Highlights

On 5 November, we held our first Roundtable in London with INTO members, volunteers and supporters joining colleagues from the UK heritage sector to share opportunities and challenges

Three INTO members are advertising nine Working Holidays in 2019 via our programme 

The 2020 World Monuments Watch is now open!  Do let us know if you are entering as we can support you

We now have a page dedicated to the learnings of Innocastle which we will build on as the project progresses

Elizabeth Erasito presented our SDGs paper at the Australia ICOMOS Conference in Fiji in October and our former Chairman, Simon Molesworth also presented (thanks to Andrew Potts for image)

Presenting INTO and the National Trust model at the Salon du Patrimoine in Paris last monthInternationally respected curator, historian and filmmaker Gus Casely-Hayford, currently Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington DC is a confirmed speaker at ICNT Bermuda – find out more here

Petra National Trust becomes our first INTO member in the region

Fiona spoke at the AGM of the National Trust of Guernsey and spent time visiting properties and meeting staff, volunteers and members.

Catherine attended the Fit for the Future Network Harvest and learned a lot about practical approaches to sustainability!

Family

ICNT news: Catherine, Bill and Oliver have participated in panel meetings and contributed to discussions around the title, theme, workshops, speakers and bursaries.  Bill is continuing to manage communications and registrations.   We have all been encouraging attendance.   Catherine met Margit Bal in London and discussed the 2021 Antwerp Conference.   It was interesting to find out more about Herita and their work.  Later that week, Catherine attended the Flanders Remembers Armistice concert at St Paul’s Cathedral.

Working groups: We agreed the organogram at the last Trustees meeting which included working groups.  We propose surveying the membership on possible themes and leaders.

Reciprocal visiting: Natalie has surveyed the current arrangements and a meeting is being arranged to move the process forward. Trish O’Connell of An Taisce expressed an interest in extending reciprocal arrangements and we also spoke to the National Trust of Guernsey.

Working holidays: Julie has worked with INTO members on the first upload of 9 working holidays for 2019 in the Czech Republic and Romania.  They are now also on the NTEWNI website.

Learn and share: We held our first ever INTO Roundtable in London on 5 November.  European collaboration was the focus of discussion, and the sustainability of new organisations was identified as a common challenge for National Trusts around the world. We plan to organise more of these in future alongside more webinars.  We attended the launch of the Heritage Alliance’s International Report and made lots of useful contacts.

Outreach: Oliver and Bill joined another meeting of INTO Africa.  Oliver will continue to advise and support the group after his retirement and will attend their conference in 2020.  Fiona replied to an approach from a university contact in Johannesburg about the formation of a South African National Trust.

Catherine joined European colleagues at the Salon du Patrimoine at the Louvre in Paris last month where she addressed a seminar on volunteer involvement in heritage.  There was quite a bit of ‘buzz’ at the fair around the idea of a French National Trust.

Growth 

TAP-INTO: The Trustees approved our broad approach at the last meeting and Catherine has continued to liaise with Jo Burgon on pilot interventions. We have rejigged the Small Grants application procedure on the INTO website and have received a report from the Falkland Islands Museum and National Trust on the grant they were awarded last year to “kick start” fundraising efforts for their new annex building.

Mentoring pilot: Julie has undertaken her review of this programme and will report back at the next meeting.

Membership growth: We welcomed new members, the Petra National Trust, last month.  Our first INTO members in the region. Catherine and Oliver will meet to discuss candidates’ progress and how to develop action plans.

Communications officer: We hope to recruit by the end of the year and at the moment are managing the Innocastle communications in-house.   The next NTEWNI magazine will feature an article about the Gelderland Trust.

Outreach: We were invited to the International Forum on Ancient Chinese Architecture in Beijing in September which Geoffrey attended and spoke at.  As a result he organised a return visit by some of the organisations involved which will now take place in the New Year.

INTO was approached by a sustainability consultant about the possibility of working with Russian partners in a FCO sponsored project next year.  Guy Eames is meeting NTEWNI/INTO climate change representatives next month in the UK.

We introduced the Din l-Art Ħelwa to coastal conservation colleagues in the UK; through Trevor Johnson (INTO Amicus) we have reached out to someone interested in the idea of a National Trust of Kenya; we connected Badan Warisan Malaysia and the National Trust for Historic Preservation to researchers exploring the future of the heritage sector on behalf of the NTEWNI; we connected Debbie Dance (INTO Amicus) to the National Trust movement in Australia; we connected the National Trust of Zimbabwe to colleagues in the NTEWNI film and TV unit; Catherine met the Christo Kefalas, the new NTEWNI World Cultures Curator; Julie and Bill worked on advertising the CCFU volunteer vacancy in Uganda; we advised the National Trust of Trinidad and Tobago on heritage lottery models; Catherine has been speaking to Robert Quarles van Ufford of Nationale Monumenten Organisatie about a possible visit to the UK next year to learn and share and Luke Potter attended PastForward in San Francisco on behalf of INTO and the NTEWNI.

We were contacted by Igor Kocian about supporting the heritage movement in Slovakia and after consulting with the National Trust of Slovakia, Catherine will meet him next month.

Voice

SDGs paper: Elizabeth Erasito presented our paper at the Australia ICOMOS conference in Suva last month. We will share it again at the COP 24 in Poland in December.  Catherine is also talking to the NTEWNI about future advocacy tactics and strategies.

COP 24: Catherine, Anita and Oliver had a call on 14 November to discuss plans for COP 24.  Oliver has negotiated two side events, one with our partners Global Ecovillage Network and the Nordic Folkcenter for Renewable Energy and one at the UK Pavilion with the Minister for Climate Change, Claire Perry.  As both of these will take place towards the end of the COP, our team will focus its efforts on the second week.  Catherine had a good meeting with Yvette Dzakpasu, GEN’s Advocacy Director on 13 September.

Ambassadors: Catrini Kubontubuh reported at our last Trustee meeting that BPPI Chairman, Pak Hashim Djojohadikusumo had accepted our invitation to become an INTO Ambassador.  Other names were discussed on that call which we will follow up at our next meeting.

Innocastle:  Catherine attended the kick-off events in Romania at the beginning of October, which was a great opportunity to meet all the partners and stakeholders whilst learning more about the heritage situation there.   She also had an opportunity to connect with INTO members, Pro Patrimonio.  Quite a bit of time has been spent on administration including now fortnightly skype calls with the partners, the appointment of an auditor, discussions with the NTEWNI about the project management framework and working on the first report/claim.

Survey of excellence: We launched our 2019 Awards and have received a good crop of applications.

Outreach: With the support of the St Helena National Trust we have joined a coalition (including RSPB, Greenpeace, the Blue Marine Foundation and others) calling on the UK Government to enact its promise to protect the Blue Belt of large protected areas around 7 or the 14 British Overseas Territories.

As a result of Oliver’s work with the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), INTO was invited to a High Level Political Forum on International Wildlife Trade on 11 October, hosted by the Secretaries of State for Foreign Affairs and the Environment and addressed by the Duke of Cambridge.   INTO joined WTTC’s global initiative to combat illegal wildlife trade.  As a result, Dave Cowley of the Hout Bay Heritage Trust will be attending a WTTC event in Stellenbosch next week, where the South African Minister of Tourism will be speaking, amongst others.

Strength

Governance: Having acquired a new insurance policy for the new CIO (and a wind-down policy for INTO Ltd), transferred the domain name, requested the closure of the old bank accounts, transferred the PayPal and GlobalGiving accounts, we are now in the period of dormancy of the old company before winding up.  Bob is now working on the final accounts.  However, due to an error in the HMRC system our filed accounts were not received by Companies House.  We are currently appealing a late filing fine.

Helen Hamlyn Trust project: The HHT trustees approved our proposal for Capacity Building for the National Trust Ideal from the International National Trusts Organisation with a grant of £275,780 over 3 years. They require comprehensive annual reports and ask that the Deputy Secretary-General give a presentation to the board in late June or early July, outlining the impact of the trust’s grant investment.

We finalised the role profile and advertised the Deputy Secretary-General role (via the National Trust Jobs site) with a closing date of 25 November.  Catherine met Jo Burgon to discuss the project, TAP-INTO and the new role.  Jo and Julie Thompson will be involved in short-listing and telephone interviews.

Trustee satisfaction survey: At the time of writing, four responses to the survey have been received.

Business Plan: Catherine is working with Justin Albert on a paper to the NTEWNI, reporting back on the first tranche of funding. The Secretariat, which last met on 29 October, has been gathering information, models and ideas for the blended financing of INTO and will resume this piece of work before the next meeting.  Once such idea is a proposal to join Goodwings, an ethical travel and hotel booking portal.

Succession planning: Oliver met some of his former NTEWNI colleagues at Attingham who he sounded out about possible volunteering for INTO in the future.

Catherine met the Trustees of the 1772 Foundation in Edinburgh and we received an unexpected gift of $10,000.   We are famous for making our resources go a long way so will be discussing with the Trustees options for optimising this donation.  The Foundation is very interested in the link between built and natural heritage and community engagement. They also like innovation.

Membership renewals: Jackie Hunt diligently processes membership renewals. We are talking to the Board about the possibility of regularising the process (i.e. making the dues all payable in January every year).  Emily Knurek has been painstakingly updating the membership database.

New technology: Bill has been testing out new themes for the INTO website and we have been considering how new tech solutions might complement our work with reciprocal visiting and the business plan.

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