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CRT getting rid of more of the national waterways museum collection.


frangar

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No disposal of exhibits is not the answer. But what can be the solution.

 

I suppose CRT has to pay for their other responsibilities.

 

It would be of interest to know how the CRT budget is allocated and how many high paid managers are involved. Also who were the experts involved?

 

 

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25 minutes ago, Heartland said:

No disposal of exhibits is not the answer. But what can be the solution.

 

I suppose CRT has to pay for their other responsibilities.

 

It would be of interest to know how the CRT budget is allocated and how many high paid managers are involved. Also who were the experts involved?

 

 

Some of the £500k spent on pointless airtime might have been better spent on marketing the museum and caring for what they have. 

 

Edited to add a link for the disposal report

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/refresh/media/thumbnail/40575-rehoming-12-boats-from-the-collection.pdf

 

I know some of the committee....I will be voicing my opinion when I next see them! 

Edited by frangar
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59 minutes ago, Heartland said:

No disposal of exhibits is not the answer. But what can be the solution.

 

I suppose CRT has to pay for their other responsibilities.

 

It would be of interest to know how the CRT budget is allocated and how many high paid managers are involved. Also who were the experts involved?

 

 

 

Under the heading "Museums & Attractions" the C&RT Accounts for 2018/19 show :

 

Income : £1.6 million

Costs : £4.8 million

Support Costs : £0.7 million

Number of staff : 60

 

On a purely financial basis you cannot run a 'business' generating £1.6 million income and costing you £5.5 million.

 

To maintain the support of Museums they must take some £4 million away from somewhere else (Canal maintenance ?).

 

Their income is further eroded by they Property Portfolio showing very poor results with the following making losses :

 

Waterside Properties : -£0.4 million

Icknield Port Loop : - £1.0 million

Roundhouse Birmingham : - £0.6 million

 

H2o Urban did make a profit of £1.8 million.

 

Overall another £200k needed to be taken from elsewhere to fund the loss making activities.

 

 

Of course BWML made a profit of £1.3 million (£8.5m income, £7.2m costs) but they sold them off so will have less to spend next year.

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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2 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Under the heading "Museums & Attractions" the C&RT Accounts for 2018/19 show :

 

Income : £1.6 million

Costs : £4.8 million

Support Costs : £0.7 million

Number of staff : 60

 

On a purely financial basis you cannot run a 'business' generating £1.6 million income and costing you £5.5 million.

 

To maintain the support of Museums they must take some £4 million away from somewhere else (Canal maintenance).

 

There income is further eroded by they Property Portfolio showing very poor results with the following making losses :

 

Waterside Properties : -£0.4 million

Icknield Port Loop : - £1.0 million

Roundhouse Birmingham : - £0.6 million

 

H2o Urban did make a profit of £1.8 million.

 

Overall another £200k needed to be taken from elsewhere.

 

 

Of course BWML made a profit of £1.3 million (£8.5m income, £7.2m costs) but they sold them off so will have less to spend next year.

I’m not sure getting rid of items that could be used as attractions is going to improve matters....surely a waterways museum needs boats to function...and the argument they have duplication etc falls a little flat...maybe someone needs to tell the national gallery they have too many paintings by Constable etc. 

 

I agree the NWM is in a dire state.....It needs a management structure that is passionate about the subject...not just a career museum type. 

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5 minutes ago, frangar said:

I’m not sure getting rid of items that could be used as attractions is going to improve matters....surely a waterways museum needs boats to function...and the argument they have duplication etc falls a little flat...maybe someone needs to tell the national gallery they have too many paintings by Constable etc. 

 

I agree the NWM is in a dire state.....It needs a management structure that is passionate about the subject...not just a career museum type. 

 

Completely agree.

But 'bean counters' run most businesses these days, and what with all those boaters complaining about the lack of maintenance, where do they spend their limited income ?

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1 minute ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Completely agree.

But 'bean counters' run most businesses these days, and what with all those boaters complaining about the lack of maintenance, where do they spend their limited income ?

As I said spending the £500k they spent on airtime for pointless tv ads could have been spent on museum advertising or admission deals...Once you have visitors to a museum then you can sell them the well-being bit etc. It would even be from the marketing budget so no reallocation needed. 

 

They either need to invest in the museums at Ellesmere Port & Gloucester or shut them totally. At present they aren’t anything to anyone....they are just

dying a slow death due to a lack of any real vision. 

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1 minute ago, frangar said:

As I said spending the £500k they spent on airtime for pointless tv ads could have been spent on museum advertising or admission deals...Once you have visitors to a museum then you can sell them the well-being bit etc. It would even be from the marketing budget so no reallocation needed. 

 

They either need to invest in the museums at Ellesmere Port & Gloucester or shut them totally. At present they aren’t anything to anyone....they are just

dying a slow death due to a lack of any real vision. 

I've been to the Gloucester one.  I can imagine it's ok if you get the combined ticket with the boat trip, but the museum itself is poor.

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Just now, Chris Williams said:

There used to be a boat museum in Exeter.  some exhibits went to Scotland, the tug went to Sweden for restoration,

 

exeter.JPG.344abf982539b56093d87df7ee0be176.JPG

The National Motorboat Museum in Essex was closed as well due to lack of support from the local council where it was. They had a load of really interesting exhibits...I hate to think what happened to them. 

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Just now, frangar said:

As I said spending the £500k they spent on airtime for pointless tv ads

The ongoing £50m support from DEFRA relies on C&RT achieving certain KPI's.

One of the measurements includes 'Public Awareness' of the brand - this has been falling below target.

Another target is 'numbers of visitors' to the canals.

 

If for an investment of £500k they can achieve their targets and retain the £50 million grant it has been money well spent.

If they spent £500k on their museums and failed to achieve their targets , then they would lose the £50 million grant, and everything would be 'up for sale'.

  • Greenie 2
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Just now, Alan de Enfield said:

The ongoing £50m support from DEFRA relies on C&RT achieving certain KPI's.

One of the measurements includes 'Public Awareness' of the brand - this has been falling below target.

Another target is 'numbers of visitors' to the canals.

 

If for an investment of £500k they can achieve their targets and retain the £50 million grant it has been money well spent.

If they spent £500k on their museums and failed to achieve their targets , then they would lose the £50 million grant, and everything would be 'up for sale'.

I would suggest that a fleeting tv ad is less likely to raise awareness than a museum visit if the museum was a memorable experience. There is a reason that many big brands are moving away from TV towards more immersive experiences. 

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Just now, frangar said:

I would suggest that a fleeting tv ad is less likely to raise awareness than a museum visit if the museum was a memorable experience. There is a reason that many big brands are moving away from TV towards more immersive experiences. 

Yet again I am in agreement.

In Marketing terms the ad was extremely poor and unfocussed - what was it actually to achieve ?

It made no mention of 'give us some cash'

It made no mention of 'come and look at the museums'

 

It was just a 'bubble' floating about.

Very poor.

 

They could have taken the opportunity to show the museum(s) get schools involved etc etc etc. Their Marketing department leaves a lot to be desired.

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2 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Yet again I am in agreement.

In Marketing terms the ad was extremely poor and unfocussed - what was it actually to achieve ?

It made no mention of 'give us some cash'

It made no mention of 'come and look at the museums'

 

It was just a 'bubble' floating about.

Very poor.

 

They could have taken the opportunity to show the museum(s) get schools involved etc etc etc. Their Marketing department leaves a lot to be desired.

It didn’t even show someone enjoying a boating activity!! Unbelievable really.  

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7 minutes ago, Graham Davis said:

Perhaps because in overall figures, boaters are in a minority of users of canals?

What sort of argument is that?? Bizarre!! Surely they should be encouraging people to try out what canals were built for...show someone on a dayboat/water taxi/hire boat etc. Really not difficult. 

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2 hours ago, Heartland said:

No disposal of exhibits is not the answer. But what can be the solution.

 

I suppose CRT has to pay for their other responsibilities.

 

It would be of interest to know how the CRT budget is allocated and how many high paid managers are involved. Also who were the experts involved?

 

 

 

agreed.JPG

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2 hours ago, sirweste said:

I don't understad why they don't capitalise on pop-culture as an example: sorting out something related to Peaky Blinders

I'm not convinced that "Come visit the canals, get razor bladed" is a message that is going to help.

 

Jen ?

 

The museum at Goole has gone and its collection dispersed.

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2 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

 

 

The museum at Goole has gone and its collection dispersed.

That was a fantastic local museum that did great work in the community. They looked after the exhibits too...I’ve heard tell that a consortium are trying to raise the money to buy the boats back. 

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I'm not at all sure CRT are the right people to be running museums anyway (other than the great big one that connects most of England and bits of Wales) - it's very different skill set to running a waterway network. There is almost no management overlap with the core business, and of course you end up with this problem, an organisation charged with looking after the waterways is subsidising it's museums. 

 

Running museums is a thankless task, and very few try and present exhibits as big as boats, which is a completely different kettle of fish to having bits of pottery in glass cages. 

 

A better model for a boat museum would probably be for most of the boats to be preserved by individuals and trusts and on loan to the museum, but shifting to that model is difficult and, as can be seen here, potentially painful with the possible loss of items. 

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