Trustee for South Hill Park

Do you want to be an important part of the running of Berkshire’s Centre for the Arts, Business and Community?

You could be a trustee for South Hill Park Trust, the Bracknell-based charity that supports arts, theatre, dance, music, cinema and more.

 About South Hill Park

Set up in 1973, South Hill Park Trust manages two theatres, a dance studio, creative spaces and a cinema within the grounds of an 18th century mansion house in Bracknell, Berkshire, with a long history, now as a prominent centre for arts within the South East.

South Hill Park hosts over 300 artistic, musical and theatrical events a year, featuring a range of personalities from internationally renowned to emerging new talents. SHP offer a busy programme of over 250 courses, workshops and events, and attracts an average of 250,000 visitors a year to the park.

The charity is independently governed by a Board of trustees and has an income of  more than £2m p.a

The role and what we are looking for in a new trustee

Trustees are the people who make the top-level decisions for our charity. Our Board includes people with experience in the arts and in our community, and we’d expect new trustees to have strong empathy with our cause and what we offer as our services and facilities.

You don’t necessarily need prior experience of charity trusteeship, as support from local charity-support organisations is always available.  Full induction to our organisation will be provided, plus specialist support as a new trustee including access to external training, as needed.

We are looking to add a range of skills from several trustees we hope to appoint to our Board, although we don’t expect any one trustee to have all of these abilities, experience and understanding:

• Finance
• Fundraising
• Marketing, PR, social media
• Legal, regulatory, compliance
• Customer experience
• People development, people management

If you can think strategically and plan long-term, you have the primary skills needed by our trustees; you’ll also need to be able to work collectively with other Board members. Support from our paid employees is always available, as they will be dealing with the day-to-day running of the organisation.

We are looking for people from a variety of backgrounds to join our charity. We want to expand the diversity of our board, in all meanings of the word, and strongly welcome applications from people from less-represented groups. 

The focus of a trustee role is strategic, and trustees will not be expected to get involved in the organisation’s operations on a day-to-day basis; however, contact and liaison with other trustees and employees is expected.   

We ask for about four hours of your time per month, which includes six Board meetings per year, trustee discussions, etc.  You will need access to digital communications, as much of our charity’s business is run that way.

Location & time commitment

Our Board meets every two months, on a weekday evening at 6pm (days/dates agreed in advance), for up to three hours, at South Hill Park mansion, RG12 7PA.

Our trustees are our Ambassadors, are expected to also meet with stakeholders, our staff and to join appropriate sub-committees as needed.

You are asked to dedicate a minimum of four hours per month to the role, preferably more; including preparation for and attendance at Board and other meetings; some of your duties may be carried out online and by phone/video, as well as face-to-face.

It would be expected that during your first few months as a trustee, the time needed for your familiarisation, induction and training my exceed those suggested hours, and at other times of year, such as our AGM, or in representation at events, etc., more time may be asked of you.

All trustees are expected to have contact with and meet people who use the services and facilities at SHP.

Trustees’ Term of Office is four years, with an option to be elected for an additional Term.

The focus of this role is strategic and you will not be managing the organisation on a day-to-day basis; however, regular contact and liaison with the CEO is expected.