Branch Chairs Support Growth Plans

An excellent venue, BVSC Birmingham

On Saturday 4th April our Branch Chairmen and Chairwomen met. The venue, BVSC in Birmingham, was excellent and conducive to a really positive meeting.

One of the main topics for discussion was the future of the organisation. Trustees want to approve a new 5 year plan (the current 5 year plan runs until the end of 2009) and it was important that the Branches, and thus the members of the charity, approve the basic principles for the way forward.

Our idea is, in summary, to continue to invest for growth. Increasingly we are proving that investing in staff and resources to (1) raise money for research and (2) deliver services, is the only way that we are going to grow large enough and quickly enough to remain influential. Regular readers of this blog will already know my views on this. 

So I was delighted that the meeting unanimously endorsed proposed principles of investing for growth, of maintaining charitable expenditure at a minimum of 70% of income, of continuing to ringfence branch generated research funds, of paying professional fundraising staff, of outreach work and expanding awareness of RP and the charity, and of the Trustees setting income targets which will trigger various stages of the growth plan.

I am hoping that the Trustees will agree the plan at their next meeting, and the members’ endorsement of these principles will certainly be encouraging.

Tags: branch chairs, growth plans, retinitis, strategy