Dear Trustees of the Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery,
I am writing to do two things. Firstly, to congratulate you on your election or re-election to Launceston City Council (LCC) and secondly, to draw your attention to the fact that as a consequence of your being elected to Council, you are also by default functionally a member of the QVMAG’s ‘Board of Trustees’. This is rarely overtly acknowledged, indeed there is a history at LCC where Aldermen’s QVMAG Trustee role has been downplayed – trivialised even – and the Local Govt. Act 1993 is unhelpfully ambiguous.
Nevertheless, as LCC Aldermen you are a member of the only body that is directly accountable to the rate and tax payers who provide almost all the funding the QVMAG relies upon. Furthermore, the QVMAG was endowed to the "Mayor, Aldermen & Citizens of Launceston" in 1895 – See online here
Nevertheless, as LCC Aldermen you are a member of the only body that is directly accountable to the rate and tax payers who provide almost all the funding the QVMAG relies upon. Furthermore, the QVMAG was endowed to the "Mayor, Aldermen & Citizens of Launceston" in 1895 – See online here
I imagine that the newly elected Aldermen among you may not have understood that you would be, functionally, a QVMAG Trustee when you decided to stand for election as an LCC Alderman. Arguably, in any practical sense based on the circumstantial evidence, neither did your predecessors consider this prospect – and it has been so for decades. Interestingly, QVMAG agenda items on LCC agendas have been notoriously missing for almost two decades and only appearing in crisis circumstances.
Put simply, as an Alderman/Trustee you, in concert with your fellow Aldermen/Trustees, are unambiguously accountable for determining what the QVMAG does, why it does it and when it does it. Trustees need to do this in order that its management can effectively determine who does these things and how they go about it. Civic Administration 101!
Likewise, as a Trustee you, in concert with other Aldermen/Trustees, determine the institution's policies (all of them!) and by extension, management's clear role is to put your determinations into action and deliver on the policies you as Trustees put in place.
Most importantly, as Trustees your most onerous role is to secure the funding the QVMAG needs to survive, operate its programs, conduct its research, build upon its collections and provide/maintain its infrastructure. There is no escaping this function as in the end it falls to you, in your Trustee role, to ensure that the institution is financially viable and sustainable.
The separation of powers between governance and management in civic administration is necessary in order for you, as Aldermen/Trustees, to:
- Be truly accountable to your constituency, funding agencies, donors and sponsors; and
- Make management functionally accountable to you as QVMAG Trustees; and
- Oversight the delivery of the expected and predetermined outcomes set down by you in your role as the QVMAG's Board of Trustees; in order that you can
- Ensure that QVMAG's services and programs can be delivered to your constituency as planned.
All this falls to you because you are a member of the only body that currently has a governance function – policy determination powers – relative to the QVMAG.
The first role of such a body is the appointment of the institution’s CEO or Director and consequently monitoring her/his performance. For whatever reason, in this case the practicality of this role has been devolved (informally?) to the General Manager in respect to the QVMAG – and there have been flow-on consequences over time.
There is an urgent need to proactively re-examine the situation the QVMAG finds itself in and the time is now! Moreover, given the QVMAG's multi-million dollar call on the LCC's budget, there is an urgent need for Aldermen, as the QVMAG's Trustees, to closely examine their roles as the QVMAG's governing body and the consequences of that – intended and unintended.
If you find your circumstances in regard to your 'QVMAG trusteeship role' either unclear, unacceptable or too onerous you may wish to have your situation clarified by the relevant State Govt. Ministers. They would be:
The first role of such a body is the appointment of the institution’s CEO or Director and consequently monitoring her/his performance. For whatever reason, in this case the practicality of this role has been devolved (informally?) to the General Manager in respect to the QVMAG – and there have been flow-on consequences over time.
There is an urgent need to proactively re-examine the situation the QVMAG finds itself in and the time is now! Moreover, given the QVMAG's multi-million dollar call on the LCC's budget, there is an urgent need for Aldermen, as the QVMAG's Trustees, to closely examine their roles as the QVMAG's governing body and the consequences of that – intended and unintended.
If you find your circumstances in regard to your 'QVMAG trusteeship role' either unclear, unacceptable or too onerous you may wish to have your situation clarified by the relevant State Govt. Ministers. They would be:
The Minister for Local Govt.
Peter Gutwein: peter – gutwein@dpac.tas.gov.au
The Minister for The Arts
Dr Vanessa Goodwin MLC – vanessa.goodwin@parliament.tas.gov.au
I have prepared a report, attached, to put what I am putting to you here in perspective and to provide some context. I and the QVMAG's Community of Ownership & Interest look forward to your responses – collectively and individually.
Yours sincerely,
Ray Norman
Ray Norman
Ray Norman JTC (Syd Tech.), CA (National Art School Syd.), MA (Research) Monash Melb.
Independent Researcher, Designermaker & Cultural Geographer
Director & Project Coordinator (Tas) nudgebah institute
Foundation Member (Resigned) QVMAG Museum Governance Advisory Board
“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.”
Thomas Paine
“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.”
Thomas Paine
The ninth paragraph - let it be read and understood by all the aldermen (and women)?
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