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Members Committee Activity Report 24

02 December 2024

The Brooklands Members are one of the largest support organisations in the independent Museum Sector. Your Committee are associate members of the Brooklands Trust who in turn steer the strategic direction of Brooklands Museum Management.

The Brooklands Members’ Committee’s objectives are:

·         To promote interest in and support for the charitable objectives of the Trust,

·         raise funds through subscriptions and other activities to support the work of the Trust

·         promote value to Members by means of events, publications and communications, talks and other activities.

This report provides highlights of the work done by the Committee against those objectives in the 12 months from 1 October 2023 to 30 September 2024. The financial references are for the period 1 January 2023

 to 31 December 2023 which is aligned to the Museum’s same financial reporting year.

This activities report provides information about the new Committee and its work during its first year. Some of the Members income, such as membership subscriptions goes directly to the Museum, to ensure 100 percent of your subscriptions go directly to supporting the Museum and its day-to-day business. Subscriptions are therefore shown in this report to demonstrate the overall level of that support. The financial statement and accounts presented to the Annual General Meeting in September 2024 are therefore restricted to those funds raised as a direct result of your committee’s fundraising projects/workstreams. 

Chairperson’s Report

Although I have been associated with the Members Committee for Several Years as Secretary, this has been my first year as Chairman during what has turned out to be a period of significant change, both within the Members Committee and the Museum with the appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer. It has been humbling to witness so many able, talented members willing to stand in what turned out to be a tightly contested poll for Committee vacancies. This demonstrated to me from the outset just how successful our members’ organisation is.

As you will see from this activity report the Committee has been focused on delivery aligned to our three objectives We have had two resignations and I thank Nigel Abbott and Mike Taylor for their commitment, ideas and contributions to further develop the Members organisation.   

As we entered 2024 another year, I took time to remind myself what a special place we have here at Brooklands. There are not just the acres of history filled with our world class collections, but the many stories they tell of past achievements and innovation. Even more impressive is how they look forwards to the future as Brooklands continues to inspire new stories.

At the end of our reporting year we have also be said goodbye to two stalwarts of the Committee. David Brockington-Hill, with responsibility for the Driving Group, was the architect of the successful Members’ entrance and organiser of the Members’ Annual Dinner. He also played a significant role organising the Classic Car Show & Autojumble. David has decided not to re-stand after six years on the Committee.

And lastly special thanks to Garreth Tarr who has been Treasurer for a number years and handed over to Chris Bound but will remain on the Committee in an advisory capacity and continue his important contribution to the Brooklands Bulletin.  

Meet Your Committee

The Committee in place during the period from September 2023 was:

Officers:

Chair: Kevin Lee; Vice-Chair & Talks: Harry Sherrard; Treasurer: Gareth Tarr; Secretary & Publications: Martin Gegg.

Committee Members:

Outreach: Debbie Crawt; Driving Group/Events: David Brockington-Hill; Brooklands MembersTV: Mark Jarman; Members Entrance: Derek March; Raffle & Outreach: David Warr; Finance: Chris Bound; BMTV: Fiona Easterby; Activities Report & Driving Events Support: Jonathan Braim; Club Members Bar & Benefits: Mike Taylor; Members Events Development: Nigel Abbot.

Committee Work Streams

The Committee acknowledge the assistance of all the Member Volunteers who support the Various Committee Leads in the delivery of the following fundraising and awareness activities. We are always looking for additional volunteers to assist, so if you are interested in supporting the Committee please contact Members@brooklandsmuseum.com or one of the Committee Members or volunteers on the Outreach stand.

Financial Management

This has been undertaken by the Treasurer with support from Chris Bound and members of the Museum’s finance staff who manage the day to day transactions of the Members funds.

Talks Programme

The Talks programme has provided a diverse range of entertaining and educational talks which focus on subjects, directly concerned with the history of Brooklands as well as the interests of Members. Harry Sherrard leads an enthusiastic group of Volunteer members and Technical Partners who prepare the Napier Room for the speakers. This includes Sound, lighting and live stream links all of which takes considerable time and effort to deliver as well as packing away kit ready to hand back to the Hospitality Team.

It has been another busy and successful year for the Talks Team, with 1,836 tickets sold for 12 events between September 2023 and August 2024. We have continued to run a varied series of talks relevant to Brooklands' history, covering the Second World War, the Cold War, aviation and motorsport. We began the year marking the 80th anniversary of the Great Escape with the daughter of a former inmate. Sky F1’s Karun Chandhok, the Benetton F1 story and Derek Warwick were all sell-out talks, as was the delightful Vicki Butler Henderson, whose grandfather raced at Brooklands.

As well as the main programme of talks in the Napier Room, in 2024 we launched Bluebird Talks, a series of talks for a smaller audience in the Bluebird room. The Talks Team works in conjunction with BMTV, first to publicise talks and then, on the night, to livestream the Napier room talks, which are then uploaded to our YouTube channel where they receive thousands of views.

Brooklands Members TV

Brooklands Members TV consists of a growing archive of You Tube films recording Brooklands Events and Talks as well off-site events, where Brooklands Members are represented and a growing number of meet the Volunteer Films that showcase specific areas of the Brooklands Site and Collection. In Addition there are a growing number of Podcasts delivered via “Sound Cloud” “Apple” and in 2024 we launched Podcasts on the Spotify platform.

Whilst this not a member’s only resource, it also acts as a recruitment tool attracting more visitors and potential members. We made a conscious decision to open the archive to a worldwide audience to raise awareness of Brooklands and being confident that in time the archive would become monetised and a further means of revenue to support the Museum.

In addition we are also working to provide members with exclusive content, which will not be possible until the Museum website has been upgraded.     

The BMtv statistics from 1st September 2023 to 31st August 2024 are as follows:

YouTube: 12 months views: 665,786

New Subscribers: 2,300

Total views since launch: 2,361,283

Total number of subscribers to channel: 9,255

2024, year to date, income generated from monetisation: £1801 paid to Brooklands. This amount is net of up to 24% of gross earnings currently held by Google subject to it agreeing to UK tax status.

Outreach

The Outreach Team led by Debbie Crawt consists of a group of Volunteer Members that raise awareness of the Members organisation, both on site at Events and talks, as well as off site at local events and those further afield subject to availability of Volunteers.

We continue to attend off site events, Haslemere, Weybridge and Capel, with the intention of increasing the number in 2025, so informing the wider public beyond our natural catchment area, about Brooklands and the benefits of membership.

There has been an Increased focus on sales, taking us beyond the near £6000 made in 2023.

Our most successful event continues to be Italian Car Day followed closely by New Years Day. The recent 'one off' events, Mustang 60, Porsche 100 and Working Vehicles have brought us to the attention of a new audience, increased sales and membership.

An A frame poster for the evening talks has been created to accompany the flyers, taking the information directly to a greater number, particularly at the events.

Sadly not all has been positive; on the first day of Double12 we took just £13 in four hours and abandoned the event at 1pm due to poor weather.

We continue to attend the evening talks; although sales and memberships are low we do provide a presence, and hopefully act as a focal point for any member’s queries.

Driving Group & Visits

From 2023 Tours, Driving Events and Visits were brought together under the Banner of The Brooklands Members Driving Group.

The events included:

  • Winter 2023 - arranging the Member's Annual Dinner in November with a record breaking attendance of circa 180 paying guests.
  • Various dates through 2024 - some day touring assemblies and weekends in the UK & Europe (Holland and France). In the UK this included two long weekend trips to Welsh Farmhouse/Llanerchindda, which were well supported.
  • Summer 2024 - a visit to Goodwood House which was sold out and is to be repeated in 2025. Also to the Isle of Man Motoring Festival – which was a Celebration of British Cars -, this attracted good weather when the rest of the UK was rained upon, so a great event!
  • September 2024 - Coordination of the Driving Group moves to Jonathan Braim; review undertaken with an uprated roles & responsibilities proposal approved by Members Committee. This decision sees the Driving Group refocus on organising a range of socially focused, accessible and inclusive motoring activities to be led and delivered by a new Steering Group.
  • Early October 2024 – Steering Group is enthusiastically planning a refreshed schedule of driving and passengering events for Members in 2025 into 2026! Keep an eye out for them in the Brooklands Members Newsletter!   

Raffle

The Raffle is organised by David Warr in partnership with the Museum. In 2024 there was a spring paper raffle with delivery of raffle books via the Bulletin, which represented a saving in postage, as well as selling books via outreach. Proceeds of which went towards the Children’s playground.

Later in the year we have experimented with an electronic 'Late Summer / Winter ' Raffle which will be drawn in November. This online raffle reduced costs by a considerable margin and we await the results of take-up verses the paper Raffle . 

Events Member Entrance

The Team of Volunteers is led by Derek March, who work tirelessly to ensure that Members are able to access the Museum at events without the need to join a long queue. There continue to be issues concerning the two premium events, per year for which Members have to pay a supplement. However, the Team are working with the Museum management to find a workable solution.

The Process to rebrand from Fast Track to Members' Entrance was initiated with help from Museum staff. This was done to avoid any confusion to the growing number of visitors that have pre-purchased online tickets. Design of the entrance has evolved with a view to improve efficiency and speed of entry wherever possible.

  • The team supported 17 events throughout the year;
  • Just over 16,000 visitors welcomed through the Members' Entrance;
  • Recruited 3 new volunteers to the team from the membership;
  • The member volunteers worked 137 shifts across all events;
  • Worked in partnership with the Outreach Team to increase the availability of the Membership "Table" at events for new memberships / renewals;
  • Between the Members' Entrance Team and Outreach, 133 new or renewal memberships were sold at the Members' Entrance up to the end of May 2024*;
  • The amount raised through the sale of memberships at the entrance up to May 2024 was £13,304.

Publications

The Brooklands Bulletin, edited by Alisdair Suttie and produced by Hine Marketing with the Martin Gegg taking an Executive Editorial role ensuring that the product meets the strategic goal of entertaining and educating members; and that the content reflects the diversity of the Museum’s collection as well as the Membership and their interests. Martin is supported by Gareth Tarr and Mark Jarman, who as a virtual Sub-committee review new advertising to ensure it meets the values of the museum, as well as quality reviewing the Magazine prior to printing.

We continue to be surprised by the number of high quality and diverse articles submitted by readers. Special thanks to Committee Member Gareth for some excellent pieces on the motoring side, and we are continuing to build the stories of the individual Pioneers and innovators.

Advertising income continues to be a challenge and is an area that needs much more focus to reduce costs.  We are also looking to the results of the membership survey to inform us about options for Bulletin delivery channels for the future.

During the year we have been using QR codes as links to films in the bulletin as they are a more practical way of linking. We do recognise that not everyone will be able to use QR codes and for them we will aim to provide a generic short link or reference to the main video page.

The Monthly newsletter continues to be the channel for more immediate news and links to up coming talks and events.

Club Member’s Bar

In the period since September 2023, The Club Bar experienced some challenges regarding staffing. Mike Taylor together with Kevin Lee worked with the Museum Management to improve the service levels and menu options. During 2024 there has been a significant improvement towards providing a premium experience for Club Members. Maintaining staffing levels has continued to be a challenge and the Committee continues to monitor the situation.

Annual Financial Statement

This is a background summary of the formal 2023 financial statement presented to the AGM in September 2024:

The Members’ income is divided into two streams. The first stream is the membership which goes directly to support the day-to-day work of the museum and does not form part of the Members financial accounts.

The surpluses generated from members activities are used for donations to the museum for specific projects, the most recent being a contribution towards the lift and Clubhouse refurbishment. 

Brooklands Members Accounts 2023 – Treasurer’s Commentary for AGM  

June 2024

2023 is the first year we have had a full year of activities since the pandemic, and these were well supported by the membership. Surpluses generated by membership activities are used to help fund some of the museum’s projects and in 2023 we were able to donate £25,000 towards the lift that formed part of the Clubhouse refurbishment.

The largest income generator for the members accounts in 2023 was the talks programme under Harry Sherrard with a full list of events which proved popular with the membership and generated a net income of £16,685. This level of performance has continued into 2024 and is expected to yield similar if not better results.

The annual dinner is one of the highlight events of the year and was well supported by members. Including raffle and auction income from a memorable evening yielded a net £2,266. This dinner comes under David Brockington-Hill as does the Driving Group whose various events yielded an additional £2,264 (no that is not a typo, just coincidence).

The Outreach team not only recruit new members at museum and external events but also sell memorabilia and ephemera to visitors and the net income from their activities (excluding membership sales) was £3,850. In addition, the Members Day and Autojumble in July added a further £1,251.

During the pandemic the decision was taken to increase our communication and services to members through the various films put out by Brooklands Members tv and this is proving to be increasingly popular as YouTube figures verify. The cost of this service for 2023 was £6,462 although it should be noted that some of this cost is mitigated by the live streaming of the talks. At present we do not receive sufficient detail from the booking agent to be able to identify this income separately from the other talks receipts.

Secretarial costs are incurred through the AGM process together with committee expenses which amounted to £2,139. Other sundry income amounted to £436 mostly interest on monies held on deposit. Members will be aware that there was no raffle held in 2023 and this was run instead in spring 2024.

The net result for the year 2023 was a surplus of £18,151. Using this and funds generated by previous years surpluses brought forward enabled the members to make a £25,000 contribution to the lift project as part of the Clubhouse refurbishment.

I would like to place on record the invaluable contribution I have received from fellow committee member Chris Bound who worked with the museum’s staff to investigate and analyse the financial data received from the museum. I would also like to acknowledge the contributions of the museum’s finance director Luke Cumper and his assistant Jonathan Harris in their support to the members accounts.

Gareth Tarr,  Honorary Treasurer, June 2024