Governance and policies
The Vengerberg Trust is a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) with a voting membership. Its constitution was adopted on 14 April 2016 and last amended at the annual general meeting of 2023.
The board and committees
The board of trustees meets six times a year. It has three committees:
- Finance and General Purposes, which oversees the budget, the accounts, staffing and the building;
- Collections, which advises on acquisitions, loans, disposals and access to the collections and archives;
- the Lilac Fair committee, which runs the fair and includes members who are not trustees.
The Curator and the Visitor Services Manager attend board meetings. The minutes of board meetings, with confidential items removed, are available to members on request.
Policies
| Policy | Last reviewed |
|---|---|
| Safeguarding children and adults at risk | March 2026 |
| Collections development | September 2023 |
| Documentation, care and conservation | September 2023 |
| Access to collections and archives | September 2024 |
| Data protection | January 2026 |
| Health and safety | March 2026 |
| Volunteering | March 2026 |
| Equality and diversity | November 2024 |
| Conflicts of interest | May 2025 |
| Reserves and investment | September 2025 |
| Whistleblowing | May 2025 |
| Complaints | May 2025 |
Copies of any policy are available from the Secretary at the museum.
Safeguarding
The Trust’s safeguarding lead is Patricia Overend, Vice-chair. Staff and volunteers who work with children have enhanced background checks and safeguarding training. If you have a concern about the safety of a child or adult at the museum or at one of our events, please speak to a member of staff or contact the safeguarding lead through the museum desk. In an emergency, call the emergency services.
Fundraising
We do not buy or sell lists of names, we do not telephone people to ask for donations, and we do not use professional fundraisers. We will always tell you how your donation will be used.
Complaints
We want to know when we have got something wrong. Most problems can be put right on the spot, so please speak first to the member of staff or volunteer on duty.
- If that does not resolve it, write to the Visitor Services Manager at the museum or email info@vengerberg.org, with your name, how to contact you and what happened. We will acknowledge your complaint within five working days and reply in full within twenty working days.
- If you are not satisfied with the reply, write to the Chair of Trustees at the museum, who will review it, or ask another trustee to, and reply within twenty working days.
- The Chair’s reply is the Trust’s final response, and is reported to the next meeting of the board.
Complaints about the Lilac Fair go to the Chair of the Lilac Fair committee in the first instance. We report the number of complaints received to the board each quarter. In 2025–26 we received 11 written complaints, eight about parking or road closures on fair days.
Whistleblowing
Staff and volunteers who have a concern about wrongdoing in the Trust can raise it with the Chair or any trustee in confidence, under our whistleblowing policy.