Message from WSRHT Chairman, Mike Thompson July 2024

The Heritage Trust wishes to announce changes to the Board of Trustees that we want to share with our members, colleagues on the WSR and external bodies interested in the charity’s work.

Firstly, we wish to announce the retirement of Geoff Evens who has been one of our longest serving Trustees. Geoff has been involved with the WSR for over 30 years in a variety of roles across the West Somerset Railway PLC, West Somerset Railway Association and the Heritage Trust. Geoff has been a stalwart of our board for several years and I have personally learnt a lot from him since taking up the role of Chairman.

Geoff’s enthusiasm, commitment and attention to detail together with his wider knowledge of the railway will be sorely missed and I want to pay tribute for everything he has done for the WSR and for the Trust. He now wishes to have more family time and pursue other activities, but will continue as an occasional volunteer for the museum.

As a consequence of this, the board has decided to take this opportunity to re-align some of the portfolio responsibilities within existing Trustees, along with the co-option of a new Trustee to take on a newly defined role.

First, Steve Williams, our Vice Chairman and Company Secretary will take over from Geoff on the leadership of the Museum Accreditation work stream with the aim of submitting an application to the Arts Council by early 2025. Steve will also relinquish responsibility for PR and Communications and this will go to a newly created portfolio of Membership and Communications.

We are delighted to announce that Chris Bolt, formerly Trust Treasurer until 2018, has agreed to return to the board as a Trustee and will assume this new role. Chris was formally co-opted to the board at our July 2024 meeting. He has a formidable CV across many industries and will be a welcome addition to strengthen the skill-set of the board.

Finally, following work by the Accreditation Working Group, the Trust has developed new thinking on our approach to acquisition, management and development of volunteers as part of implementing a People Plan for the charity. John Robinson, our Safeguarding Trustee has been leading this work and the board has agreed that John’s portfolio should be amended to reflect these additional responsibilities. It will now be known as Safeguarding and People.

These are important steps forward for the Trust as the board seeks to continuously improve and strengthen the management of the charity.