Monkeys with typewriters

RSA Fellowship Council 9 - live blog

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 05:05:00 -0800

Thanks Ell Brown for photo.

I’m live blogging the ninth meeting of the RSA Fellowship Council here from 1.30pm today. Keep refreshing the page for updates.

Highlight’s from today’s agenda include:

Presentation from RSA Director of Programme, Adam Lent, on the future direction of RSA Projects
Proposal to make the Great Room available for Fellows activities once a month
Discussion around how to encourage Fellow engagement
Review of the nature of Fellowship Council working groups (of which #RSAde is one)
Summary of discussions and action points from the meeting of Regional/National Chairs

If you’d like to comment/ ask questions via Twitter, please use the hashtag #rsade. If you’re a Fellow, please join our conversation - the more interactive and representative Council is, the better for Fellows!

13.40: Meeting starts a bit late due to Connecting Chelmsford presentation beforehand. Chair Bob Porrer kicks off with introduction and apologies.

RSA WALES/CYMRU

13.44: Wales/Cymru update from Michael Ambjorn, Head of Fellowship: Vivs Long Ferguson has taken over as networks manager for Wales. Wiard Sterk is helping establish a committee for Wales.

GOVERNANCE ADVISORY GROUP

13.45: Bob: timeline for new governance structure: elections for fellowship council and regional/national chairs to be completed by end of June with individuals taking office by end of September. This will allow time for the five appointed FC members to deal with handover documents; regional conferences; transition from Bob to new chair. Election campaigning will start from end of April.

Fellowship council's composition is changing: previously, it has been 20 elected/ 20 appointed. Now it will be 35/5. 35 will include the 14 regional/national chairs. Then there will be 14 representatives from each region. There is a question over how the additional 7 will be elected. Should we use a formula that is simply based on numbers? Personally I think it's best to have a crystal clear formula: more democratic to do it that way. Allocation of 7 FC posts based on numbers in each region/ nation: London would get 2 or 3 additional councillors (at the moment, there are 3 representing London). South-West would recieve no extra representatives.

Comment: there are various networks, social entrepreneurs etc, who aren't represented by this system.

Bob: The five co-opted councillors will be percieved to address this.

Comment: this seems like a fairly weird approach - we should take this to all fellows for approval.

Comment: concern about term of office for regional/national chairs: nations should have an additional representative.

Bob: that's been considered.

Comment: if someone that's got votes is considered worth having, then why not just allow the second closest-running losers to get allocated the remaining 7 places.

Comment: Aren't under-represented regions going to continue to be under-represented with this system? Regions outside London will continue to have less influence.

Comment: London by default already gets a lot of representation. Shouldn't be be looking for a different formula.

Comment: Are we falling into the trap of assuming most active members are those on the FC council? I would go for the non-geographical option. Candidates should campaign on basis of their expertise.

Comment: [sorry I missed it]

Bob: These are all areas to be considered.

Comment: there is another option: you just eliminate the extra 7 allocated posts. Just have a smaller council.

Comment: We accept numbers without thinking consequences - I admit I'm responsible to - why didn't we address this when we went through the review?

Comment: There's an option we haven't looked at: Fellows to represent three charter goals: arts, manufactures and commerce.

Comment: that's not a bad idea, add education as well.

Bob: Ok, well core is that we have regional chair and one elected fellow, but having another one/ two elected from each region is not necessarily the way forward.

Comment: I agree. We don't need these extra regional places, and we can co-opt expertise in.

Comment: personally I would like a Council which is more representative. I think [the idea of charter goals representation] is a really good one.

Comment: I like the idea of FC members being champions of certain areas, but that pre-defines their role within the FC.

Comment: There's still 5 co-opted places.

Bob: There are some 'up to's in the actual required figures, so we have some room for maneouvre.

Comment: as a result of GAG, can I propose that we [missed this]

Irene (Deputy Chair): this is something we need to be careful of because one of the big divisions has been the attitude towards elected and non-elected FC members. We don't want to have to re-write the Terms of Reference. Some comments I will make later will have implications here.

Bob: We need to sit down (Bob and RSA's legal expert) to define exact wording and then will circulate.

TERMS OF OFFICE - FELLOWSHIP COUNCIL

14.09: Bob: at moment, Fellowship Councillors serve 2+2 years. Do we take previous service into consideration, do we take the current one year extension as the starting point, or do we start a new council effectively "from scratch"?

Comment: you need some continuity

Bob: we wanted to try and get a change-over period of a year.

Comment: I prefer option 2.

Comment: I agree.

Bob: okay, we'll go with that.

TERMS OF OFFICE: REGIONAL/NATIONAL CHAIRS

Bob: At the recent regional chairs meeting it was agreed that, for reasons of continuity, we should effectively start from scratch.

Comment: some have already been chairing for 4 years, so how will they serve another 2+2 on the Council?

Bob: all chairs are ex offio on the FC.

Comment: if we go to a clean sheet, that won't matter.

Comment: people can do six years [or more] on the regional team, then max four years as chair.

Comment: what's the democratic deficit? The only reason we had 20 appointed in the first place was to balance the skillset. It strikes me that if the intent is to have an elected system, then having a group of fellows that are already elected, by rights demanding to sit on a body (the FC) that is meant to be elected, seems wrong. I think this is completely the wrong way to go. We are actually pulling the rug out of the very reason for setting up the FC in the first place.

Comment: the problem was there was a complete disconnect between my region and the fellowship council. This new system is meant to strengthen the links between regions and the FC. It was for that purpose. It comes down to what is the very reason for the fellowship council. At one point it was 3+3 and that was brought down.

Comment: I understand that all regionsal chairs are ex officio members of the FC. They don't have right to vote?

Bob: Yes they do.

Comment: Why are we limiting the wider fellowship?

Comment: we've been delighted in our region by amount of people who've taken part i elections.

Comment: I agree that if from the start the regional chairs had been on the FC it woudln't have looked good but we'll have had three years of this 20/20 structure and we've now chosen to bring regional chairs on board. I think that's the right way. We may not all get on with our regional committees but the system needs to be more integrated. It needs to work. It's just up to people like us to get more involved at a regional level.

Comment: I've had very little to do with my local committee but stood for election and got elected and am now seeing how it all works. I'm afraid that in future I wouldn't get elected because I'm not so well-known in the region. I relate more to fellows in the region who don't participate in committee activities. There are more fellows that don't engage in regional committees than those who do.

[some discussion which I missed]

TERMS OF REFERENCE

14.25: Bob: The changes are about composition and requirement not to miss two consecutigve meetings without recourse. The trustee board has established a group to look at our TOR. These will be drawn up and approved at next FC meeting.

RSA HOUSE

14.26: David Archer: feedback from house developkment committee which Andy Gibson and I have been taking part in. AFter extensive competition, we've appointed contractors. For the next six months you'll see extensive works. The main entrance will close and another side entrance be used. Ready for re-opening in July next year.

We have this new resource of the Great Room being available to fellows once a month. Not sure how this should be organised. Please email myself or Andy Gibson by mid Jan so we can take ideas to the House committee (dear readers if you have any suggestions, please send them in or comment at the end of this blog).

Wheelchair access will be improved; audio levels will be improved. We were unable to do a full accessibility audit, it wasn't feasible in timeframe, but are doing best to address these issues.

Comment: London region commmittee were concerned that other regions would be disenfranchised, they were also concerned about notification and booking procedure.

Comment: there might be opportunity for two or more regions to get together to run an event.

FELLOW ENGAGEMENT

14.30: Irene: our meetings to date have aimed to focus on engaging fellows that aren't very active, but quickly fell to looking at the role of the Fellowship Councillor. Results of the GAG is the "Troika" and I think it really is up to the Fellowship councillors, the regional chairs and the network manager to decide how things work.

Comment: Fellows in our region wish to be continually in the frame and we've got to manage this very sensitively. We need to look at the role of the regional group in meeting the aims of the RSA as a whole.

Comment: we need to get cross-fertlisation between sections across our region. Everyone should be doing this. So we don't have this feeling that there are some people who simply support charitable objectives of RSA and don't get any more involved. We've been offering a free buffet supper that our regional fellows have loved.

Comment: Catalyst has been a good way of engaging fellows in our region.

Irene: In our meeting this morning we came very quickly to the importance of projects. If we could map projects, and then super-impose ourselves on it, this would be helpful (this is a good reason for us to be elected on a regional basis). Then we - FC members - could be an access point, and peole could come to us. We could become facilitators.

Comment: missed sorry

Comment: It's an important role of the fellowship council to see all these things are mapped. Not only within regions but across them.

Comment: I think once the new structure is in place, the FC should be more coordinated with regions and things will be more streamlined.

Irene: So I'm getting a general message that this would be a good way for the council to work: individual FC members more engaged at a regional level, acting as facilitators.

RSA PROJECTS - PRESENTATION FROM ADAM LENT

14.44: Adam Lent, Director of Programme: at the last trustee meeting we discussed future direction of projects. We need to start looking at this in detail.

Why change projects?

We already have a great deal of amazing projects under way. We have increasing influence. On monday we realised an excellent report looking at coasting schools. This got coverage in every major broadsheet. Author becky francis was interviewd on BBC Radio 4 Today programme and ITN. We're also starting to improve fellowship involvement eg on Prisons project. But there is a sense now is time for RSA to really break through into mainstrem regualr media profile, and become a major influcne on the way people think. We want to get message aout there that RSA is the answer to a great deal of things out there which aren't working eg economic crisis. Many of the traditional ways in which people think about the world are becoming rather stale.

First, we want to grow scale and ambition of our practical work. Sense we are ready to move up to the next level. For example we've made good progress with RSA Academies. We are taking lessons learned from the Peterborough Citizen Power Example: the way people have been engaged at a local level. Our work on drug recovery means we're now being approached by people who want to work with us: we're taking a highly innovative approach in helping people get out of addiction and into work.

Second, more thought leadership, fiercely independent of party and ideology: alternative ways to run business and the public sector.

Third, we need a clearer focus. We will focus on three key areas: education, enterprise and community/public services. These are areas many of our fellows are interested in, they are areas in which our staff are skilled, they are also high on the policy agenda and will remain so.

We will also have a clearer focus on unique methods: design thinking, arts, behaviour change, networks.

Fellow involvement is a crucial part of this and was central in the paper that went to the trustee board. We would like to build advisory groups for major projects. We'd like fellows to act as champions for these projects, to disemminate findings.

We're going to start exploring the establishment of Projects networks, to act as a reference group and answer certain questions. We need resources for this.

Closer links between projects, regions and networks. The development of development plans is useful here. We are talking to regional chairs about plans for their regions, and building projects.

Independent analysis rooted in the evidence and in the practical experience of fellows.

14:59: Bob: thank you Adam. This shows that we're all working in the same direction - towards a synergy.

Comment: I think those big challenging questions you mentioned need to be identified. If you see projects as the main building blocks, you're going to run continually into trouble. I met someone the other day who said he was so involved in doing worthwhile stuff, he hadn't time to do it through the RSA. We need to focus on specific areas and gather the expertise of the fellowship around these.

Comment: in our region, we've been talking about giving fellows opportunity for discreet period of involvement, because so many fellows are so busy - not an ongoign three year commitment.

Comment: we've been looking at how Skillsbank relates to local projects. It'a always down to networks of networks. I haven't seen anything in the revised website that leads me to think this is going to change.

Bob: the development of the new fellowship platform may help this.

Comment: the external branding should be the RSA and nothing else.

Comment: we should stress to fellows who create a Catalyst idea that they maybe should be preepared to let go in a year's time - let someone else take it over.

Adam: thanks for all your comments.

Bob: now over to Matthew.

REPORT FROM CHIEF EXECUTIVE

15.06: Matthew Taylor, CEO: There are really remarkalbe things going on across the organisation and we've made fantastic progress this year. Our biggest problem is people being poached: they are being offered 25% pay increases to go off and work somewhere else wehre they don't have a lot of the issues we have to face here in the RSA. People are being offered so much more to leave so if you can do anything to help this situation please consider it. Emily Campbell, our recent head of design, has just gone to work for another organisation where they have a team of 8 helping her. We have people here doing work on their own where elsewhere they wouldn have whole teams. I think something remarkable is happening. It's a bit like watching a minute hand moving on a clock. In terms of integration between fellowship and projects. Tehre is something going on here about a model of change that I think other organisations would absolutely envy. When I frist stated on this route of getting fellows more involved, a lot of peole thought it was a dangerous thing to do. I was in Ipswich a few weeks ago and its just amazing the range of new ideas. A vicar stood up and said its been the most amazing morning but why the hell didn't I know more about the RSA. I wasnted all of you to feel you are in fact part of something quite special. This connection between the volunteers and the staff finding synergies, left right and centre is really fantastic. Thank you to FC for all uyou've done and I'm really excited about the next stage.

Comment: I'm interested in how the Academies work -what's the structure?

Matthew: the new academy joining in January is half a mile away so you'll be able to see it. We have set up a charitable structure. We topslice academies to fund new ones but we need to set up the structure. WE;ve only got two academies but we need to set up structure which can fund many more.

Comment: can you tell me more about RSA's discussions with the Chartered Management Institute?

Matthew: It's a continuous source of fascination for us is how do you get small groups to work together.

Michael Ambjorn: if you go to the fellowship section of the website, you'll find more information on that.

Comment: I know the academies want more engagement with the fellows.

Matthew: When the RDIs were set up in the 1970s, designers didn't have status they do now - we've now asked RDIs to give somehting back to society. Stephen Jones Milliner went to the Whitby Academy and gave a talk - it was all over local papers.

Comment: can I propose that we as the council thank the staff for all their hard work.

General agreement.

15.19: Thank you Matthew.

UPDATE FROM TRUSTEE BOARD

15:30: Zena Martin (FC rep on trustee board): the main feedback is an update on new fellowship platform: this project is still progressing but it made sense to ensure that new IT manager was in place and that a well thought-out IT strategy was established before proceeding.

TEA BREAK

15:54: REVIEW OF NATURE OF FC WORKING GROUPS

Bob: At the last FC meeting it was agreed we'd review the nature and organisation of the working groups. Does anyone have any comments to make on the paper that was circulated on this?

Comment: The groups I've been involved in have served their purpose and then been wrapped up. It all seems to have worked fine.

Comment: My group (RSAde) is more of an ongoing project. We have nearly 100 members on the Ning, but the core group of active members is far smaller.

Bob: it's up to working groups to come forward with proposals for how they want to work.

Comment: there's a need to link in more with how projects develop and how the house develops.

Bob: If we could come up with a few principles to work with, I think that would be good. It would be good to have a group looking at the FC's relationship with the regions and networks: how it manages reporting in, for example.

[Sorry there was another discussion but I missed this]

REPORTS FROM FC WORKING GROUPS

Bob: You'll all have recived the working group updates circulated prior to the meeting. Any further comments?

Comment: Re RSAde, the interim head of IT has now been appointed and we'll be meeting with him to discuss fellows' requirements for the new platform on 21 December (there is a paper we're preparing and if you want to contribute it will be posted on the Fellowship Ning in the next week or so).

Gerard: I'd like to feedback from the International Group. A lot of our colleagues internationally feel quite disengaged from our work and we are looking at how we might support fellows in other countries. Our support needs to be appropriate, tailored and valued. We'd like to provide some inspiration through case studies - what's worked in the past. Secondly, we'd like to provide some resources. I was involved in the Coffee House Challenge and would like to see how we could replicate that sort of thing. At the moment and it's a really fledging working group, we are looking at how we can support international fellows. We are looking at three countires: 2 where there hans't been much activity and one, the US, where there is lots of activity but they feel disenfranchised. I feel this is an untapped opportunity.

Comment: Can we know which the other two countries are?

Gerard: Germany and Poland

Comment: there are a large number of fellows who are not getting as much from this organisation as they might do.

Michael Ambjorn: We'll be interested to see if there's an opportunity to revive the coffeehouse challenge, or something similar. This will be a good test case. Let's see if we can really deliver.

Comment: I don't want this to be a dialogue between Council and staff, but rather between Council and itself.

Comment: the dominant ideology in the RSA is push - push from here outwards. This is a plea to look very carefully at the supply side model you currently have that needs to be addressed.

Bob: We've got to get this two-way flow, that's the thing, Probably more than two way, in fact.

Gerard: Anyone else who wants to participate in the International working group, we'd be delighted to have you along.

Comment: We are launching a music mentors' project in Yorkshire that should have implications all round Britain and abroad. So I'd be happy to share that with you.

FELLOWSHIP COUNCIL NING

16.07: Bob: We would like to set up a new FC Ning to circulate papers etc. Email is really not ideal. Myself and Matthew Mezey (online communities manager) are working on this.

Just to round up, I've been reviewing what the Fellowship Council has achieved so far and I think we've actually a lot to be proud of. We have:

- improved relatioship beween regions and nteoworks

- rewritten the RSA charter

- had active involvement in governance advisoryr group

- changed the nature of the fellowship council

- introduced Catalyst

- set up the RSAde group which is doing ongoing work

- set up a group on fellowship engagement

- plus a lot of practical improvements in fellowship support and engagement

- we're really opened up communications between the fellowship and the house

Comment: I don't think Adam would have given such an open presentation on projects in the past.

Bob: It's this joining together and conncting. It's not perfect but I feel quite happy. Thanks to you all for constructive and helpful dialogue.

Comment: And we should all say thanks to Bob for his great chairing!

16.15: Bob: Thank you. And with that, we've made up time. We're ahead of schedule. And I'm pleased to call this meeting closed.

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A day of sunshine, seagulls and serendipity: #LikeMinds highlights

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 02:54:00 -0700

The first time I heard about the Like Minds conference was two or three years ago when my friend Joanne Jacobs came back from speaking there - glowing from the experience and raving about the care and attention to detail that had been put in by the organisers: buses! food! proper briefings!

It’s not often you get speakers so enthused about an event. Like Minds has been growing steadily since, no doubt fortified by the love it bestows on the speakers who’ve supported it over the years - the so-called Like Minds “alumni”. As Jack Russell, one of yesterday’s more inspiring speakers put it, “If you give people what they want and need, I can guarantee you’ll get what you want and need back”.

So, this year’s event takes place across three days, still based in its original home of Exeter: a small but perfectly formed city in the south-west of England: seagulls swoop by, cyclists peddle slowly up cobbled streets and pastel-painted houses bask in the sunshine.

Part of the charm of Like Minds is that they really get you moving - the daytime sessions take place across eight different venues - and in the evening another dozen restaurants and music venues are thrown into the mix.

The schedule itself is cleverly paced: keynotes at the beginning and end of each day, round-the-table talks in a restaurant at lunch, “immersive” workshops in the afternoon. Walking a few streets between lunchtime and immersive sessions yesterday, we came across a beautiful grassy square with Exeter’s stunning medieval cathedral slap bang in the middle: woah!

Sadly I could only make it for the day yesterday. But I’ll be keeping an eye on the talks today and tomorrow on the livestream - and will definitely be up for returning next year!

My top 3 highlights?

Molly Flatt: okay so I’ve heard lots of good things about Molly so I was possibly biased, but that can work against people as much as in their favour. And I loved her talk about true creativity being about silence and contemplation as much as action.

Really enjoyed Glenn Lesanto banging on old codger style about the publishing industry in the days when sports photographers had to develop their photos in the gents and journalists filed inky copy over the phone.

Chris Ward launching a new “social” currency - the Blue Dot. This had to be the best takeaway of the day: what a great, timely idea. At last we have a way to measure that nebulous good stuff. Plus we all got a Blue Dot “fiver” in our pockets to go home with: time to start investing in some genuine social good. Hurray!

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A tribute to my Ada Lovelace heroines @vivslf @commutiny and @charlottebritto

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 05:52:00 -0700

Today is Ada Lovelace Day and all over the world, people are honoring and remembering women in science, technology, engineering and maths.

The three who are very much ‘front of mind’ for me this week are (clockwise from top left) Vivs Long-Ferguson, Roxanne Persaud and Charlotte Britton.

Vivs, Roxanne and Charlotte have been instrumental in building and sustaining the wonderful entity that is the RSA Digital Engagement Working Group (#RSAde for short). RSAde was set up as a working sub-group of the RSA Fellowship Council on 15 December 2009 (minutes). Intially, all groups were jointly-led. I convened the group on behalf of Fellows, Vivs on behalf of RSA staff.

The group’s original title was “Fellowship - supporting, connecting, mapping, developing specialist networks, new events”. This was a large and unwieldy brief, and we soon began to focus on digital engagement as the key way to enable connectivity and collaboration between fellows.

As staff co-covenor, Vivs was intrinsic in driving RSAde forward. Her deep experience of the RSA combined with her passion for digital, social technologies and high emotional intelligence earned her the title of “RSAde Midwife”.

As a lifelong fellow, Roxanne has been Queen Agitator, questioning everything, challenging preconceptions and, on a more practical level, providing technical expertise and knowhow where it matters.

Charlotte has brought invaluable consultancy experience to the table. Her no-nonsense approach is backed by a decade in online/ digital marketing. She has an uncommon ability to combine third sector understanding with a business-savvy mindset.

Without the three of you, there wouldn't be a vibrant #RSAde. Thanks for making it happen!

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RSA Fellowship Council meeting liveblog

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 03:26:00 -0700

I'll be blogging the eighth meeting of the RSA Fellowship Council here from 1.30pm today. Please keep refreshing the page for updates.

1330: Meeting kicks off with Bob Porrer (chair) welcoming new elected Fellowship Council members and giving apologies from those not here. Introduces Andrew Summers who'll be talking about development of the RSA House.

1334: Andrew Summers: House Development Committee formed at start of this year. Four main objectives: how to improve the use of space. 2nd: to communicate better what the RSA does. 3rd: to make it much more interactive with rest of the country and rest of world. 4th: to improve revenue stream.

1337: We started with looking at the ground floor and Great Room. Bear in mind we've had three groups of people in mind as audience/ users: firstly fellows. Secondly visitors - they are core targets for what the RSA wants to do. Thirdly, hirers: people who are willing to hire the House. We have a huge advantages over other societies in that our building is funded by outside hire and not by member subscriptions. Hands over to Matthew Lloyd (architect).

1339: Matthew Lloyd: Since 1774, Great Room has changed in many ways [Show some great old pics - sorry haven't got my iPhone to capture - will source later].

1340: The ground floor seems to have lost some of the original Adam architecture in many ways. A bit haphazard. We've been round the building and opened up floors to see what we can keep and what we can't. Very unusual that 8 John Adam street was built for the RSA and is still under the use of its original client. We're going to hunt down the original architecture and bring it back.

First thing to say in terms of proposal is that we're not changing any of the external front of the building. We want to bring back the downlighting and make it feel more like an institution. We want to bring back the Great Stair as it use to be. We want to remove the tiered seating in the great room to get a flat floor. The brief has been to give the Great Room the possibility of hosting other types of function. We want to bring it back to the Adam level. Propose to bring back in ventilation via the roof. We feel that the Barry paintings because of the raised seating are not seen properly. With the original Adam level they'll be more appreciated. The Benjamin Franklyn Room is on a raised level, carpeted. We want to drop level and put timber floor in.

There's been a lot of conversation about how the RSA looks highly contemporary and at the same time the original Adam architecture very much there. We wish to change the cloakroom - there's the whole culture of Brompton [fold-up] bikes which needs to be addressed. The key route down to the Gerrard Bar can be very much amplified. The room with the disabled ramp would become a more informal meeting room. The room at the end - the Tavern Room - would have an interactive wall. The space adjoininig the Tavern Room would enable the room to be opened up. These rooms were originally the ground floor of 4 adjoining houses - nos 8, 6 and 4 John Adam Street, plus no 8 Adam Street. We want to respect those original houses. There's a room full of chairs at the mo which would become another meeting room. To return to the Great Room, the speaker will be raised up, and we are considering more than one great screen, so although the audience sight lines won't be so good, it will still be possible to see the speaker from all seats. Thank you very much.

13:54: Andrew Summers: £2.9m estimated cost - plans are out to tender at the moment. Refurb proposed to start in December. Will be done by June. In time for the Olympics - and the original Barry paintings contain Olympian athletes so very fitting. How do we get fellows to engage? How to we enable fellows to use the new rooms? Some of these will be made available on a regular basis for fellows - eg: Great Room once a month. Comments and questions?

Comment: have you consdired the noise made by air conditioning and have you contacted members of the Adam family who are in fact fellows to see if they have any records/ pictures you can refer to for original colours?

Matthew: it's quite difficult in a Grade I listed building to install absolutely silent air conditioning. As to the colours, we have commissioned a colour-investigation specialist to strip down certain key walls to find those colours. I'm still not sure whether we should go for historic or modern approach. I don't think we want to produce a musuem piece.

Comment: the one art that seems to have been omitted is music. Can we use the Great Room for concerts?

Matthew: very good point. We are acousitically engineering the Great Room.

Andrew: concerts here have been talked about for many many years.

Comment: why not retractable raised seating? I'm sure I'm not the only person who wants to see the speaker not a screen. If I'm not at the front, I might as well stay at home.

Matthew Taylor: the sight lines have been worked out so whereever you are in the room...

Andrew: this way gives us flexibility.

Comment: Could I urge the house develpment committee to consider the development of RSA hubs - local networks of hubs - where fellows feel there is a place out in the sticks they can go to? I feel that would fulfill the objectives of the central house being able to successfully network with a very widely dispersed fellowship. Feel it should be within your remit to consider these hubs.

Andrew: I think that may be a second phase

Matthew Taylor: a few years ago we closed down hubs because they proved to be very expensive, and not always close to everyone in the region. We now try to develop partnerships with venues in the regions. That's a separate debate.

Comment: thank you for an inspiring presentation. I believe the RSA has a collection of artworks, can we re-hang some of these? Also incorporate with all the new technology?

Andrew: we like the communication in the house to be around projects and what fellows are doing. Creating all the screens in various rooms will provide a platform to do that. But it's a good idea to think about painting re-hanging.

Matthew: We would like to see th paintings and talk about how to rehand them.

Comment: I'm not clear how you'll restore these paintings and show them at their best?

Matthew: We;re not going to specifically light them becacuse they're quite old.

Comment: I think it looks great and it's really exciting. We need to think about how to launch all of this.

Comment: What are we going to do about the Gerrard Bar? It's very cramped...

Someone (house manager?): You're right. It's very small and very overcrowded. Some weeks we're up to 5 events a week and they're all fully booked so that's 1000 people a week. We're looking at some 'pop-up' solutions so that demand can be reached when it's very high.

Comment: Taking into account what the modern space looks like, how the world has changed so much in past ten years, will reflect the spaces that will come on stream in the next ten years. It was on my watch we got rid of all the oil and watercolours in this room. Can I just warn you about getting old paintings in a room that is not suited to old paintings.

Andrew: very much in line with my thinking, thank you.

Comment: Have you looked at impact assessment. What struck me in the lobby was that there was a receptionist standing up - have you considered impact on staff? And wheelchair users will be looked down on.

House manager: the desk on Durham Street will be the main reception. As in many nice hotels these days there are people to meet and greet you, and walk with you if necessary.

Matthew Taylor: the overall plan improves disabled access around the building.

Comment: Who did the access audit?

Matthew: We haven't done an access audit.

Comment: I'm dismayed. There are many organisations that look at access that have connections with Fellows and this is somethign that shoudl be looked at.

Andrew: Sorry that's a very unfair comment.

Another commenter: I agree - this should be looked at. Disabled means more than just people in wheelchairs.

Matthew: We have British Heritage and Westminster breathing down our necks, their angle is the architecture. Very difficult to include veryone's views but i will talk to our client about this.

Matthew Taylor: Let's consider how we'd decide bids by fellows for monthly use of the Great Room - surely this is a great idea?

[General agreement]

Bob (Chair): Thank you. We haven't got time to go through this right now but if you've any ideas as to how bids might be considered, please send them to Matthew.

14:20: Bob: now moving onto Matters Arising and the situation in Wales.

Comment: when are we going to have a meeting to address this?

14:22: Michael Ambjorn: There's been a range of meetings in the past year and quite a few have had the title 'the future of Wales' in them. And I believe you have been a speaker at one of them.

14:24: Governance: is everyone happy to discuss this after the AGM in October?

General agreement (or no loud disagreement anyway)!

1425: Josef Lentsch: We did pilot fellowship survey in March and would like now to consider doing an annual fellowship survey. As it's a huge sample we'd expect response rate to be quite high. Survey in March had a 27% response rate. Quite high.

Comment: Josef just to point out we did a regional survey in the north west recently and can send you the results.

Josef: Yes please. We would like to compare on a yearly basis how we're making progress.

Bob: If anyone has done surveys, please share what's come out of them. Now onto academies and whether we cna arrange a visit.

Matthew: We are about to open a third academy just half a mile from here.

Bob: Yes maybe that shoud be the one we visit.

1428: Bob: now onto website development.

Josef: A brief update on progress on the website. It's been a year since we started. Launched in June 2011. We jumpted from 40,000 page views a month in 2009 to average 120,000 in May 2010. That was mainly down to RSA Animate. This also very prominent on the new website. Since website relaunch we now get 5 x as many unique visitors. At least one person per month was downloading and sending in an application form. Now it's around 30. The new application form is clearer and more approachable - we've embedded the fellowship charter into it. [shows wordle graphic of most popular words in 15 recent fellows applications, key words are work, social, education, support and community].

Comment: we don't know what individual fellows are interested in. Is there any mileage in the survey asking existing fellows what they are interested in?

Irene: Can we pick this up later down the agenda when we cover engagement?

Comment: Arts is a tiny word in the corner but I can't see manufacturing or commerce at all [in the wordle].

Josef: next steps: by end of 2011 we hope to submit to trustees our choice for a prefferred platform supplier. Launch the platform in Q3 2012.

Comment: this website has been used to virtually eliminate regions. The regions are part of the structure of this society. Should not be appearing 9 clicks down on the website. Teh committee is 2 years out of date and the programme is also out of date. Many regions suffer from the same problems. Why are committee details not up to date? This society is based on a royal charter which gets no mention in the first 8 pages of the website.

Josef: I think the evidence quite clearly shows that we have not buried the regions.

Bob: There is still an issue about the updating of regional pages. We still need to resolve this.

Comment: I know this is a work in progress but please remember the nations are involved also.

Comment: how many people are actually visiting the regional pages and how many are actually fellows?

Josef: With the current set up we can't identify who's a fellow and who's not.

Comment: congratulations on the website revamp - good job. Do we know how many people come

from the youtube channel?

Comment: Can you update the map/ calendar facility?

Michael: A lot of people react to the map more intuitively. It's nice to see you putting so much energy into this Kevin. We've put out a paper to the regional chairs and we'll be revisiting that.

Comment: fellowship directory?

Josef: now you have to opt out rather than opt in; we should see improvement.

Me [your faithful blogger]: Can we just have an update on how people use the Nings. Is anyone finding them useful and if you're not using them, why not?

Comment: we use our Ning a lot in Yorkshire. It woudl be good if each regional Ning could be linked up with the other regional Nings.

Comment: There's not enough people using it [in our region].

Comment: I alwasys forget the Ning exists - would be good to get an [email] reminder

Comment: Ning was sold this morning for $150m so things may change - things could go very much the right way for an organisation like us, or they could go the other way.

14:50: Irene: report back from 'engaging the fellow' brainstorm this morning: key question is what are we meant to be doing on the fellowship council: some felt we were meant to be represneting our regions, some of us didn't. Most of us felt we weren't representing our local region and we needed to do somehting to change that. Maybe with new governance that will become easier. But there has to be a way in which fellowship council have a role in the region.

Comment: I was like a stuck record on the GAG: If the fellowship council doesn't represent the regions, what's the point of it?

Irene: these are just preliminary thoughts. We have to work together in the regions to decide what individual roles we all have. I'm a regional chair and I'm also a fellowship council member so I wear two hats - but it doesn't always work like that.

Matthew: if the GAG resolution passes at the AGM, we will start to make genuine comparisons between regions and nations that we at the moment can't. We'll be able to know how they are contributing to the RSA's national objectives. We'll have richer data. We want every fellow whereever they are to have a richer offer.

Comment: that sounds like it will be useful...

Matthew: It'll be a relationship of two-way challenge and support.

Irene: I think we all have specific roles within our regions. We need to think about, what are we going to do to engage the individual fellow? I went to a meeting in Brighton and Hove and they said to me: 'well who are you?". That doesn't matter. How can we as FC representatives have a role in our region? We need to have choices.

Comment: the London committe just did a survey and a lot of the responses were 'what London committee?'

Irene: let's give people a lot of channels, a lot of communications choices to choose from. Are we here to act as MPs? Most of us probably think not! But should we be having surgeries? Workshops? Panels? Whatever...please email your views to me. The next meeting is going to be just before the AGM and look at how. We need to look at how we engage locally to enable the individual fellow to have a voice.

1500: Comment: A lot of fellows are on a career path. They could offer a valuable resource - not sure if skills bank is the right way to realise that. We need to develop a more sophisticated way of tracking the activities of fellows.

Irene: I believe that's the fellowship directory...Michael?

Michael: We use the skills bank for matching. Catalyst bids are also a useful source of information. There's also the more informal phone call that can be made by a member of staff to a fellow who's help is needed.

Comment: engagement is better face to face. What about Skype contact details?

Me: if you email me your Skype details I'll send you the list I have.

Michael: We haven't asked for Skype details but we can come back to that. During the coffee break take a look at the mock-up I've done with contacts etc for fellowship council members for the website.

Irene: thanks. Please email me with any comments. Next meeting at 4pm before next AGM in October.

1510: coffee break

1520: Adam Lent: update on RSA Projects:we've just opened our third Academy. Peterborough Project going well. We're learning from lessons there. Drug recovery project is pretty smallscale but has rapidly become very influential. Design is historically a very important area for the RSA - how people who've suffered from spinal cord injuries can redesign their environment to live fuller lives [mentions some more projects: here's a full list of current projects]. There is a lot we can learn from private sector on how to engage with others - wider fellowship - on our projects. We've restarted the working group on projects and will report back next meeting.

Comment: can I underscore the importance of getting what you're doing out into the world at large.

Adam: it's an extremely challenging media environment. You can't just produce a good report and expect the press to respond to that. It's not just about good PR.

Comment: How does a project become a project - is there a link to Catalyst?

Adam: There are many different elements in getting a project off the ground...[sorry he explains but I missed most of this]

Comment: There has to be a way of communicating projects up front and asking for fellows involvement.

Matthew: Just as an example of how fellows invovelment doens't always help, I remember a while ago we were trying to launch a project in a region - our first meeting was dominated by a campaign to stop the local council doing something. It turned out the council was lead by a a fellow and the campaign was led by a fellow so the idea of our project for civic engagement died a death.

Comment: I happen to have been one of those fellows who objected to the involvement of the RSA in the academies - I work with the academies now. It's worthwhile binging some of the non adademy schools in the opening minds curriculum.

Bob: Thank you Adam. MOving onto report back from David Archer.

David: this is the report back from the trustee board looking at fellowship recruitment and retention. Trustees wanted reassurance that the new strategy of fellows recruiting other fellows (as opposed to mailshots) is working.

Comment: If we're all goign out and bringing our friends into the organisation, how will balance be addressed?

Josef: Well, since Matthew has been CEO we've had many more women being recruited [this statement causes quite a few giggles] but we've also had an issue of more women leaving [more uproarious laughter].

Matthew: We are looking at ways to recruit members from the Pakistani diaspora in UK.

Comment: We need to speak to lapsed fellows and find out why they left.

Josef: We do have an exit questionnaire, but this only works for fellows who've left recently. We've recruited a retention specialist - Samanthat Fletcher - sitting beside me.

Matthew: two biggest reasons are finance and people saying they don't have time to be active fellows.

1548: Matthew: when I tell people how great the RSA is, I wish they weren't surprised. I wish everyone was aware of what we do. We want to use the huge event next July (re-launching the RSA) to let people know exactly what it is we do. The fact people will be able to watch the lectures around the country and interact will be a help.

1550: Bob: Thank you, and now Zena with report back from Trustee board.

[Zena has asked me not to liveblog the first item as it has staff have yet to be told - update 22/9/11: Please note that the first issue Zena reported back on was a minor matter internal to the House - it was not of major significance outside and certainly not of importance to the wider Fellowship - I realise the above sentence as written during my liveblog understandably aroused intense curiousity among readers - apologies - please do not contact RSA staff asking for details as you have to trust me on this one - it was really not a major thing. Please note if you do continue to press staff for details on this minor matter, one of two things will happen: either I will not be permitted to say if something in a meeting is not live-bloggable, which for context and integrity would be a real shame, or I will be prevented from liveblogging altogher, which would be altogether more disturbing. I promise to choose my wording more carefully in future].

Zena: the other relevant item is that the charitable company, RSA Academies, has now been set up and a part-time executive director is being recruited.

1552: Michael Ambjorn shows new 3 min video promoting Catalyst Fund. [Video will shortly be up on the RSA website].

1557:Matthew: we launched Catalyst 18 months ago and had no idea how successful it would be. The Fellowship Council has been really important from the onset in supporting Catalyst.

1558: It's not just the money, it's that applying to Catalyst puts you in touch with other fellows who can help you.

1600: Comment: can we have more information about Catalyst projects that have succeeded.

Gerrard (Fellowship Council working group on Catalyst): those stories will be up on the website

Rosie: (FC working group on Catalyst): We want to be careful about designing the life out of Catalyst - we want it to be live and relevant.

1602: Gerrard (International Working Group): We're working with new International/ Online manager Matthew Mezey and will have something to report for next FC meeting

1604: Jonathan (Education group report back: we have 10 fellows regularly attending meetings. We're tyring to set up some interactions across the country to identify key issues.

Rosie (Youth working group):1 November 4-6pm: there'll be a debate here about 21st century youth work. We've written a publication called Hunch which will be launched in November. Please get in touch if you want to help with facilitation.

Bob: After two years it might be a good point to review structure + function of working groups - if anyone has any comments, issues or ideas please email me or Irene.

Comment: Is there a communications working group? There seem to be a lot of issues around communications...

Me: yes, please come and chat afterwards!

1609: Bob: We'd like to thank the outgoing COO for all his hard work and welcome Carol Jackson who started this week.

Comment: this year is the 50th anniversary of the first regional meeting of the RSA - it was in Birmingham.

Comment: This is my first meeting and I couldn't hear very much. Is there any chance the aircon could be turned off next time?

1611: Bob: We'll look into that for next time. Thank you everyone - that's the end of today's meeting.

See you all at the AGM!

Photo credit: Herry Lawford

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Why every CEO needs a social media presence (or: Twitter, tea and sympathy)

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 04:50:00 -0700

Yesterday I gave a talk at an entrepreneurs lunch hosted by Smith & Williamson in London EC1. These are my notes (sorry, unedited and pretty much without links, but thought they might be of interest)...

Title of this talk: Why every CEO needs a social media presence/ subtitle: Twitter, tea and sympathy. A lot of CEOs have been in the firing line over the past 18 months: Tony Hayward, Akio Toyoda, Kenneth Cole. Some use social media, some don’t.

Luke asked me for some war stories and I’ve got three for you. Hopefully they’ll all illustrate in different ways why a social media presence (most specifically, a Twitter profile) is important.

The time when I came closest to war - ie: effectively stuck in a bunker with the UK press camping outside - was when the Daily Mirror broke the Vanessa/ Trisha hoax guests scandal in 1999. I was Deputy Editor on Trisha at the time.

If Vanessa and Trisha, or even Anglia’s Head of Programmes, had had Twitter, it would have all been so different: they could have put their own view across to a sympathetic audience of followers who would then have amplified their story; they would have had dialogue with the UK public, instead of no voice.

Trisha/ ITV came out better from the scandal party because they took a “tea and sympathy” approach to staff, while the BBC sacked people working on Vanessa. Twitter is a bit like that: you get a very special intimacy with your audience: if you do it right, you get to speak to them on an up close and personal ‘tea and sympathy’ level.

Funnily enough, 10 years later, tea and biscuits (well, a cup of coffee) saved me again. And this time Twitter was involved. [Craig Newmark story - we fell out over an errant tweet, but ended up sharing coffee in Haight Ashbury].

Craig Newmark has 40.5K followers - he’s a pretty good CEO on Twitter. Other good C-level tweeters include: Scott Monty, Lord_Sugar, Tony Hsieh. You can find a full list @AAB Engage.

Examples of bad Twitter include: former BP CEO Tony Hayward Apr 2010 (instead of a Twitter account BP spent £93m on ads - @BPGlobalPR stole their limelight - currently has 165K followers). Akio Toyoda, CEO of Toyota doesn’t have a Twitter account either. But when 7m vehicles were recalled in Jan 2010, he saved the day somewhat by quickly posting an apology on YouTube. And American Clothing Designer Kenneth Cole, who used the #Cairo to promote a spring sale, forcing a public apology minutes later.

My final war story is all about Easyjet. They owed me money and I tried to contact CEO Stelios Haji-Ioannou via Twitter, but found only an egg. Their @Easyjetcares account didn’t respond either. Eventually I went to Luton to get my money - I got plenty of tea and sympathy - but virtual tea and sympathy would have been so much better!

And Vanessa and Trisha? Still no official Twitter - maybe I should give them a call?

Photo thanks: Su-lin

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Tech City Map stakeholder launch: Charles Armstrong introduces the latest version of the map

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 09:17:46 -0700

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On @noamso's roof with @philvoAD, enjoying falafel :)

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 05:55:00 -0700

Taken at White Bear Yard, London EC1, the tech incubator where my partner Noam Sohachevsky has his company (Picklive). Philip Vo is an art director from San Francisco, in London for a flying visit and wanting to check out the ad/ tech scene here. So we, um, took him for cheap falafel and told him about Silicon Roundabout. It is hard to tell someone from Silicon Valley about Silicon Roundabout without pretending that it's all a bit of a joke. Which is awful. Because it isn't, is it?

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Our team gets ready to build the EZPZ browser. Suddenly it all feels very #BBCApprentice

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 03:11:00 -0700

The RSA Digital Engagement working group (#RSAde) teamed up with Lancaster University Business School to pitch an idea to the Interactivism hackathon, taking place in London this weekend. We were truly chuffed when our EZPZ browser concept got picked. Now we just need to build the darn thing!

The photo shows Daniel Cater, Roxanne Persaud and Isabel Dias. Roxanne is an old-hand at RSAde stuff. Daniel and Isabel...? No idea where they came from - but they're fab!

Unfortunately, I could only be there for this morning but the energy was great. Around 100 people buzzing round the basement of the LBi building in Brick Lane. A wonderful mix of Google developers, Futuregov/ Simpl people (who organised the event), Gransnet (providing insight into accessibility issues) and all sorts of students, consultants and enthusiasts in between.

By the time I left, our self-selecting team had ten great people: really looking forward to following the #interactivism tag on Twitter and finding what great stuff develops - best of luck, EZPeople!!

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All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace: great new BBC2 series

Tue, 24 May 2011 05:10:00 -0700

If you missed the first part of documentary-maker Adam Curtis’ new BBC2 series last night, catch it on iplayer while you can. It’s wonderful: a fabulous, high octane, skillfully-edited mix of politics, philosophy, technology and cyberspace.

I’m gutted to admit that I’d never heard of cult novelist Ayn Rand before, nor her ideas around “objectivism” – a kind of laissez faire capitalism, enabled by machines (if I had, she would have definitely featured in Monkeys with Typewriters).

The fact that Rand was a major influence on Alan Greenspan, the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States, is an eye-opener. And this programme makes a strong connection between her ideas, Greenspan’s undermining of the global economy and, ultimately, the 2008 stock market crash.

Brilliant stuff.

Watch it – watch it now!

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Why tweeting makes us feel good

Tue, 24 May 2011 04:22:00 -0700

Making connections makes us happy. Kathy Sierra wrote a great post a few years ago about how we keep going back to Twitter for the same reason that we might return to a fruit machine: to get that instant high when our metaphorical cherries line up.

But some connections make us happier than others: hearing from a long-lost old friend may well hit the emotional jackpot. Being tossed an insult by someone who’s misunderstood you will have the opposite effect: it’s draining.

JP Rangaswami has taken the idea of Twitter as an emotional trigger further by blogging about pheromones: if pheromones are carriers of stimuli, causing a social response in others, argues JP, then:

“We have to start thinking of tweets as the knowledge worker’s pheromones. Signalling. Alerting. Marking out “territory”. Warning off. Pointing towards food or shelter. Looking for relationship. Sometimes preparatory, sometimes catalytic, sometimes just plain old informative. But always social, always designed to share.”

Send out the right signal and it will have a positive, strengthening effect on your community: resonating and being repeated. Send out the wrong signal, and you’ll create a bit of a thud.

Last week, Anne-Marie McEwan told me of a great, animated discussion about the Japanese Ba concept she’d had on Twitter (and yes, I’m interested in how the Ba ties in with social networks but that’s another blog post). Another friend, David Cushman, blogged recently about a fabulous Twitter debate on The Dunbar Number.

And last month, Silicon Valley start-up StylePage doubled its Twitter following by running a campaign built around all the right messages.

These are the jackpot moments – the moments when your Twitter universe is really set alight: pheromones and connections darting all over the place. Forget about intermittent variable reward, this passionate, connecting-with-your-peers stuff builds communities. And that’s what it's all about.

Pic: Ben Grey

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#RSAde strategy meeting: photos

Tue, 17 May 2011 03:33:20 -0700

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#RSAde strategy meeting: POST-mortem

Tue, 17 May 2011 03:30:00 -0700

The main aim of our RSA digital engagement (#RSAde for short) strategy meeting last week was that we would come out with some kind of strategy: even if it was just a list of action points. I'm pleased to say we just about managed to achieve this. And that in itself was no mean feat! Trouble is, you get a cluster of clever people, especially teccie types, in a room together, and the probability of going off on all sorts of different (and not necessarily related) tangents is high. Also, we only had two hours.

We agreed a while ago that the meeting should be in Manchester. Some of the #RSAde's most active members are in the North of England, and a couple in Scotland, so it seemed only fair to move in that direction (last year's meeting was in London and when we meet in person again, it'll probably be the West country). Luckily, Vivs Long-Ferguson arranged a fabulous venue for us - the Portico Library and Gallery, which was built over 150 years ago and recently restored, partly with RSA money. It was the perfect place to put any digital navel-gazing into context!

In an attempt to prevent too much techno-babble, we used Forrester's POST model to structure the meeting. The great thing about POST is that it forces you to think about the people involved (the 'P') before you look at anything else. I think POST is a great method but, in retrospect, not really workable in two hours! You probably need a day long workshop to really do it justice.

Having said that, the discussion was animated, productive (we got our action points) and no one person or point of view dominated. Everyone seemed to have their say, and some great connections were made. The best thing about #RSAde - like all the working groups set up by the new RSA Fellowship Council - is that it brings RSA staff and Fellows together in a focused community of interest. One year on from #RSAde's inception, it was great to see a mix of high level staff and expert fellows around the table. Long may this community continue!

The RSA Fellows who attended were: Lilian Barton, Charlotte Britton, David Dickinson, Charles Millar, Roxanne Persaud, Kate Pickering, Don Pinchbeck, Bob Porrer, Edward Truch and myself. And from the RSA staff: Michael Ambjorn, Josef Lentsch and Vivs Long Ferguson.

Big thanks all for your time and wisdom - look forward to a productive year!

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Meeting in a library built at the time of Gaskell to discuss the future #RSAde

Thu, 12 May 2011 05:08:00 -0700

Early arrivals to the RSA Digital Engagement Group strategy meeting: taken at the wonderful Portico Library & Gallery, Manchester.

From left to right, Lily Barton, Bob Porrer, Vivs Long-Ferguson, Roxanne Persaud, Michael Ambjorn, David Dickinson.

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Holding back the tide

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 06:02:00 -0700

David Terrar recently argued that social media consultants should drop the "social business" moniker and start using "amplified business" instead. His reasoning was that the term "social business" has become too ingrained in people's minds with "social enterprise" and not "social media".

While I'm sure a lot of you will be thinking "Well, what's the difference there, anyway?!", here's the comment I posted on David's blog in response:

This is an important debate. The problem is, it’s all too easy to get bogged down in technology again. You say the common perception of “social business” doesn’t involve “micro-blogging, collaboration and social media monitoring”.

But, as I’m sure you constantly tell clients: micro-blogging and social media monitoring (as with any other aspect of the social media toolkit) are not ends in themselves, they are simply the means to an end.

And if the social media consultants’ version of social business is NOT about technology, but about people (as I think you agree), then we need to focus on what exactly it is that the people (our clients) are trying to achieve.

Okay, I agree it’s possible that a client may work for Mr.Evil Inc. In which case, his/ her goals will be along those lines familiar to any James Bond fan: world domination, unrestricted access to global resources and endless pots of money for Mr.Evil.

But, to give them their due, most modern organisations are at least trying to shake off this sort of image. If today’s businesses do not actually have a social conscience, philanthropic goals and ethical conduct, they are, at least, pretending to (some more convincingly than others).

Ironically, the number one tool for putting an ethical gloss on business is social media, but any company that’s become tarred by social media appreciates that its pretty much impossible to preach humane values without practicing them.

As I wrote on this blog a few months back, the wheel has come full circle. To my mind, social business (as social media consultants define it) and social business (as social entrepreneurs see it), are two sides of the same coin. They are both about putting people first. And ethical and environmental concerns are fundamental to any people-centric approach.

By the way, as King Cnut (or Canute) himself knew, it’s never easy to reverse a wave. As O’Reilly’s Josh Ross wrote a while back: railing against the popular lexicon is always a losing bet.

Having said all that, please keep me posted on the Amplified Enterprise meetup – I’d love to have a further rant!

Big thanks to James Yu for the photo.

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AAB animation: sneak preview

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 04:49:00 -0700

Here is a frame from the animation we've been working on for AAB's new social media arm, AAB Engage. We've some great talent contributing to the film and I'm *very* excited about it. To be screening on YouTube very shortly...!

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RSA Fellowship Council meeting liveblog

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 05:22:00 -0700

1330: The seventh meeting of the RSA Fellowship Council has just kicked off and there are 12 apologies - clearly some members prefer to be outside in the glorious spring sunshine ;) I'll be liveblogging the whole meeting here so keep refreshing the page for updates.

Matters arising

1335: Irene Campbell (FC deputy chair) on what we should actually be doing as a Fellowship Council and whether we are actually achieving it. She says this is an issue that's been taxing her a great deal over the past two years. There are four bullet points on what we do: house-focused stuff (we spend a great deal of time doing this); regionally-focused; liaison role - reporting back from individual Fellows and administrative.

1336: I don't think the regional focus has developed very much at all. Our liaison role - sharing the best practice from the regions so we can learn about them here at the FC; hasn't been going on at all. We do also represent the individual Fellows in our regions. How are we doing that? How are we speaking to them?

The final bullet point was an administrative one, how should we be logging the achievements (or not) of the Fellowship Council. I don't think we're doing this either.

How about we actually have an away day - or away session - where this stuff is discussed, outside of the House?

1340: comment: I doubt the fellows in my region even know who their representatives are.

Comment: all these issues seem to be around engagement and we do have a "digital engagement" group but that's only focused on engagement digitally (obv.)

Comment: a lot of discussion over governance and a lot of changes, I don't think the structure is quite clear yet.

Comment: are the emails of council members on the FC members page? So people know how to contact them.

Discussion about emails and email addresses with no clear outcome.

Comment: re the recent fellowship survey, we should look at how fellows are engaging now and where there are gaps and how Council can fill those gaps.

Comment: we spoke about doing an induction session for new fellows in specific areas (I'm from Bristol) but nothing has materialised.

Comment: in South Central we run induction evenings for new fellows. They're actually quite a useful retention device.

1347: Irene: all these are really good ideas and I'll pick them up from the minutes (or liveblog).

Comment: new fellows get a welcome letter, but then nothing happens. The most common question is who's a fellow locally?

Matthew Taylor: first of all there's been a major shift in how we recruit fellows: most fellows are now recruited by other fellows, or because they approach the RSA because they are fans of its work. So that's helped becasue we've got fellows coming in with a better idea of what the RSA is.

One idea being floated on the trustees is that every new fellow has an induction interview where we can find out what they're expectations are and try to meet them. Using this group to bounce ideas off would be great.

Comment: this would be great. In Scotland we're developing an induction pack for all fellows which we;re sending out prior to the Scottish AGM. It's a two-way street. I think that message should come from the central body. I like Matthew's idea about having a conversation, face to face or otherwise.

1350: Irene: thank you very much. I can presume you're all in favour of me looking more into this and I'll take it forward.

Bob: it is moving forward, perhaps not as fast as some would like. Okay, on to the next item.

Governance Advisory Group

1354: Just to remind people what the GAG [pronounced "Gee-Ay-Gee" people, not the other way] is actually all about: it looks at the composition of the trustee board, including sub-committees etc. [Note: sorry there was more on this slide but I didn't get it]. The GAG It needs to find the right balance between proper representation of the Fellowship, efficiency and effectivesness in manageing the RSA and its resources, meeting the requirements of the Charity regulators, minimising bureaucracy, developing a governance structure that best reflects the purpose and aims of the RSA.

We need to think about a communications strategy - David will update:

David: we're keen to ensure that FC, fellows etc have a say in proposals. Aim is to get a draft out to fellowship council and regional chairs around 7 May. Get it out to fellowship via website by 7 June. With feedback gathered back by 4 July. We're conscious there's a lot of different people to reach. We have to think about what goes on paper, what on the website etc.

Anne: we felt it was important for individual fellows to have their own chance to respond, not just through their committees.

Comment: we need to come together to discuss this. It's a fairly significant piece of work. We need to discuss and then vote on the proposals. As a body we should endorse or not.

Bob: it would be useful to have an open discussion.

Comment: theres the possiblity we make this an over complex consultation.

Comment: maybe a wiki would be best for the fellowship council.

Comment: some fellows aren't even on email.

David: we're mailing papers to the fellows who aren't on email.

Comment: I'm not in favour generally of wikis but in this situation it might be the easiest way.

Comment: I think we need a proper meeting of the Council to discuss this. We need to give it the gravity and weight it deserves.

Comment: we've already had a great deal of discussion around this issue.

Bob: I am sensing we should do this electronically.

Comment: if we have to vote, I'm not sure how we do that electronically.

Is the draft report going to go to the Fellowship Council before anyone else?

David: no it will go to the FC and the regional chairs at the same time. Otherwise we won't have time to finalise it before it needs to be included in the papers going out for the AGM.

Comment: it's right to talk about the right structure but surely it's up to the GAG to make the final decision. It shouldn't need a substantial amount of input from us.

Comment: our role is to advise. The question is, are we content to put in our input as individuals or do we need to come together as a group?

Comment: I feel that if possible, there should be a collective view from the Fellowship Council prior to the AGM. Either we develop a collective view electronically or we have to have a extra-ordinary meeting of the FC.

Bob: I think it's up to the GAG to comment constructively how to accommodate this feedback.

David: that would be possible. Draft report goes out on the 25 May.

Comment: the digital option is to have a draft discussion and then have a special meeting with a one item agenda where we vote as to whether we support it or not. Do we need to vote to endorse it? I don't know.

Bob: I think the chances are the FC will agree with 85% of it anyway.

Comment: exactly. The main objections are likely to come from the Fellowship itself. So let's not focus too much on what the FC wants but more on what the FEllowship as a whole wants.

Bob: Irene and I can get a brief summary of the consensus.

Comment: the advantage of a wiki is that the comments are all available centrally.

Bob: I think we should look into setting up a wiki and that's something the FC members on the GAG should focus on.

David: GAG next meet on 5 May. We can then publish timetable - give you a clear idea - and get comments back from this group.

1415: Bob: these are the specific issues on which GAG has requested comments.

First: the proposals for governance: that the Fellowship Council should move to 5 co-opted members (to ensure representation) and 35 elected members including 14 elected regional chairs. All these elections would take place at the same time through a ballot of all fellows in each region. This is a big change for regional chairs because at the moment different regions do different things: usually the chair is proposed by the committee, and then endorsed at regional AGMs. It's a bit of a mess. Holding the elections at one time would mean more publicity and hopefully more fellows voting.

Matthew: there's a paper going to next GAG meeting about regional governance - we want to give regions scope for having the kind of model they wish to have (panel or committee selection) and move from AGM to regional conference - making it an event for broader discussion.

Comment: it seems fair that anyone who wants to become a regional chair can just get enough people to vote for them and then become chair.

Bob: some regions have different structures: there's the question of continuity: sometimes the deputy automatically becomes the next chair. At the moment, it's difficult for anyone to challenge this system. If you are elected as regional chair you become ex-officio member of the Fellowship Council [but you don't have to take this role up]

Comment: I don't want to increase the bureaucracy but anyone who wants to stand for chair should at least have been on the regional committee for a year.

Comment: I think it's up to the fellows to decide that.

Comment: what if you want to stand for the Fellowship Council but you don't want to be a regional chair?

Comment: I think there's a bias built into these options. The more dynamic model is more complex. The traditional model is still there. The model we've got is Fellowship Council members activating the regional committees. But the committees should be adopting a much more grassroots, regional approach.

Comment: re electing the chair, I don't think it matters if we have panel or committee. The risk is having someone elected who has no experience of the regional committee or the fellowship council. There should be some qualification element.

Comment: the only criterion you should need is being a member of the fellowship. I have a problem with the issue of chairs automatically becoming FC members. I thought the whole idea of the FC replacing the advisory council was to bring in fresh blood and fresh ideas?

Comment: we need to build some links because that's what has been missing in the structure. We're all getting hung up on the electoral process. Why do we have to have all the elections at the same time?

Bob: I think the idea was that if you were elected to the FC, you should be elected by the people in your region. And the same goes for the regional chairs.

Comment: the flipside of that is that you look at de-stablising some of the regions.

Comment: there are two roles: being a regional chair is different to being on the Fellowship council. It's a great idea to encourage people to engage in a democratic process.

Comment: I don't know enough about regional committees and how they're structured but it does occur to me that this a bloody big job. I wonder how many people might actually be able to do this job.

Bob: This was actually requested by the regional chairs.

Comment: no it wasn't.

Comment: I believe that there is a reasonable number of reginoal chairs already on the Fellowship Council.

Comment: that might be a happy coincidence.

Bob: The idea is to cement the link between the regions and the fellowship council. The GAG have been giving a great deal of consideration to this.

Comment: the other issue is the regional representation: so is the intention that everyone on the FC should be representing the interests of a region? So what's the role of the FC?

Comment: what's the point of us being elected to represent regions when we don't get a vote on anything anyway? It seems to me that representing the regions is a particular skillset.

Comment: I represent a region and I haven't found it too ardous - we give feedback after meetings, the lines of communication are open. I think.

Comment: but I don't define my relationship with the RSA by where I come from. It's defined by my interest and the projects I'm involved with.

Matthew: that's a good point. We wanted to ensure a good representation of skills on the FC. It's interesting to note that the co-opted FC members are younger than the elected ones, for example.

Comment: I'm not here to represent my region because they didn't vote for me. I'm here to help with other things.

Comment: the entire regional set up gets £40,000 a year. That's woefully inadequate. There is a confusion and Matthew this needs to be addressed. The regional managers get £700,000. Where does that money go?

Matthew: the figure is nothing like £700,000. That's the total cost of fellowship services. Everything that network managers do is a reflection of what the fellows ask them to do. If the regional group decides it wants to spend money on ski-ing, painting, that's what the money gets spent on. As long as the use is within the charitable remit of the RSA, the money gets allocated. There is an issue aroudn getting regional and network managers to work together. That's what we have to work on. It's not about network managers being sent from here. We have 9 network managers with an average salary of £23,000.

The big question is getting that bottom up resource and Catalyst to work better. We can't mandate regions to work well with network managers.

Comment: we need to keep this simple enough so that everyone understands it.

Bob: what I'm getting here is that we need to see the right mix of skills and backgrounds. Can I basically say that there is general support for what is proposed [FC becoming a council with 35 elected mems, including 14 regional chairs]?

Comments: NO!!

David: we don't have to vote on this now.

Matthew: to be helpful, GAG was set up by the Fellowship on a vote, with delegated powers. It seems to me that if we go back and disagree with what the GAG says, then we risk making the Fellowship rather angry. GAG was set up by the Fellowship. If we start having minority reports, we could be in a lot of trouble. These should simply be recommendations.

1452: Bob: Let's take on board all those comments.The GAG is also looking for a combination of 6 elected and 6 co-opted members on the Trustee board.

Comment: but how about the 5 co-opted members of the FC?

Matthew: it could be said that the co-opted members of the FC weren't eligible.

Comment: I think we've done this item to death. Can we move on?

Interim arrangements

1455: Bob: I've circulated a paper. The idea is to extend the office of current elected FC members by one year. But as the idea is that we should be moving to a more elected council, maybe we should just leave things as they stand. Are people happy with that?

Yes.

Fellowship survey

1500: Matthew: There was a lot of discussion last year about what fellows wanted. So we decided to run a survey on what fellows wanted. The survey run 9-28 March. WE got 1,950 responses. 10% of fellowship. It was incredibly representative, more men than women not much we can do about that. Slight under representation of over 75s.

98% were aware of the Journal.

94% were aware of the lectures.

Surprisingly, RSA Animate has been watched by 27m people around the world but only 23% of members are aware of them. By the way, RSA Animate has been nominated for a Webby award: please vote for RSA Animate here!!

90% were aware of their local network.

The general description of RSA fellows is "happily unengaged"

Nearly 20% have attended a local network event in the last year.

70% were aware of the Felllowship council, although a significant percent weren't sure what they think about us [Oh dear!]

56% are aware of Catalyst.

41% are positive about the RSA - feel it's got better in recent years. Less than 2% feel it's got worse.

26% of Fellows want us to focus investment on web based services and support (top choice for investment).

Only 8% weren't aware of any of the RSA's public platforms.

There's lots more interesting stuff and I'll try to find if full results of survey are posted online anywhere.

1510 Break for coffee

1530 Back from coffee; brief discussion as to whether FC members are happy to have their email addresses given on RSA website; suggested that links to LinkedIn/ Ning profiles might be preferable.

RSA Strategy

1534 A strategy paper outlining aims for 2011-13 was circulated with the agenda. What do FC members think/ any comments?

Comment: this seems very ambitious, lots of stuff in there - how will RSA meet its ambitions?

Matthew: yes we need to ensure our aims are matched with resources.

Comment: is there something that links the results of the survey with the strategy? I like the strategy but it is aspirational. What does the survey tell us about the granularity for the potential of fellows projects etc.

Matthew: we hope for some cross-tabulation. If we get a region with only ten respondents it might be hard to do that. Engagement is very age-related. Young fellows tend to be more engaged and more positive. There obviously are exceptions but generally that's the pattern. We've got to look for multiple levels of engagement. The uber-task we have is aligning eveything we do: ensuring that each bit of the RSA turns another bit of the RSA. More and more fellows are coming together to discuss the same issue: what can places offer at a local level? This ties in with the top level research we're doing on place-shaping. When you start to see that, then we have a proposition that no other organisation does. There are a lot of thinktanks etc. Number 10 find the idea of an organisation combining grassroots input with professional insight is a very useful things.

Comment: by September you hope to have 10 per cent of fellows in the directory seems a bit unambitious.

Matthew: you can't force fellows.

1540: Matthew: we have much more discussion on the trustee board about fellowship matters than we've ever had. Our levels of engagement are higher than ever. Every weekly meeting we get input on what the fellows are doing. I'm being asked all the time on how you get these levels of engagement going.

1543: Comment: how about new fellows? No of new fellows has gone down.

Comment: our strategy on fellows is quality not quantity. We've seen two massive bursts and that relates directly to direct mailing campaigns. Then we get a bunch of fellows joining who don't really know. We want to reduce the number of fellows who join AND the number of fellows who leave. So we get a stronger, more engaged fellowship. Growth follows engagement not the other way around.

Comment: what have you been doing in relation to retention?

Josef (RSA operations manager): Retention starts with recruitment. We are making sure we contact fellows throughout the year personally. When they leave, we need to find out why. We're looking at conducting an exit interview.

Comment: the main reason people leave is not getting time to get involved, and money.

RSA digital engagement

1550: Jemima (yes, me, your faithful liveblogger) gives a brief overview of RSAde and asks for input from FC.

Comment: you should speak to RSA projects about semantic representation of their work.

Comment: data visualisation becoming increasingly important; might be a tie-in with RSA animate.

Matthew: we're about to launch a competition to find the next step after RSA Animate.

Comment: one of problems is RSA brand doesn't have a personality. There's a distinct lack of personality.

Comment: Euan Semple is writing about this a lot. His line is organisations don't tweet, people do. And the personality of an organisation comes its people.

RSA website review

1555: Josef (operations manager) runs through changes to the RSA website. (Sorry I would list them all here but you'll see them when the site is refreshed next month).

RSA brand redesign

1605: Matthew: the new logo is meant to be a platform, so that the space below "RSA" can be used for any words or phrase depending on the context (eg "21st Century Enlightenment"), and it can be in any colour, so for example when addressing fellowship issues, it will be in green, which is the fellowship colour.

The reason the RSA website doesn't have the new logo yet is because we are going to incorporate that when we re-launch the site next month.

Chief Executive's Report

1610: Generally agreed that this was really useful to read and requested that this be circulated regularly.

Comment: I'd like to extend thanks and appreciation to Matthew for sharing this.

Comment: are you and the trustees responsive?

Matthew: there are a few fellows who are hostile to the way in which the RSA is going, but there's not a great deal I can do to respond to that.

Comment: there's a lot of work to be done, that's why I'm here. A lot of work at the RSA is with English government but a lot of good work happens over the borders in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Matthew: there is a history of collaboration with Scotland. We share your frustration that we do not do as much work with Wales as we'd like.

Report back from Trustee Board

1615: Zena Martin: I'll just report back on a couple of things. First, the family of schools. We're pleased to report that Whitley Abbey in Coventry would like to be part of the family when it becomes an academy in July. The board's approved the creation of a new committee. That's really exciting. It's very near and dear to my heart. At the last meeting there was concern about the FC not being consulted about the family of schools, strategy paper etc. The board said the issue was not so much about transparency, it was about timing. Really it's got to be a case by case basis.Sometimes the FC can be included a bit more and sometimes it can't. On a good note, the FC has seen a lot more of the survey than the trustees have seen. As we take more shape and really understand our role, we will see more of engagement.

Bob: the key issue seems to be to plan as far as possible so that we will be consulted.

Comment: With regards to the family of schools, the point really was that if we could balance this off a bit - it was really about ciriculum and not so much about academy, if there was stuff we could share with other educational establishments, that would be great.

Zena: we want to make sure there's consistency across the board. We don't want schools adopting the opening minds curriculum when they haven't been accredited to do so.

Matthew: it was intended to be a collaborative model ffom the very beginning.

Comment: It shouldn't just be about schools. That curriculum could be used in community centres etc.

Comment: I've sent a letter to Michael Gove pointing out that academies are not necessarily superior institutions to other schools. The verdict is still open. There are good academies and bad ones. This structural change may not be the most significant factor.

Matthew: there are a number of schools that want to be an academy, and they're deciding who to be an academy with. If you look at Tipton, that's a very progressive academy.

Comment: this academies issue, I'm still not clear on what the RSA is contributing. Looking at the survey, only 17% wanted money to be invested in education.

Comment: this is a completely different model to the Tiptree academy where there was a lot of capital investment.

David: The new Great Room project: we can open up the room to give access to simultaneous events nationwide. The idea we're floating is that every month there should be a free fellowship activity. I'd like to talk in more detail but there's not enough time. The plan is to complete it by 2012 as it would be so great for Olympic-related events. There's an opportunity for people in this room to get involved in focus groups.

Matthew: our new house manager Matthew Bates has seen that with the new Great Room, we can have two big events going on at any one time.

Reports from Working Groups

1630 Bob: Any questions on the reports from working groups?

No.

Regions

Bob: Just to note there is a meeting coming up for regional chairs on 13th May. Hopefully that will tease out issues which we can then bring forward.

We dicussed holding the FC meeting at the Tipton academy but that proved tricky. Are all agreed we should organise a visit to the academy as a separate event?

Yes.

Next meeting

Re the next meeting, would be like to incorporate feedback/ presentations from regions/ other groups on good practice?

Yes.

Comment: maybe we should take governance off the agenda, then we'd have more time!

Comment: if we had a Fellowship Council wiki then we could actually discuss a lot of this stuff online.

Comment: maybe next December we might have some time for a bit of informal networking?!!

Matthew: the budget might stretch to that.

Comment: I was hoping we could have a few minutes on the agenda so I could take back to my group some ideas from the fellowship council. My group (Norwich) wants some guidelines back. So you have an intersection between what's going on nationally and what's happening locally.

1638: Bob: any other business? Nope, okay.

Meeting closed

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His Masters Voice? The people bite back!

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 05:10:00 -0700

It's music to my ears - a world where geek is chic and homespun is big business:

It was great to read in the Guardian this weekend that, for the first time in a generation, small, independent record shops are on the increase.

A dozen new shops opened in the UK last year - truly bucking the trend in an economic climate which has seen big names such as Borders and HMV struggle. This only goes to show that after years of mass consumerism, people genuinely want a return to the knowlegeable, passionate and above all human-scale service that big chains struggle to deliver.

Social media does not only help small businesses achieve scale, it also helps big businesses achieve homespun-ness. When you look at the current trend, that's an increasingly desirable quality.

Photo: Noam, Jamie & Dano browse CDs on Haight Street, San Francisco, 2004.

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Rory Sutherland and social cues

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 04:28:55 -0700

Nice little interview with Rory Sutherland of Ogilvy in which he dismisses traditional market research practices with regards to what he refers to as "social cues".

These cues are the influencers behind instinctive, subconscious decisions which are made at or very close to point of sale. For example, when given a choice between two restaurants, we're more likely to choose the one with 30 people dining in it than the one with three.

"Marketers have developed a system of consumer understanding which is actually blind to the most important influences on human behaviour", says Rory.

Oh dear. Does social media help uncover these influences? We can assume it has the power to do so. But, as ever, it's up to us to read and interpret things in the right way.

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It's high time we worked smarter

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 07:15:00 -0700

There seems to have been a whole wealth of business books lately telling us how to refine and simplify our work processes: Jason Fried's Rework and Tony Hseih's Delivering Happiness are just the tip of the iceberg.

Having just read both those books, it was great to bump into Dr Anne Marie McEwan at the Social Business Summit last week (thanks Benjamin Ellis for the pic).

Anne Marie has set up her own consultancy, The Smartwork Company, doing just what it says on the tin: helping businesses to embed social, collaborative practices at every level of operation to create a supportive, effective and, above all, innovative environment.

Sounds intriguing and, in my new role, I’m looking forward to thinking about how a brand’s PR and marketing can benefit when connected to a new, more socially-calibrated company – immensely, I imagine.

We just need to work out a way to make it happen.

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Nobody can be whiter than white in this new transparent world

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 07:14:00 -0700

This week I started work at All About Brands plc, a London-based marcomms firm, pulling together a social media strategy. The first few days have been fantastic and I’m thrilled to be working with such a great bunch of people on some interesting projects.

One of the reasons I went with AAB plc was its expansion into emerging markets and in particular fast-growing economies like India and the UAE. These regions offer exciting opportunities, especially in terms of social media, when it comes to preaching openness, transparency etc.

Ironically enough, on the tube home on Monday (my first day in the office), I read an article by Gideon Spanier in the London Evening Standard about the purported role of London’s PR companies in reputation laundering. Okay, so the story has been around for a while now, but I've never taken it personally before.

Leading PR firms such as Bell Pottinger and Portland are being called to book for their relationship with authoritarian regimes in countries such as Belarus and Yemen.

Should PRs refuse to do work with such governments? It’s a tough call, but I would say the wisest words in the piece came from former Number 10 aide, Tim Allen:

“"All organisations are professionalising the way they communicate. When governments which have previously been secretive do that, it is not an affront to democracy.   In many cases, [good communication] is an essential part of that process. And getting good professional ethical advice is part of it as well."

When it comes to social, culture is everything. I’m all too aware that the work I’ve done through Monkeys with Typewriters and associated consultancy has focused on Western democracies. The Middle East in particular, is opening up. I’m curious to see how MwT’s ideas translate. Watch this space!

Photo: Miss Mass

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