Edinburgh World Heritage is keen to correct widespread misconceptions surrounding its efforts to consult on and shape reform of its governance arrangements.
Wendy MacCadie, EWH’s Head of Engagement and Operations, has provided the following clarification of what’s been going on.
We hope readers find it as useful as we did.
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Trustees and Company Members
Governance of EWH is the responsibility of the Trustees (or Directors) of the charity, and the recent consultation meetings were led by Trustees, with staff in attendance.
As a charity, and a company limited by guarantee, EWH has Trustees/Directors and Company Members. There is not and never has been a proposal that only Members would be eligible to become Trustees.
We run open and transparent recruitment processes for Trustees, and welcome applications from anyone with an interest in our work. Vacancies are advertised on our website and social media, through the Good Moves website and in relevant sector publications. We do annual skills audits to ensure that we have an appropriate mix of skills and would highlight in an advert the specific skills we are seeking where necessary – for example our Finance Trustee stood down after 9 years (the maximum length of service for one of our Trustees), so we needed a replacement with a financial background able to provide financial leadership and knowledge, given the responsibilities on all Trustees in relation to a charity’s finances.
Company Members can become Trustees, and Trustees all become Company Members. Currently, our Company Members are the existing and former Trustees, plus representatives of a number of organisations – The Cockburn, Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland, and residents associations. The proposal put to consultation was that only the current Trustees should be Company Members.
Friends
We do have a Friends of EWH scheme. This was formerly a membership scheme, which caused much confusion, so it was renamed to ensure that when we use the term ‘Members’, we are referring only to Company Members. I think this will continue to be a point of confusion for some but it will hopefully lessen with time.
Oversight Group
The Oversight Group has been proposed by the World Heritage Site Management Plan Steering Group (which involves City of Edinburgh Council, Historic Environment Scotland and EWH). Those community councils that are fully or partly located within the WHS would be invited to be part of that group, alongside CEC, HES, EWH and others, to monitor progress against the first 2-year action plan, and to inform development of future action plans.
CEC will consider that proposal and the Management & Action Plans (revised following the consultation), next month.
Management Plan
There is a lot of confusion about the Management Plan, with assumptions that it is an EWH plan whereas in fact it is a partnership plan, developed and delivered by CEC, HES and EWH with the development including a substantial engagement phase.
Many community representatives seem to think that EWH is solely responsible for the plan and the World Heritage Site, and that being a Trustee on our Board or being a Company Member would give a level of influence over the site management and the Management Plan that is not a reality.
Annual General Meeting
Our AGM was held on 7 October and did not consider any amendments to our Articles or governance. The Trustees are considering the feedback received through the consultation process, and no decisions have been made.
EWH is also planning to modernise other aspects of our Articles of Association, and a revised set of Articles are likely to be proposed at an Extraordinary General Meeting in the next few months. Any proposals to make changes to our governance would feed into that process.
Better engagement
We are keen to increase the frequency and quality of engagement with community and residents groups in any case, and to discuss with them what that might look like. We tabled a list of possibilities at the consultation meetings and would like to explore those further as well as any other ideas that groups may have.
