Join the Board of Trustees for Isles of Scilly Cultural Centre and Museum

The Isles of Scilly Cultural Centre and Museum, a Roscoe Communications client, is seeking Trustees to help bring new thinking, views and experience into the organisation to support the exciting transformation of the Town Hall and bring our new Cultural Centre and Museum into reality.

The Cultural Centre and Museum project is at a pivotal point. With project planning nearly completed, we will move into the delivery phase very soon – so we need to get the right people on board as trustees of the new organisation that will be established to be responsible for our new venue.

We are particularly interested in receiving applications from people with the following skills and experience:

• Commercial and business development, particularly operational start-ups

• Cultural venue and/or cultural programming leadership

• Financial and business planning

• Legal

• HR and volunteer strategy

• Charity governance

We’re hoping to appoint a mixture of candidates from both the Isles of Scilly and the mainland, with a focus on island-based recruitment.

Role of a trustee

At the meeting of Full Council in September, Isles of Scilly councillors - our lead partner on the project - supported the project team’s proposal to form a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) to run the new Cultural Centre and Museum.

Under this arrangement, the Council will retain ownership of the building and the new organisation will become a tenant on a 25-year lease, with responsibility for the management and operations of the whole facility, including the museum, café and community hall.

Work is underway to establish suitable arrangements between the Isles of Scilly Museum Association and the CIO for the future ownership and management of the museum’s collection.

The intention is for the CIO to operate under a ‘foundation constitution’ model, meaning it will be run by a small group of individuals who are both members and charity trustees.

  • The Council does not plan to have any formal representation on the CIO board.

  • The proposed constitution for the new CIO would allow for the Isles of Scilly Museum Association to nominate one of their own trustees to sit on the board as a full voting member, should they choose to do so. 

A minimum of three trustees is required in order to create the CIO - but it is proposed there will be up to 12 trustees on the final board, with a second phase of recruitment in 2024.

The trustee role is not renumerated, but reasonable expenses will be paid. The terms for the new CIO are currently being drawn up and the governing documentation will be produced in 2024.

The role of the trustee is to ensure that the CIO is managed and run responsibly, in line with the agreed objectives and for the benefit of residents and visitors to Scilly.

The trustees will play a crucial part in the development and success of the new facility. Working in line with the Charity Code of Governance, trustees will be required to demonstrate strong leadership by providing strategic oversight, support and challenge.

General duties will include:

  • Advocating for the project and answering questions from the public

  • Making decisions in relation to investment, finance and governance

  • Making decisions about the strategic direction of the facility

  • Participating in board discussions by sharing ideas and considering the views of others

 As the new facility is being constructed, the initial duties of the trustees will also include:

  • Building a staff base

  • Further developing and adopting the draft business model

The trustees of the new organisation will receive plenty of support as the new facility takes shape and during the early years. The team of consultants who have worked on the plans in the development phase will continue to provide support and funding is available for trustees to access training workshops on board development and to visit similar organisations.

You can find full details about the responsibilities of trustees in the Charity Commission document ‘The Essential Trustee.’

 We’re looking for people with a passion for the Islands and a commitment to getting the Cultural Centre and Museum up and running. We need people who are able to bring energy and commitment, take a proactive part in our board discussions, engage in healthy debate, respect others’ viewpoints and then gather around to support a consensus view.

If you think you’ve got the skills, experience and personal qualities to support us in taking our next vital step, we would be delighted to hear from you.

Lauren Webb