Following reductions in core funding, the UK Association of Building Preservation Trusts (UKAPT) has issued a letter explaining the new organisational arrangements in place for 2014, as it reluctantly takes ‘the decision to bring to an end the (part-time) Director post in January with James Moir contracted thereafter on a consultancy basis.’
David Trevis-Smith, Chair UKAPT, writes:
You will know from National Committee meetings that 2014 will herald a new way of working for UKAPT. This letter is to confirm the arrangements that will come into effect in January following decisions taken at the October meeting and is intended to enable Area Representatives to cascade this information to member Trusts.
Given that UKAPT is a membership association supporting Trusts across all parts of the UK, we operate on an amazingly low budget. Nevertheless to cover its operating costs UKAPT has always needed to rely upon funding from the Architectural Heritage Fund and from Government agencies in each of the nations making up the UK, to supplement income received from membership subscriptions. Income from subscriptions has in fact increased over recent years but due to the crisis in public finances this has been far outweighed by reductions in funding from Government agencies and from the Architectural Heritage Fund.
In response to this reduction in income, the National Committee has reluctantly taken the decision to bring to an end the (part-time) Director post in January with James Moir contracted thereafter on a consultancy basis, to deliver work against specific funding as and when secured. An early example will be contracting James to produce a Study of Building Preservation Trust activity in Northern Ireland, which was announced by Caroline Maquire of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency at the UKAPT Conference in Leeds. Alanna Ivin will continue to provide administrative support to members, primarily focused on maintaining the UKAPT website and assisting member Trusts to keep up-to-date information on the website about their Trust and projects past and present. Trimming expenditure in this way and flexing it in response to specific project funding will enable UKAPT to continue to operate and to enhance the support for member Trusts as and when funding allow…
Inevitably the consequence of the change will be a call on the National Committee to provide a greater degree of strategic input, though the work ‘on the ground’ in each of the nine UKAPT Areas across the UK has always relied heavily on the enthusiasm of local volunteers; this has been a particular strength of UKAPT as a true ‘grass-roots’ voluntary organisation and that will continue to be the case…
Using the new UKAPT website as a platform for advice and support for member Trusts and potential Trusts and thanks to funding from English Heritage, James has been working on developing additional membership services, similar to the existing specialist VAT advice service for UKAPT members. As a result of the considerable work by James to create the new website and making connections with prospective providers of member services, the aim is to introduce new services as soon as possible in the New Year. Any introductions members of the National Committee can make to relevant specialists who might be willing to provide a tailored service for Building Preservation Trusts would be appreciated; for example in aspects of legal advice, property advice, insurance advice, funding and finance advice, business planning, and others you might identify…
The Leeds conference was a huge success and an excellent example of partnership working, in this case UKAPT working alongside English Heritage and Leeds Civic Trust, with financial support from the Architectural Heritage Fund and very effective practical support by the AHF Regional Support Officers. The delegate list shows a total of 223 delegates which is more than double the number we would normally expect to attract and the conference feedback has been excellent. It is hoped that this type of partnership working with allied organisations will be an increasing feature of the way of working for UKAPT, given the tough funding climate we all continue to face. …
In summary, actions requested please in response to this letter are:
1. cascade the message to members that from January Alanna Ivin will be the main point of contact for administrative matters;
2. provide Area meeting dates to Alanna as soon as possible, to update the UKAPT website;
3. let me know if you wish to volunteer for any of the new lead roles on specific aspects of UKAPT activity;
4. provide Alanna with contact details of any organisations you suggest as prospective providers of specialist member services; ….
For the UKAPT see: http://www.ukapt.org.uk/
