Highlights

INTO team at Avebury – There is still time to apply for the INTO Incubator (if you’re reading this before 7 February!)

Justin Scully with Emily Drani and John de Coninck in Uganda – you can follow what Justin’s up to on Instagram @fountainsgminuganda

We have signed up a dozen Trusts to the new Reciprocal Visiting Programme

We have submitted an initial project proposal for the National Trust with two Russian organisations (image by Helen Filatova, published at Free Photos: Tsaritsino, Moscow)

Catherine helped the Czech National Trust celebrate its 5th anniversary at a special screening of a film about the (Czech) director of the Guggenheim

Clea Warner with Kara Roopsingh and Ash Morris in Trinidad

Family

ICNT news: Our next Conference will take place in Antwerp from 19-23 April 2021. The golden thread is partnership and networking. What can we learn from each other about working together? What strategies can we share? How can we ensure that our organisations balance heritage, social and economic values? How do we build bridges between those values?   We continue to work closely with our co-hosts, Herita, and have had some good conversations with possible sponsors, partners and speakers.

Reciprocal visiting: We are really excited that the INTO global heritage pass is becoming a reality!  A good number of INTO members have now signed the new MOU and we are beginning to finalise plans for launching in 2021.

Technical Assistance Programme: Our small but transformational TAP-INTO travel grants continue to bear fruit.  In the last two months we have seen a General Manager, Clea Warner, spend time with the National Trust of Trinidad and Tobago. Clea’s experience managing small island sites for the National Trust for Scotland proved invaluable to the team there.  In addition, Brendon Veale from the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga is currently in Europe on a TAP-INTO project.  He is learning about membership models and has divided his time between National Trust and FAI.   And Justin Scully, General Manager at Fountains Abbey, is now with John and Emily of the Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda.  Justin is supporting the initial steps towards the establishment of a National Trust in Uganda!

Growth

Membership growth: We are delighted to welcome our newest members, Heritage Watch Ethiopia!  Based in Addis Ababa, they are mostly focused on advocacy in the heritage world of Ethiopia. They have joined as Associates and will attend the INTO Africa meeting in Nairobi later this month.

Alongside the regional meetings, our main focus for membership growth is currently the INTO Incubator.  20 people applied to join the programme and we hope to welcome as many of them as possible. (There have been some challenges with visas.)  We have now recce-ed the main two National Trust sites the group will be visiting (Newark Park and Avebury).   And Alex and Emma are finalising the curriculum and  workbook, with the help of Maggie Morgan.

We are currently exploring a project involving the National Trust for Georgia and Rempart.  Watch this space for more information about this exciting new partnership!

Voice

Communications: Emma Taylor started with INTO in late November.  Over the past two months, Emma has given INTO’s social media a new lease of life.  Our channels are now all aligned around @intoheritage and a house style has been developed for posts.

On 12 January, we reached out to the INTO family to help celebrate the 125th anniversary of the National Trust.   Your response was phenomenal.  We’ve collected your messages from all corners of the globe here. They are a true testament to our diversity!

Alex has been leading work around our new website, which will be ready for launch in the first half of 2020.

Climate change: We had an incredibly diverse delegation at COP25 in Madrid this month. INTO brought international expertise on the cultural impact of climate change, with representation from Fundem, The Gullah Geechee Nation, An Taisce and 3 young representatives from the National Trust for the Cayman Islands. Whilst the impact of this year’s conference remains unclear, our delegation left a legacy and even made the news! Read the article here.  We are now making plans for COP 26 in Glasgow.

Ambassadors: We held our first Ambassadors dinner in December, generously hosted by  Hashim Djojohadikusumo. It was a wonderful evening and our guests from the V&A, Historic Royal Palaces, National Trust and Historic England joined Lady Hamlyn and one of her Trustees, Dr Shobita Punja for dinner with Pak Hashim, Fiona Reynolds, Catherine and Alex.  Fiona chaired a wide-ranging discussion about the role of INTO at what was a very memorable evening.

Speaking opportunities: Catherine addressed the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach on 9 January. She used the opportunity to highlight how the Trust model, born in Victorian England 125 years ago, has grown into a worldwide movement.  You can read more about it here.

Australian bushfires: We worked with the National Trust on a series of social media posts about the National Trust of Australia’s work at Currumbin Wildlife Hospital.   Over the weekend, the Trust recorded a total reach of over half a million (522k) NT supporters!

Strength

Governance: Catherine and Jacqui met INTO Trustees Martin Galea and William White to discuss INTO’s accounts.  They are now working with the auditor to see how best to improve our processes for 2020.  And how best to present the 2019 financials.

Membership fees: We changed our system for collecting membership subscriptions, which is now by calendar year.  It has not been without hitches but we are working through any issues encountered with individual members.  We will be sending out reminders in the first week of February.

Innocastle: We have just submitted our report for the third semester and are looking forward to continuing collaboration with our European partners.

Funding applications: We were delighted to learn, at the end of January that the 1772 Foundation has made a gift of $11,000 towards the INTO Incubator.   We continue to work with the American Express Foundation, Royal Oak Foundation and David Brown on a proposal for INTO Antwerp 2021.