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Governance of the Landscape Institute UK

The Landscape Institute was founded in 1929 as the Institute of Landscape Architects. It was run by a small council of volunteers, governed by a Constitution and supported by a fractional secretary. When the Institute grew and became a charity governed by a Royal Charter, its organisation became more sophisticated. Ultimate power remains with the membership but this is exercised through infrequent elections and annual general meetings to which members are unable to put motions unless they can, somehow, garner the support of over 3% of the corporate membership. Since use of the membership database is refused, this is difficult. Governance control is split between three groups: a Board of Trustees, an Advisory Council and 3 standing committees with a salaried Secretariat tending to also wield power. This gives rise to several issues which affect governance:

  • There are few meetings of the Board of Trustees (up to 5 times per year)
  • There are few meetings of the Advisory Council (3 times per year)
  • The Advisory Council is part elected but often just appointed. Over a third is composed of Branch representatives
  • Because the Branches are largely inactive in the governance many of the Branch representatives are appointed rather than elected.
  • Branch chairs do not have access to the member database and cannot consult branch members before ‘representing’ their supposed views to the Advisory Council by the Branch Reps. They have no controls over communications, budget and often their own branch representatives.

As set out in the Catherine Brown Independent Review commissioned by the LI (2021), the consequence of the above issues is a serious disconnection between the ‘ leadership’ and the membership. So what can be done? Merrick Denton-Thompson recommends that the LI should be re-democratised. He believes a number of steps should be taken to reconnect every member of the Institute with every Board of Trustees’ decision.

  • It is essential that every Branch Representative on Advisory Council is elected and is able to seek the views of all members of the Branch. Every Branch member should be asked if they agree to their contact details being available to the Branch Chair.
  • Consideration should be given to the Branch Chair being the Branch Rep on Advisory Council. The Branch Chair role could be job-shared to ease the pressure, but both would have to be elected.
  • The Board of Trustees’ agenda should form the agenda for the Advisory Council meeting before the Board meets. Accepting there will be additional items on the Advisory Council meeting that are not ready or will not be presented to the Board of Trustees. Confidential items should be very few in number and administered by the President, Hon Sec and Chief Executive Officer (General Manager).
  • Items for the Advisory Council can be originated by either the Chairs of Branches or the Honorary Officers through the CEO and all recommendations to the Board are made by Advisory Council.
  • Minutes of both sets of meetings must be published on time and available to the membership.