@Hannah_Museums

That’s great! But here’s have you thought about why?

Dear Cultural Cheerleaders,

Last month I attended a training event which was organised by Museums Development North East with Kids in Museums. The training event was focused around how museums can work more meaningfully with young people. First we started to think about how we are defining young people. When recruiting Young Trustees organisations usually ask recruit for people between the age of 18 to 24. At the training we spoke a lot about young trustees and how this can be an undoubtably great thing for organisations, and I felt I was able to reflect on my own personal experience around this.

I shared my own experience of being a Young Trustee and the emotional impact it had on me. And the responses I received made for an interesting discussion on how we should be approaching recruitment and working with young trustees. I provided the perspective of a person who chose to end her role as a young trustee early, due to quite negative experience, of which the blame didn’t really fall on either side, it was just a feeling that maybe neither of us were truly prepared, or understood what it would mean to work together, and so I share this post as a bit of a reflection, and not to criticise any party. I believe that it’s a big commitment on both parts to have young trustees and it goes beyond simple desire. I’ve broken this down into several sections which will talk you through my experience, and approaches that I think work and don’t work.

The Appeal

Young Trustee roles can be a very appealing thing, and can bring many positive aspects, young people can bring fresh perspectives and skills to the table, they know the younger audience better than some older board members and when treat like an equal a valuable exchange they can occur with the young person learning skills from other board members. At the training we spoke about Young Trustees being a process, and how good it was for young trustees to be recruited in pairs, they’d also have mentors within the boards, this meant that they could learn skills from other board members, and have peer support in the form of another young trustee. This exchange makes the experience valuable for all, but it doesn’t always work like that. In my own experience it becomes very easy to be put into the box of the “young person” who can take of all the technical stuff, like social media etc and you can easily become the poster girl for a board that is wanting to look diverse. You’re desperate to impress people so much, and you’re more focused on how something may look on paper to others than how right it feels for you. I think I fell into the trap of being the young trustee I thought that this board wanted, rather than the person they needed, because I lost sight very quickly of what I could bring to the table.

The Process

For me, the process of becoming a young trustee was as simple as contacting the board, after seeing a social media post I applied to be their Young Trustee because honestly, at the time I thought it’d be good for me and I was looking for something to boost my CV, but I now know upon reflection that I should have given more thought to such a big decision. I met with members of the board and then had another meeting soon after, before being recruited as their Young Trustee. It become very clear that at that time they just wanted someone who could do their social media, and I looked slightly past this at the thoughts of learning from them other skills and being more involved in other processes, such as funding applications.

When I joined the board I had to sign official documents which would get sent away to the Charities Commission, being a board member of any charity is a very big deal and I had to agree that I understood this, and at the time I thought I did. Reflecting back I kind of feel as though this official process was one of the main reasons that I didn’t leave earlier, although it got to the point where my own happiness became more important than any contract I had signed.

My Experience

The board I joined had been set up by a group of friends and colleagues who had already worked together on other projects. They were mainly retired and were very passionate about the charity they’d set up. It was honestly lovely to see how much passion and drive this board had and I can honestly say that I’m still really enjoying reading about their achievements, and some of the projects they’ve been involved in. However, around about the same time as I joined this board I started to work full time hours and my flexibility became less. I found myself missing meetings which had been posed as simple catchups over coffee during the working week, and then spent much of my own time off and weekends meeting to catch up on all of the previous conversations. My inbox became flooded with updates and it became very difficult to keep up with this fast moving project. I found it difficult to say no to meetings which were becoming more frequent as I hoped to keep up with the project, but it very much ran away from me and left me feeling somewhat isolated and as if I wasn’t giving enough.

Reflections

I believe that it’s vital to agree commitments and boundaries when recruiting any board members, having the patience and understanding that not everyone will have the same amount of time to give is of upmost importance and that official talk should remain for agreed meetings which are agreed in advance. If you can’t agree to this, I’m not sure that you are ready to have board members who have busier schedules and may not have as much time to give as you. That said, if it is clearly communicated at a meeting that those who have more time may work on more the project between meetings to keep them moving, I believe this is a good thing… however, communication is the key to making sure this is done in an appropriate manner. I also personally feel like having another young trustee, a peer to talk to about how I was feeling at the time would have made me feel like I was less alone in not being able to commit as much time, which is why I commend the approach that many museums have taken to recruiting more than 1 young trustee. When there is more than one voice speaking the same thing it can sometimes be much easier to be heard.

Conclusion

Leaving a trustee position was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in my career so far, but I’m glad I did it because it wasn’t right for me. Despite this, I’m still very much in awe of this charities successes and the lessons my time with them taught me. I always knew that one day I’d love to be a trustee, but now I know that it is worth the wait for something that I truly care about and something that I can see myself having an impact. I know now is that it’s important not just to jump at any opportunity and to instead think things through and decide if the opportunity is a right fit for me, and if the other members have a similar ethos and it’s an environment I’ll thrive in rather than just something that may or may not mean something to someone someday on a piece of paper.

At the training we spoke about the journey to involve young people, and how starting small by having conversations and inviting young people to get involved with projects on much smaller scales can be a good way to getting started. Starting youth panels and getting feedback from groups of younger people before making the step to recruit young trustees ensures that there are already relationships being built. I appreciate organisations that then ask young people what they’re passionate about and what skills they have, but also what skills they’d like to develop, organisations which see value in these positions beyond how they appear to look to others.

I’d ask myself if this was really the right opportunity for me? And I’d ask them, were you really ready for a Young Trustee?

In theory anyone can work with young people, but how do we make it meaningful?

Catch you soon!
H