David Nation and I attended the Devonmuseums meeting at the end of April. Devonmuseums has a membership of about 80 organisations which includes virtually all the museums and collections, large and small, in the county, though admittedly with varying degrees of engagement. One of the strengths of the organisation is that it provides an opportunity for part time volunteers like ours to meet museum professionals; plenty of technical advice is available, and the quarterly meetings frequently include training sessions.
The Devonmuseums website receives about 70000 hits annually, and is often a first port of call for visitors to the county. I have just updated our pages on it. They also produce a very popular brochure, but inclusion is a little expensive for a small outfit like ours.
Of the organisations represented at the meeting, Bampton Heritage Centre was probably the most readily comparable to Crediton - it is of a similar age, with a smaller building but more volunteers (60). By and large the others were bigger or better established, and generally on the tourist route (e.g. Okehampton), in a picturesque location (e.g. Topsham), or representing a significant specific activity (e.g. Plymouth Dockyard). Recurring themes at the meeting were Accreditation and social media, both of which we need to embrace in the near future.
JK