had a chat with him.”
The charity spends a lot of time on outreach, taking objects to schools, and welcoming groups of young people to the museum. They were keen that the new trustee would have ideas on knowing how we make sense to modern generations.
Peter spent time getting to know the charity and gained an understanding that someone who could bring new ways to reach people was key. He set about looking for people with experience in community engagement and IT/Digital to give a strategic direction on how to exploit new technologies to reach a new audience. Neil continued:
“Peter was great at describing the museum to his audiences and made the role appealing to people with the skills to make something historic interesting for another generation. We weren’t sure what response we would get but were pleasantly surprised with the number and diversity of candidates, and we were able to go forward with a strong shortlist to interview.”
Following the interview process Arthur McLaughlin joined the board. With an executive career in blue chip companies such as IBM and JP Morgan Chase, Arthur also has a close interest in the military – and is a local, living in Northumberland. Neil concluded:
“We are delighted to welcome Arthur to the board, and we are looking forward to working with him bringing our charity to even more people. We would recommend Peter to any charities looking for trustees and executives. I wasn’t quite sure how it worked within charity sector where we were looking for someone to volunteer their time and knowledge, but we were very pleased with the outcome.”
If you are a charity wanting to galvanise or refresh your existing board and leadership team, then do get in touch with Peter. He is ready and waiting to help!
