Agenda item

Julie Finch, Chief Executive of The Cheltenham Trust

(presentation and Q&A session)

Julie Finch, Chief Executive of the Cheltenham Trust gave a presentation which set out their aims and objectives and outlined some performance highlights of the Trust in their first year of operation

Following the presentation there was a question and answer session:

·         A Member asked whether the Wilson would become more dependent on subsidies from other activities as the council financial support decreased and would that have a negative impact on those other activities?

·         The Trust’s aims were to create social value for the town and in the case of the Wilson, the council's funding was facilitating education and community engagement but that would not be at the expense of other community activity. In order to increase the commercial viability it would be necessary to develop the buildings and facilities and for that funding was needed.

·         The Trust was not seeking to replace paid workers with volunteers. The volunteers performed a valuable role and added value to the work of the Trust. They received a full induction programme and had the opportunity to develop their skills. There was a high turnover of volunteers particularly among younger people who may be doing it as a short term position to gain experience.

·         She acknowledged the importance of getting younger children engaged in sport by engaging families. She advised that Sport England were due to lower their age funding threshold for children and the Trust would be looking to make a bid for funding. The Trust were currently planning to introduce a new concept, namely a Sport and Play Hub. This was designed to provide an appropriate environment for families with the right products and would accommodate new social groupings.

A number of questions from Members and the responses from the Trust had been circulated in advance of the meeting.

• Regarding the question on the Burrell collection, the Chief Executive confirmed that they had been aware of this through the Museums Journal. The Wilson did receive lots of ideas for potential exhibitions and it was a two-year process to get an exhibition in place. The Trust had to be selective and their choices were based on their target audience for the Wilson.
• As Chief Executive she was not phased by the responsibility for the Town Hall and the Pittville Pump Room and indeed she had experience of managing similar buildings in her previous roles. She emphasised the importance of venues needing to be living and breathing and the Trust facilitated this through the activities they offered and engagement with local people and visitors.
• The Trust did review “cost-effectiveness” but there was an element of subjectivity in assessing the value that is created from a particular activity. A new national framework called Culture Counts was being developed to assist in this process and the Trust intended to adopt it. She would be happy to update the committee in six months time.

The chair thanked the Chief Executive for a very informative presentation and wished her every success for the Trust going forward.