Indications have been growing for some months that the RSPB is in trouble but it’s no use hiding it any more. Many organisations go through what seem like interminable reviews, and RSPB has had its share in the past decade or so, but this one is pretty serious.
The jobs of hundreds of staff have been reviewed, some posts and people are going, others are having to choose between new jobs they don’t much fancy and not having a job at all.
Core areas of work, such as nature reserves are not exempt from this process. I’ve heard from several staff and volunteers that some nature reserves are being mothballed and some might be on the market for disposal.
School programmes on nature reserves are under threat, as are other areas of work where grants have kept things going.
There is more, but that’s enough to give a flavour of what is happening.
Why is it happening? It’s apparently driven by financial issues. I can’t spot the signs of impending trouble in these figures on the Charity Commission website – click here – can you?
It’s difficult not to speculate on what has gone wrong. Did LIARgate have an impact? Have we reached the time when Brexit kicks in and EU funding finally disappears for many projects? Are RSPB members simply drifting away? Has there been some expensive recent project, perhaps a recruitment campaign, that has bombed? Or, quite possibly, none of these. Or quite possibly, all of them.
These events might explain what otherwise seems a strange move to bring in a completely new Council member to be Chair of Council at the impending RSPB AGM – click here. I don’t know anything about Sir Andrew Cahn than what I read here but he seems an unusual choice to be parachuted in, if the members vote for him, to become Chair of Council. It is rare for that post to be filled by anyone who has not served their time as an ‘ordinary’ member to get to know the organisation. This suggests that none of current Council was moved to become Chair – unusual and not a good sign. Previous experience of the RSPB and UK nature conservation are notably missing from this pen picture. I might not vote for Sir Andrew at the online AGM. You, like me, should be a conservation investor and checking out these things is our due diligence.
I’m saddened by this apparent state of affairs and have been hoping that the glimpses of what is happening that I have had weren’t really representative but it seems that they are. My sadness is because I feel a great deal of respect for the conservation institution for whom I worked for 25 years and which I still think of as ‘us’ rather than ‘them’. I’m sad for those former colleagues of mine who are going through this and for all of their colleagues who I don’t know at all, and, indeed, for the senior staff and Council who have to manage this.
Let’s hope that things aren’t as bad as they seem, and that even if they are then the RSPB can make a full recovery.
I heard yesterday that I am registered for the online AGM in a couple of weeks time. I will be listening intently.
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