NCS Full Membership provides an Accredited expert consultant to meet with you regularly and help identify, plan and address the needs of your collection. We act as your 'conservation department' and as such Full membership is a partnership with us to help you look after your collections over the long term. We anticipate that Full Member institutions will remain working with us for a minimum of three years and we do not do single year Full membership. Full member subscription funds roll forward each year if unused and are added to a members' new days bought each year.
Planning and site support days are provided through Full Membership, with a range of subscription levels (days per year) to choose from. Additional conservation or building projects can also be carried out using other funds, leaving your Full membership to cover ongoing planning support. Unused membership days can be used where appropriate for projects at one of our studios or those of Associate practices. Member days can be used to cover multi-location monitoring (climate and pests) in addition to our free monitoring scheme, and Full member days can be used for Freezer Storage of acetate material (see 'Cold Storage'). Full members are eligible to send collections to our Collaborative Storage Scheme.
A range of remote support is also provided under membership, including online planning meetings, along with access to your own part of our Member Area, where you will find published and unpublished guidance, including many EN conservation standards for download and local use. Any data and reports we provide for you are also filed here for your exclusive access. Monitoring data from our storage partners' sites is published here also for all members to view.
Supporting Members get a range of benefits including basic remote technical advice, free environmental monitoring for one location, access to their own part of our Members' Area and eligibility to join our Collaborative Storage Scheme or Freezer Storage. Standard NCS studio and consultancy project rates are discounted for all levels of Membership.
Typical Full Member planning support includes:
- Environmental surveys for storage, reading rooms and exhibition spaces;
- Planning environmental improvement projects or conservation programmes, including help with fund-raising;
- Compliance assessments and Accreditation documentation;
- Conservation analysis and treatment specifications for damaged items;
- Exhibition and loans planning, couriering, monitoring and regulatory support;
- Training of staff and volunteers;
- Repository building design specifications and expert liaison with architects, surveyors and mechanical engineers;
- Collection surveys, benchmarking and conservation management plans;
- Help with emergency control plans and risk assessments.
NCS brings together conservation consulting Associates and a range of other providers, selected to meet the highest standards of professional expertise. Conservation Associates are PACR accredited conservators and from Conservation Register practices.
More information about membership levels and benefits can be found on our Membership Rates page
