An apology for absence was received from Councillor Jeal.

It was agreed that this item would be deferred to the next meeting.

The minutes of the meeting held on 10 March 2014 were confirmed subject to the amendment of the spelling of Bertie's name and that under item three the curators report that Roseanne had continued to work on the schools and community programme.

Invoices

For the last 5 months no payment had been received for the room bookings at the Museum.  After chasing these up and cross referencing their information to that which the museum already had invoices for a total of £846.45 were sent out.

The outstanding bill for the museum website which had been created earlier in the year was £500 and as this had not been paid an additional surcharge of £60 had been added to it.  After speaking with the company the surcharge was removed and the bill was paid.

Bookings

i) Bookings have continued to be taken for the Conference Room up until the end of the year.  From this week until the end of July 4 out of 5 days are booked per week.  The rate at which the room hire had been agreed is £8.50 per hour.  This is purely room hire only. Refreshments if required are charged at 35p per head.  This price has been agreed up until the end of the year - securing the further bookings to the end of the year. The Curator asked if volunteers could take the names and phone numbers of people that enquire about room hire as she could then follow these up.

Lizzie had offered the room to the Museums Norfolk AGM and the Samaritans AGM on a donation only basis. Museums Norfolk sent a cheque for £50 but as yet a donation has not been received from the Samaritans.

ii) Cream Tea bookings were slow but three confirmed bookings had been received with some other enquiries to follow up.  A successful cream tea/talk/tour last week had received wonderful feedback and comments were left on the Museums Facebook page and tweeted on Twitter.

iii) This year there had been a total of 3 School bookings. 2 schools and 1 outreach session with another 4 confirmed. Feedback from the schools had been positive.

Volunteers

The Museum had recently advertised for new volunteers as they were short on some shifts and rely heavily on others doing more than they sometimes would.  So far they had been successful in recruiting one new Volunteer.

Procedures 

The Curator stated that she had made "checklists" for the volunteers to follow as there had been a few incidents that had occurred that either had been cause for concern or that had received complaints from other volunteers about the way the museums had been left after locking up.  So far the lists have been a little hit and miss with some volunteers reading them and others not.  The checklists were intended to be a help for existing and new volunteers.

The "signing in" book needed to be put out at all times when visitors use the Conference room. This has not always been done.  There are two main reasons for this;

The first being fire safety regulations (should there be a fire and the building evacuated they would need to know if anyone has left the building).  Secondly if refreshments are needed with the room hire this is an additional cost therefore the amount of visitors needs recording.  

Printer

A new printer had been purchased.  This was purchased from money previously donated to the museum.


East of England Co-op Grant

The grant which Lizzie applied for before her maternity leave was unsuccessful for the amount that she had asked for.  It had included plans for a stair lift - this is the item that they turned down.  Happily though they did offer £1,000 towards the education programme and asked for a summary of what this would be spent on.  They were advised that the loan boxes needed replacing along with equipment for the education room.

Forum

Two meetings had taken pace with Sophie from the Forum. This year's exhibition would revolve around the battle of the Nile.  Early talks suggest they would like to borrow the Nile table as well as some other artefacts as they did last year. The other main focus for them this year will be the launch of an app solely regarding a Nelson walk in Norfolk.  They were advised of the important places in Great Yarmouth and the suggestion was that the starting point for the GY walk was the museum.

Facebook/Twitter

In one week our viewing figures for Facebook had peaked by almost 4,500 per cent and our Twitter account continues to gain followers.

Museums at Night

The Museum was taking part in this annual event.  This year the theme was a pirate party.  

Damp

There are several damp areas within the building, these are caused by a number of mechanisms;

Hydroscopic salt migration.  During periods of flooding along South Quay marine water which contains high levels of salt in solution is absorbed by the masonry, as the waters recede the salt is deposited within the masonry.  Flooding has taken place throughout the life of the building and resulted in large quantities of soluble salt both in the fabric and surrounding floor areas.  

The soluble salts are hydroscopic in nature which means that they absorb moisture from the atmosphere in the form of condensation and vapour resulting in a damp surface. This is compounded when the salts crystallizing with evaporation and heating cycles.  The crystallization causes the disruption of plaster layers and flaking paint.

Inadequate ventilation of areas can also cause excessive condensation and dampness.  Ineffective and blocked drains and down pipes is another cause of damp.  

The desalination of an entire building is impossible and without desalination of all the surrounding area (or isolation) is unlikely to work.  dry lining can cover the effected areas but does not treat the cause.

Lowering the relative humidity of rooms will helps as will reviewing heating regimes, heating should be kept at a consistent temperature as fluctuations  (such as when heating is turned off at night) causes migration of salts to the surface and crystallization.  Increasing ventilation in areas affected is also important.

Gutters

Wellington Construction have been instructed to clear, clean and make good all gutters and down pipes to the north east area of the building and at the junction between number 25 South Quay and the Nelson Museum.  This will be undertaken during May 2014.

Timber Shutters
 
Wellington Construction have been instructed to repair timber shutters to the south wall of the garden.  These have been removed and temporary boarding installed.  The shutters are under repair at the contractors workshop and will be reinstated during May 2014.
 
   

(i) Volunteers Report 

A Walk and fish and chip supper had been arranged.  Some volunteers were going to London and some were not, this was a friends trip to London and not a museum arranged visit.  The volunteers were asking about a TV.  The curator stated that the shop would be moved out of the cafe and back to where it had previously been at the weekend.

(ii) Cannon

The Nelson Museum had been asked to store in the court yard a Georgian Cannon which had been dredged up.  The company who dredged this up had phoned the museums to say that they wanted this back.  The Coroner had phoned the museum to say that the company were not allowed to take this back until their investigations had been completed.

(iii) Treasurer

Ben asked about the position of Treasurer as Malcolm would like some help with this role with a view to handing this role over. 

(iv) Membership

Increasing the Membership of the Management Board was discussed and it was agreed that they would give some thought to additional members that could be invited along with inviting some of the volunteers from the museum to attend future meetings.
 

(v) Date of next meeting 

It was agreed that the next meeting would be held on Monday 30 June 2014 at 3.30pm.