Aston Martin Heritage Trust causes fury by scrapping plans
Discussion
When announced, it did seem to be a rather grandiose venture, and museums don't tend to achieve any return on investment, therefore fund raising relies upon generosity.
Extract;
'For years the Aston Martin Heritage Trust has been planning with aplomb, to build a multi-million Pound museum in Newport Pagnell'
The clue was probably in, 'multi-million Pound'.
Following the style of Les Edgar, TVR hope and dreams.
At least AMHT have announced the ending of their plan. After about 7 years, the TVR website still seeks new customer orders and deposits!
To be fair to AMOC (which I rarely am, being allergic to red trousers) certain areas of the membership were saying years ago that the grandiose plans were just a pie-in-the-sky dream by some senior(s?) in the AMHT that would never make financial sense for a charity-based museum-type facility; there were even some with (self-proclaimed) expertise in the sector who pointed out the plans were financial folly.
Some in AMOC were particularly incensed because a non-voluntary (but small) contribution from their subscriptions is diverted directly to the AMHT with no say in how the funds were used. Without knowing the reasons behind the announcement it looks like the AMOC doubters might have been right. I hope the AMHT (of which I am a "supporter" or "friend", depending on what they call us) has sufficient funds and space to look after the properties and archives it has inherited correctly or, without the museum, has plans to be able to do so.
Some in AMOC were particularly incensed because a non-voluntary (but small) contribution from their subscriptions is diverted directly to the AMHT with no say in how the funds were used. Without knowing the reasons behind the announcement it looks like the AMOC doubters might have been right. I hope the AMHT (of which I am a "supporter" or "friend", depending on what they call us) has sufficient funds and space to look after the properties and archives it has inherited correctly or, without the museum, has plans to be able to do so.
The AMHT lost sight of what it was set up to do.
The purpose of the Trust was to shield the Club's assets from legal action if an event organised in the name of the Club, but which the Club knew nothing about, went wrong. The two organisations were intended to run hand in glove. Some of the artefacts and cars held by the Tust could be displayed in the joint premises. That was it. The reality of the Trust running events, and generally behaving like a parallel club is so far removed from the original idea, I'd be spinning in my grave if I was dead.
The purpose of the Trust was to shield the Club's assets from legal action if an event organised in the name of the Club, but which the Club knew nothing about, went wrong. The two organisations were intended to run hand in glove. Some of the artefacts and cars held by the Tust could be displayed in the joint premises. That was it. The reality of the Trust running events, and generally behaving like a parallel club is so far removed from the original idea, I'd be spinning in my grave if I was dead.
In an addition to DickyC's post above, I recall that the intent was to divest the quite valuable heritage assets of the AMOC to the AMHT so that the AMOC was less likely to be subject to legal action if some event notionally in its name were to have an unfortunate incident. It was at the time (1996-1998) driven by a perception that in particular the USA was becoming increasingly litigious and punitive. The residual "cash" risk to AMOC could be covered by insurance
The 2 organisations may well have been intended to run "hand in glove" however I'm sure there will be members here who are aware of the Charity Commission's rules for ensuring there's a valid firewall. So the "amateur" intent was moderated by charity/trust law
The 2 organisations may well have been intended to run "hand in glove" however I'm sure there will be members here who are aware of the Charity Commission's rules for ensuring there's a valid firewall. So the "amateur" intent was moderated by charity/trust law
Edited by DB4DM on Thursday 23 January 23:03
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