About the organisation
The Cinema Museum is volunteer led and run independent Museum and small charity. The (circa 50) volunteer workforce take care of our beautiful, a G2 listed Victorian ex-workhouse and once home to Charlie Chaplin. On top of that they also run the building as a fascinating museum, which celebrates the many histories of cinema and film – and helps create the next generation of cinema-memories and memory-makers. On top of that they also run an affordable programme of tours, talks and screenings, so everyone can enjoy the beauty of our building, the magic of our collections and the wonder of film. The Museum also runs a range of educational, archiving, wellbeing and community projects and programmes. We have a little bar and a little bookshop - essentially run as one. It is a busy, friendly small Museum where we try to use our spaces and our collections for the benefit of people. We will be 40 years old this year and we are keen to make the year count. You will be joining us at an exciting time as we launch our fundraising initiative, to purchase our buildings - we have an option to buy, so we are excited to grasp that opportunity and secure the long-term future of the Museum.
About the role
We need ongoing help with basic bookkeeping, but if you are more experienced or ambitious then we'd be very happy of you were to look at improvements to existing systems. The role also involves managing Gift Aid records. You would be involved with recording transactions and reconciling bank statements; assisting with invoicing and expense tracking and organising and maintaining records - we are particularly keen to make improvements, where you can see them. We are really happy to work with you to carve out the role, in line with your experience, personal aims and other committments. Once a year there will be a little more work when you will work with the Museum director and the Museum's auditor for the annual accounts, but this won't be too onerous. This role would suit someone who wanted to make a difference by bringing their skills, experience and advice to a small charity - but it would also suit someone keen to develop their skills/career by stretching existing knowledge and/or moving into a trustee role in time. You will report directly to the Museum Director and although the role is unpaid, we have very nice volunteer benefits. You will have the opportunity to attend events and screenings as a guest and we are very supportive of training and developing our volunteers.
Our ideal candidate
Essentially you will need to be numerate and comfy with numbers - desirably you would have bookkeeping experience. Essentially you would have some experience of working with some sort of bookkeeping software - desirably you would have experience with Sage. Essentially you would need to be calm and kind, because you will be working with kind and calm people. We would like someone who is a positive, supportive and upbeat because although we are excited about the next two years of fundraising, we don't pretend it will be easy! So an enthusiastic state of mind is always helpful. As is the case with most small independent museums, you will need to be a little flexible because we don't have large departments - the museum is managed by 6 trustees and run by a team of about 12 people (not all full time) on the ground. It will help if you love museums, film, cinema, beautiful old buildings and sharing them with others - but providing you like numbers, we think we can make you happy here.
What’s in it for you
We think that volunteering at The Cinema Museum is a lovely thing to do and most of our volunteers stay for years, if not decades.
The difference you will make to our charity will be transformational: you will help us run things smoothly – which is vital to a charity and particularly vital in the next two years as we embark on our fundraising and purchase plan.
The difference you will make to our local community will be massive: the better organised we are, the less time and money we waste, so the more work we can do with our local community and neighbours – and they are super people.
The difference you will make to your community of interest will be huge: you will be helping save the spiritual home of cinema and film-lovers globally and give our unique collection a permanent home.
And you will make a huge difference to: our existing wonderful volunteer bookkeeper, who has done the job for about a decade and would really like to do something else in the Museum now.
But we do value our volunteers and we like to think that you will personally benefit by:
Skills development: we will support you in any initial training you need and in any training you need as you develop in the role
Career development: we will work with you to understand what your future plans are and how we can support that career development through the training, experience and opportunities we can help you open up
Networking: you will meet a range if interesting, positive ad supportive people from the museum, cinema, film, education and public sectors
New people and new friends: you will meet new people and have the opportunity to expand your friendship circle
New experiences: you will be given the opportunity to be involved in museum, cinema and film projects during your time with us
Free training: our volunteers are offered free first aid and fire marshal training, free training in areas that they are involved with at the Museum
Free event tickets: all our volunteers get free plus one entry to Museum screenings and events
Space hire discount: we encourage volunteers to take advantage of the Museum spaces for the big events in their lives such as wedding’s, christenings and big birthdays – you get a significant space hire discount and we get a happy volunteer who is better able to relate to our customers who book the Museum for events – which has an impact on our customer satisfaction and out bottom line income
Apply for the role
Please provide a short cover note setting out your motivations for volunteering for the organisation, any relevant skills/experience and why you think you might be a suitable candidate.
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