The Future of the Brontë Society and more

1. From the Brontë Society:

The Brontë Society is visioning, seeking to develop a new strategic framework for the next five years. We want you to participate and tell us what you think!

We are considering new vision and mission statements, after a workshop with our Trustees. We will highlight key visioning themes which will inform our strategic planning.
• Excellence
• Inspirational
• Learning
• Engagement
• Conservation
• Sustainability
• Partnership. 

We will recognise that space is key to our ambitions and our success, so we can:
• Improve our visitor facilities
• Improve and expand our learning facilities
• Display our collections to best advantage
• Improve our library and reader facilities
• Improve and develop our trading opportunitiesWe will think creatively about space and improve our approach to space in the Parsonage, reconsidering the admissions process and circulation
• Re-assess the use of space in the 1960s extension
• Consider all options for housing administration offices
• Review options regarding the meadow and reservoir
• Consider another appropriate building into which to expand
• Consider a new buildWe will look at our image anew, and review our branding
• Maximise our communication channels
• Increase and target our marketing
• Raise our profile through networking
• Ensure we are a forward-looking, energetic organisationWe will prioritise what we do (recognising we cannot do everything at once), and......think strategically about where the Society will be in five, ten, twenty years, benchmarking for inspiration and forming key partnerships to fundraise, in order to ensure we are financially robust.Our immediate goals include prioritising and understanding our visitors
• Serving our Society members by responding to their feedback
• Nurturing our retail and online customers
• Engaging with our local communities through increased programming
• Building new audiences
• Displaying and interpreting our collections anew
• Driving visitor figures through our exhibition programming
• Planning for the bicentenaries of Charlotte and Emily
• Raising the profile of our collections, and expanding and improving access to them online
• Driving and expanding Society membership
• Diversification of income streams
• Prioritising fundraising and the necessary networking. 
We want to play a crucial part inn the Haworth community, West Yorkshire and within the UK cultural offer, developing audiences, driving tourism, the economy and raising our profile worldwide through academic and creative endeavours, making the most of the opportunities presented by the bicentenaries from 2016 onwards. We will be prepared for the influx of visitors and take a lead on the celebrations worldwide.
As a Society we will recognise our responsibilitiesn and seek to be sustainable and fit for purpose in our organisational structures, in order to achieve our goals.
We hope you will help us create a strategy that is meaningful to all our colleagues and members, our governing body, our visitors, our supporters, our funders and the communities we serve locally, regionally and worldwide. Your feedback on developing a new strategic framework for the future is valuable to us.

Help us shape our future together by responding online to this survey
• attending a visitor focus group
• filling in your membership survey (if you are a member)
• attending a public meeting
Thank you,

Professor Ann Sumner Executive Director
The Brontë Society

Just open the questionnaire, fill it in and send it by email here, or by post to Brontë Parsonage Museum, Church Street, Haworth, Keighley, BD22 8DR

2. Maddalena De Leo has sent us some pictures of the April 21 event in Agropoli, Italy: