Looking to the Future with Our New BAPEN Trustees
As BAPEN approaches its 30th birthday, it is important for us to look to the future and consider what we want and need to achieve in our third decade and beyond. Much work is taking place behind the scenes to look carefully at our strategy to ensure that we can continue to build and ensure a sustainable future.
At the AGM during Conference last year, we announced our decision to appoint external Trustees. Since we initially identified the need for external Trustees, we have been delighted to be able to attract three brilliant people to join us – Dianne Jeffrey, Phil Lyons and Roger Phillips.
These appointments will make a real difference to the way BAPEN operates according to our President, Dr Trevor Smith: “We have found three people who bring incredible added value, huge amounts of expertise and acumen, and importantly experience from different fields. We have an amazing Executive committee full of fantastic, committed people, but it really adds something to bring people in from the outside world to help us look at what we need to do to move forward. Having Dianne, Roger and Phil on board makes me really excited for BAPEN’s future progression. They each really believe in what we do, and get excited by what we do, which is encouraging! It’s a very positive development and a sign of a maturing organisation that is taking itself seriously.”
BAPEN Secretary Dr Dan Rogers has been working closely with the Trustees since their appointment: “I think it was important for us to find the right individuals but also important to find people who work well together as a team, and that’s what we’ve managed to achieve with Roger, Phil and Dianne. We’ve obviously only been able to have virtual meetings until now, but you could tell right away that there is a chemistry there that means we will all work well together.”
It’s a learning process for everybody, Dan says: “For a number of us on the BAPEN Executive, this is the first time we have worked in a charity with Trustees and it is a fascinating process bringing outside people in. It’s really exciting to be involved with BAPEN at this point in time when we are taking stock of all our achievements and looking to the future. We’ve always been ambitious but having the Trustees there helps us map out how to achieve those ambitions.”
So, what will our new Trustees be doing?
Well, the role of a Trustee can vary between charities, but for BAPEN the goal is to focus on the future. BAPEN is growing in size, with a huge increase in membership over the last few years, and a greater profile and voice. But no membership organisation can afford to rest on its laurels. The Trustees will help BAPEN focus on future strategy, to make sure that it continues to grow, and has a sustainable future. The Trustees are beginning the process of consulting with the BAPEN Executive and Council, examining what needs to be done, and helping to critically assess priorities and build roadmaps. Consideration will be given to everything from governance, future funding, principles and ethics, representation to day-to-day business of communication, partnerships and member services.
The external Trustees bring many decades of experience from a range of different charity and business settings, and therefore bring a range of perspectives to the table, which results in lively, dynamic and productive conversations and ideas. The range of perspectives and ability to challenge one another as a group within the Board of Trustees also supports good governance and ensures greater accountability for BAPEN’s decisions.
According to Trevor: “Our Executive is made up of people from different disciplines of course, to represent our membership, but we are all healthcare professionals, and we are all very focused in our area of interest. It is possible to become insular, and it is fantastic to challenge that. It’s also important to recognise that everybody on BAPEN Executive and Council is in a voluntary role. We are all very committed to BAPEN and spend a lot of time on BAPEN business, but when you have an organisation where the leadership is made up of busy healthcare professionals there isn’t always the bandwidth to be taking a strategic look three, five, ten years into the future. But that is what BAPEN needs. Because we have grown so much over recent years, we can now see the potential in this organisation, but we need to take a strategic approach to reach our goals, and that is where the Trustees can help us, to expand our capacity and to expand our thinking.”
Will you notice a difference? Yes and no, according to Communications Officer Kate Hall: “Day to day you won’t notice much of a difference as a member of BAPEN just because we have Trustees in place. But, because they are helping us plan for the future, we hope everyone will get a sense of our direction of travel as an organisation as we enter our 30th year, and feel that the organisation is taking its future, and the representation of their interests, seriously. From a communications perspective we do want to share news from the Trustees, we want people to get to know Roger, Dianne and Phil now that they are a big part of BAPEN and its future.”
For more information about our Trustees click here and watch this space for more information!