Volunteer Trustee with commercial / retail / catering experience

What will you be doing?

Forncett Industrial Steam Museum is a small, independent, volunteer run museum situated south of Norwich.  The spectacular collection of stationary steam engines was acquired by the Chairman, Dr Rowan Francis, and became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation in 2018.  The museum was awarded Arts Council England Accreditation in 2023.  The collection includes the engine that used to raise and lower London’s Tower Bridge before electronic motors took over in 1974, as well as the impressive Soame Steam Cart, one of the oldest surviving steam-driven cars in the UK, built in 1897. The museum is open to the public on Wednesdays and Sundays throughout the year, with ‘steam-up’ days, when the engines can be seen working, on the first Sunday of the month from May to October. Becoming a CIO in 2018 marked the beginning of an exciting transition for the museum, from being a private collection to becoming a publicly accountable body.  Achieving Arts Council England Accreditation in 2023 was the next step, moving the museum from an amateur organisation to one that is governed and managed to professional standards.  However, this is only the beginning, and we want your expertise to help us through the next exciting phase of the museum’s development. Whilst we have considerable engineering expertise amongst our existing trustees and volunteers, we need more business acumen on the Board to help us realise our visitor attraction’s income generation potential.  We are in the process of developing our small retail space, with the support of independent consultancy, and longer term we need your help to ensure our retail operation is profitable and sustainable.  We are also exploring other ways to make use of our facilities to generate income.

What are we looking for?

We welcome applications from people with a wide range of skills and experience.  At this time, we are particularly seeking trustees with skills and experience in the following areas:

business management (especially retail, catering and/or events management) retail tech / EPoS / KPI monitoring customer service fundraising digital marketing

However, if you are interested in this role and feel that you have different skills to contribute, please apply, as all applications will be considered.  Industrial heritage sector experience is not a prerequisite. Forncett Industrial Steam Museum is committed to treating all people equally and with respect irrespective of their age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.

What difference will you make?

Your skills and experience will drive the museum's commercial development, powering up our income generation operations and ensuring the museum's future resilience.