11. Handover and update

Hello all

I am due to leave the RSA today and take up a new post at Slow Food UK. So I wanted to leave an update on what is going to happen next.

I was really pleased to see the Fellowship Council agree the text at the last meeting, and glad that we can now move on from this phase and concentrate on the ability of the Fellowship Charter, as part of a package of other work, to support Fellows in making a real difference in the world.

So, in terms of this working group and the tasks still to complete here is an update:

Point of contact
I will be leaving you in the capable hands of Ned, who has been my right-hand man through out this whole process and is well able to take on the role as staff lead

Sign-off
We spoke about the possibility of a tri-partite signing of the Charter by the Council, Trustees and Executive, but there was mixed support for this. In order to make the document more long-standing we are proposing to remove the ‘sign-off’ element, but make it clear in all communications that this is a co-produced document supported at all levels across the organisation.

Production (in time for Oct AGM)
We are going to use the designers who make the hugely popular RSA Animate films to work on both the Charter design and an accompanying short animated film to explain the RSA and the journey of Fellowship. We have a lot of constructive feedback on the first design so do not need to put this out for wider consultation. However, we expect to have a new version of the design to share with the working group to check that we have addressed the initial concerns at the end of Aug.

How to guides
This is being covered by work being done to restructure the website to make it more accessible; updated content with toolkits and FAQ’s; the Catalyst; the Directory; and the work to improve and professionalise our communications. These are not this group’s responsibility to produce – but we do have a need to help coordinate and ensure joint deadlines. Ned will be able to update the working group on progress and call upon other Fellows involved in the Charter development to input where necessary.

Evaluation
The evaluation on whether the Charter has made a difference is tied into a bigger piece of work to assess all the other interventions and work that the Networks team do, and we will be working to check that the Charter is included and can update the group and coordinate wider Fellow involvement where possible.

Thank you again to everyone who has taken part and played a role in getting us to this point. As a soon to be Fellow myself, I will be awaiting my copy!