Having retired as Director of Birmingham Museums, I am in the process of relocating to Scotland. I became a Fellow in 1973, and I should like to renew my involvement with the Society and support its plans for the future. I hope that my experience of capital projects, fundraising and community engagement might be relevant and useful. Although my early career took me to the Near East, I spent over 25 years in senior posts in UK museums. In Glasgow I was part of the team that delivered a series of Lottery-funded major capital projects. In Birmingham, with its very young and diverse population, our focus was on community engagement. We fundraised for a range of projects, including the award-winning Collecting Birmingham, which up dated the collection to reflect over 50 years of immigration and changed community attitudes to museums. We also grew the Museums’ self-generated income to 60% of turnover.
I have a long track record of archaeological publication, both academic and popular: in Glasgow and Birmingham, books on heritage walks were best-sellers.
Finally, I believe I was the person who originally suggested what became Dig it! to the Society. It has been very gratifying to watch its success.