Tidworth 28 September 2002
All County/District Chairmen plus the Chairmen of the 4 National Branches were invited to attend.
Our Branch Chairman, John Clark kindly agreed to let me go to represent the Branch.
It is the mechanism used to pass on information from the National Council and HQ to Counties and allow them to raise issues of concern.
The timetable for the event was as follows:
1. Opening address by the National Chairman
2. Address by the Secretary General
3. Address by Director of Fundraising & Marketing
4. Address by Director of Corporate Communications
5. Address by Director of Field and Membership Services
6. Open Forum
Interspersed were a series of discussion periods where ideas and questions were thrown around.
Presentations
1. Opening address by the National Chairman
Ian Cannell said the new Royal Charter is now with the Privy Council for approval and a decision is expected at the end of the year.
National Memorial Arboretum. Heads of Agreement have been signed, but there is still much work to be done to ensure that it is a viable undertaking for the Legion.
2. Address by the Secretary General
Property.
TRBL owns over £120m of property. About 6 new leases are signed every week in Pall Mall. He reminded delegates about the way the Legion handles the sale of property and stressed that charity law has strict rules on what can and cannot be done. Spending of money on maintenance of property is a difficult area and he is trying to establish a central Property Maintenance Fund.
Trusteeship.
Basically a reminder that the National Council are the Charity's trustees and that County/Branch committees are local trustees acting according to the wishes of the National Council. Spoke about the need for election criteria (as laid down by the Charity Commission) including management experience, financial experience, specific knowledge, commitment.
Future Structures Review.
The rationale behind the review was the implementation of the 10 year strategy. The main areas of the strategy being:
· An easier Charter (almost completed)
· Changing the way Annual Conference is constructed (some progress)
· Structure of the Legion - Clubs, membership and Overall Organisation (the area the Future Structures Review is covering).
The results of the Review will be presented to National Council on 13 December and circulated to Counties in early 2003 ready for discussion at Annual Conference.
3. Address by Director of Fundraising & Marketing
The 2001 Poppy Appeal ended at £21,465,804. Target for 2002 is £22m. It is the 3rd largest collection in the country, following Comic Relief and Save the Children.
4. Address by Director of Corporate Communications
We need to explain the organisation to itself (what are the key messages and vision of TRBL?).
We need to explain TRBL to others (objectives, role in society, how we function)
He intends (he was appointed 3 months ago) to enhance existing tools, measure effectiveness and adopt best practice from other organisations.
Legion Magazine. He hopes to redesign the layout and make it easier to follow (e.g. fewer articles with adverts appearing in the middle, keeping related items together).
Legion Website. He is to redesign the website (currently confusing to navigate), look into getting advertising and wants to integrate britishlegion.org and poppy.org.
5. Address by Director of Field and Membership Services
Concentrated on training the membership.
We are a large and complex organisation (gross expenditure £48m, 50 office locations, 437 properties, 7 care homes with 4000 guests per annum, 3 veterans' care homes with 400 residents, 817 clubs).
We have a volunteer management structure and 517000 members (compare Labour Party with 250k and Conservatives with 300k) therefore training is extremely important.
6. Open Forum
The Legion has just renegotiated its insurance policies. If on Legion business (e.g. Poppy collecting) you are covered for personal accident, but only from age 14 upwards (this affects some cadets who do Poppy collecting). But cadets in uniform and considered to be on duty are covered by the MOD.
Standard Bearers are now covered up to the age of 85 (it was 80).
If you wish to participate in a dangerous event to raise money for the Legion you should contact Joe Falzon in HQ first else you may not be covered.