At long last the National Trust for Scotland is to be radically reformed. George Reid, a former presiding officer of the Scottish Parliament, is chairing a review of the trust and said that an Act of Parliament would be required to implement the scale of reform required by an organisation of such "Byzantine complexity".
The Trust presently has 11 board members, a 90-strong council, numerous committees and a variety of special advisors "almost 200 people have their pinkies in the pie," said Mr Reid. "We are pretty sure the sheer size of governance has to come down. The NTS has only 310,000 members.
The Trust administers a vast estate of 120 historic properties and more than 76,000 hectares of land, with 450 staff and about 3,000 volunteers. It sunk into financial crisis in recent years and has seen a rapid turnover of its most senior executives.
The scale of Mr Reid's task in arguing the case for reform was underlined by some of the Trust's council members, many of whom are chosen from professional, artistic or conservation organisations with an interest in the Trust's work.
Part of Mr Reid's proposals is that NTS share some of its business with Historic Scotland who said it was considering partnership issues and that it would provide £1 million in the next three years towards Trust buildings and developing new joint projects.
If anyone can reorganise the NTS George Reid can. May I suggest his next project should be a long, hard look at NHS Health Scotland.
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8 comments:
Oh I imagine a coming together of NTS and Hysterical Scotland might make our heritage sector a bit more streamlined, efficient and appealing to the punters who bankroll them....
Wouldn't hold your breath, Mark.
Wouldn't bet on it either!
It's madness is a small country such as ours to have two organisations which deliver much of the same Mark.
This is long overdue but I should think Hysterical Scotland will put up a fight. They're not known for being equal first with anyone.
You cynic you Apogee but I agree with you. £1 in three years? Erm what can I say?
It takes how many dozens to Quango!
Too many to count RA. We could possibly do very well with about a tenth of them.
Ahem, we all know that Fiona H has got a pair, all she needs to do is announce to parliament that due to the financial disaster wrought by Brown's mismanagement of the economy, there is no way for two heavily subsidised organisations with roughly the same remit to remain as two separate organisations. Cue uproar from the Slabourites, murmuring approval from the Tories, confusion form the Libdems and a pledge to double glaze and insulate the stately piles and you've got the Greens on board.
If Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen can merge to become Creative Scotland, what stopping the National Hysterical Scotland Trust?
For my next trick, let's look at the crossovers between SNH and SEPA...
PS Rosa, have you had a look at my Hollie Greig story? It might be worth highlighting to your readers.
You're right Mark there is no reason other than the jobsworths wanting to protect their jobs.
Mark I'm not getting involved in that story but I will read your blog.
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