Highlights

The theme of our next conference is Arms Wide Open: Strategies for engaging with diverse communities (Register now for the 18th ICNT taking place in Bermuda in March 2019!)

Whilst in New York, Catherine had meetings with the Royal Oak Foundation, American Express and the 1772 Foundation, who she will meet again in Edinburgh in October

Fiona’s visit to Hong Kong has reignited interest in a heritage trust and INTO will have a key role to play moving forward

We were delighted to send two volunteer experts (a conservation architect and a structural engineer) to Tbilisi to advise the National Trust of Georgia on their first property

The CCFU is seeking a long-term volunteer to help with their built heritage programme – could that be you? Find out more here.

The Secretariat continues to provide technical assistance, advice and support to our members, including briefing a delegation from the Taiwanese Education Ministry at the request of the Taiwan Environmental Education Association

The Saint Lucia National Trust welcomed colleagues from Antigua last week as part of their Small Grant Project to find alternative solutions to the management of Pigeon Island and the Maria Islands

Today (14 September) is the first draw of the ‘Loto du Patrimoine‘ in France – Bonne chance!

Reflections on Brazil’s tragic fire

Family

Supporting our members in the achievement of their goals by providing opportunities to collaborate and share ideas, resources, skills and knowledge; and developing a global heritage offer that celebrates what is unique and special about the National Trust approach.

ICNT news: Catherine, Bill and Oliver have participated in panel meetings and contributed to discussions around the title, theme, workshops, speakers and bursaries.  Bill has kept the website updated with new content from the local team, prepared three newsletters and is now managing the registrations. Catherine has reached out to potential delegates in the Caribbean region, including a meeting in London with Neisha Ghany of the Trinidad and Tobago National Trust.

Catherine has also been in touch with the hosts of the 2021 Conference, Herita in Belgium.  A teleconference call with director Margit Bal will be followed by a visit to Antwerp in the next few months.

Social conscience: Following the Trustees meeting, Catherine visited Kevin Jennings at the Tenement House Museum in New York City.  They discussed forming an INTO grouping looking at social issues which has been taking shape over the summer.

Access all areas: The Reciprocal Visiting Group convened by Natalie Bull, met electronically. We plan to progress this over the next few months before Bermuda.

INTO the news: The latest magazine article about an INTO member in the NTEWNI magazine features the Indian Trust for Rural Heritage and Development (who we also connected with the Heritage Alliance here in London when their policy lead visited Delhi recently).  This year’s columns are now all on the INTO website.

Growth 

Building global capacity for heritage conservation by nurturing National Trusts – new and existing – and growing the movement.

Mentoring pilot: Oliver had a useful wash-up session with his mentee in the first week of September.  Julie is undertaking an evaluation and will launch the follow-up CEO programme in October.

Small Grants: As the INTO Africa Conference was postponed, we did not make a Small Grant Award in the last tranche.  We feel it’s an opportunity to review the SGP and link it with our new Technical Assistance Programme TAP-INTO.   Catherine is meeting Jo Burgon again in October to move this project forward.

New trusts: Support for our candidate members continues.  Lourenço de Almada has taken over the reins at the Portuguese National Trust and Charlie Haffner at the Sierra Leone Monuments and Relics Commission.  We look forward to continued close co-operation.   Catherine worked on a presentation for Fiona to give in Hong Kong at the Royal Geographical Society in August and linked to heritage contacts there.

INTO Adviser, Alice Macaire has arrived safely in Tehran and we have discussed the possibility of some sort of visit to encourage local heritage conservation initiatives.   Oliver has reached out to the Petra National Trust and is also following up with some people that asked for ICNT bursaries, encouraging them to join.

Outreach: Catherine met Mark McDonald of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation in Atlanta and the team at Newport Mansions, the Preservation Society of Newport County.  Both could potentially become members of INTO.

We also arranged for Justin Albert to visit Valencia to speak about INTO’s approach to a private foundation, Fundem.

The Secretariat continues to provide technical assistance, advice and support to our members arranging for Geoffrey to speak at the International Forum on Ancient Chinese Architecture in Beijing on behalf of the Ruan Yisan Heritage Foundation; advertising a Czech National Trust holiday via our social media and putting them in contact with designers for their newsletter; connecting the CCFU to a photographer and buildings surveyor to deliver an EU-funded project in Kampala at short notice; linking FAI in Italy to the NTEWNI Insight Team and the National Trust of Australia to the National Heritage Training Group; connecting the Directors of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the National Trust in Northern Ireland; contributing to discussions between the NTEWNI and Heritage New Zealand, the Association of National Trusts in Japan and the National Trust of Australia (Queensland); supporting the National Trust of Korea with an enquiry from an author writing about the National Trust movement and helping a member of the public with a query about the Courtaulds and the National Trust of Zimbabwe.

Voice

Speaking out with authority and purpose on global conservation issues critical to INTO’s membership; celebrating what is unique and special about the NT approach; and supporting our members with their influencing.

Voicing voice: At the New York meeting, the Trustees developed a clear vision for future INTO interventions, based on the Sustainable Development Goals document written by Oliver and Anita Canovas.  Catherine has since added an overarching introduction from Fiona and the paper was a key plank of INTO’s interventions at the HLPF in New York (attended by Jim Lindberg from the National Trust for Historic Preservation) and the Australia ICOMOS Conference in Fiji (by Elizabeth Erasito).

No Trust is an island: We have signed up to the Climate Heritage Mobilization being led by Andrew Potts and taking place at the Global Climate Action Summit on 12 & 13 Sept.  We have also registered again for the COP in Katowice and Oliver is negotiating with partners for side events and a stand.  Our main partner will once again be GEN (Global Ecovillage Network) with whom are developing an MOU following other successful collaborations, including HLPF above.  Catherine is meeting Yvette Dzakpasu, GEN’s Advocacy Director on 13 September.   Catherine and Emily met Jessica Owley Lippman, a US researcher exploring the National Trust model – and a friend of INTO’s from previous COPs.

2020 vision: We are discussing with the NTEWNI how INTO might be a part of their 2020 celebrations (125 year anniversary).   We are also hoping to provide some case studies for research they are doing into urban heritage conservation.

Outreach: Catherine met a group from Lancaster University, Manchester Metropolitan University and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) who were interested in finding out more about the National Trust model.

Nick Maurice, founder of BUILD, contacted us about a potential high level meeting to be convened by the Ugandan High Commissioner exploring North-South NGO linkages. This will take place later in the autumn with the All Party Parliamentary Group for Uganda at the House of Commons.

Catherine and Emily attended and event organised by the North of England Civic Trust as part of the EU Year of Cultural Heritage and featuring the Frontiers of the Roman Empire project.  They met the Duke of Gloucester (!) and other heritage colleagues.

Strength

Building financial stability and demonstrating best practice in our governance and organisational culture.

Funding proposal: We are delighted to report that our revised proposal to the Helen Hamlyn Trust has just been approved!  More news to follow after our Trustees meeting on 18 September.

Catherine is working with Justin Albert on a paper to the NTEWNI about INTO and international matters.

Report filings: We have printed copies of the 2017 Annual Report and sent these to our stakeholders.  Catherine and Bob completed the 2017 Companies House/Inland Revenue Return on 10 September.   Catherine has also been finalising the necessary admin to finalise the asset transfer.

Catherine filed the final Arcus Foundation Grant Report for the project we have been working on with the CCFU.  A narrative report of the Great Apes Project can be found here.

Our project to ‘Encourage African Youth’ has now ended and Catherine filed the last report on the GlobalGiving site in August.  This was our first foray into crowdfunding, an experience which is outlined here. It was an amazing learning curve and something we may well repeat in the future but for now we need to close our GlobalGiving account as we wind up the old INTO Limited.

Business Plan: Bob, Julie, Jacqui and Catherine met again to discuss the Business Plan.  It was also an opportunity to meet Tiger de Souza, Director of Volunteering, Participation and Inclusion at NTEWNI.  Another, wider Secretariat meeting was held on 10 September.

Data: Julie led investigations into the impact of GDPR on INTO, particularly the Working Holidays Programme.   She has developed new authorisations for imagery, which we will be using across INTO in the future.  Our new Secretariat Volunteer, Emily Knurek, has been updating the Member database.

Training: Catherine attended the Associations Congress ‘Member Engage Conference’. A chance to explore key issues in membership development and to meet people in similar roles.

Communications: Bill has been trialling different website themes in order to refresh the INTO site.  John had applied for a website research grant for us but we decided not to progress it at this stage.   John also submitted an application for the Charity Awards.