Plans by the Tramway Museum Society to appoint a General Manager to oversee the operation of the charity and its commercial side, Crich Tramway Village, have been under discussion for some time now. However, following some encouragement from Society members, the vacancy has now been formally advertised on the Museum’s website, with potential applicants being invited to submit their interest.<\/p>\n
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Earlier this year, a group of TMS members set about to try and change the way the Society is being managed. Several proposals were put to the membership at an Emergency General Meeting in August, with a strong majority voting against them all. However, soon afterwards Society Chairman Colin Heaton issued a statement explaining that the growing desire for changes to the way the Museum is being run had been acknowledged, and that this would be taken further. One of the proposals was to speed up the process of advertising for a new General Manager as a paid position – and this has now been acted upon.<\/p>\n
Some TMS members have been concerned that the Museum currently lacks direction, and that the decline in visitor numbers is not being taken seriously enough by the Board of Management, all of whom are volunteers who are voted into power by their fellow members. Appointing a professional manager was considered as one way of attempting to deal with these issues, as it had been argued that some of the challenges currently facing the TMS were too great for a group of enthusiastic volunteers, some of whom have full time jobs and other commitments. Although the timing of these concerns was a little surprising – 2012 has been largely hailed as a very good year for Crich and some real positive progress has been made, particularly in terms of attracting more tram enthusiasts to support the Museum – at least some of them were very hard to argue with, and presumably this has led to the search for a new Manager.<\/p>\n
Perhaps inevitably, the person specification for this new role focusses on qualifications, people skills and previous business experience rather than a passion for trams – opening up the very real possible that a succesful candidate may not be particularly knowledgeable about the Society’s reason for being. Concern could also be expressed over the large salary on offer. The new Managing Director is to be paid between \u00a345,000 and \u00a350,000 per annum, presumably depending on their level of previous experience. As revenue from visitors continues to fall, it could be questioned whether it is wise to spend such a large amount of money on employing a single person.<\/p>\n
Hopefully, the TMS will find a suitable Managing Director who will be able to guide the National Tramway Museum forwards in a positive manner. For the record, any British Trams Online<\/em> readers who may be interesting in applying for the job can find out more information at http:\/\/www.tramway.co.uk\/contact-us\/vacancies<\/a> where a full job desciption and person specification are provided. The closing date for applications is 12:00pm on Friday 30th November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Plans by the Tramway Museum Society to appoint a General Manager to oversee the operation of the charity and its commercial side, Crich Tramway Village, have been under discussion for some time now. However, following some encouragement from Society members, … Continue reading