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PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
It has been a challenging year for the Museum as we embraced new standards
of corporate governance, attended courses and studied the intricacies of
risk management. The need or imperative for management committees to keep
abreast of corporate governance has increased each year, so that it might
seem there is little time to actually carry out the cultural aims and objectives
of the organisation.
But carry them out we did and I would like to thank the Management Committee
and staff for working tirelessly to keep the values of the Living Museum
alive, to keep exhibitions and events happening in response to community
dialogue and to be open to discussion with the wide range of people that
come for so many different reasons.
As the captain of the tour boat 'Blackbird', I have the opportunity to
drop into the Museum several days a week. I also witness the response of
my passengers and their surprise to see so much knowledge in what seems
a relatively small place. I have passengers from interstate and overseas,
but the majority are from what we would call the 'other' side of Melbourne.
Most are surprised at the amount of history there is to see in the west
and that so much of it can be found out about in the Living Museum.
But more than that, it is the readiness of staff, associates and volunteers
to be available, to respond to questions, find files, photographs and all
manner of resources. This is the part they find refreshing and is part of
the service of this 'community' museum.
What they see is only part of the story. The work has to be done to collect
the information to be able to talk about it. The internal workings are similar
to the public face in a way. Although there are only a few core staff, only
two full time, a range of associates and volunteers are working on several
projects at once. There is not always a clear cut line about what is a Museum
project and what is not.
However, what is very clear is that a lot of people in and around the
Living Museum are working on a lot of projects and they are talking to each
other about issues involved in those projects. The resulting productivity
is evident in the following pages.
Peter Somerville
President
Melbourne's Living Museum of the West |
