Presentation by Colin Gordon, Assistant Director Membership to - - PDF document

Presentation by Colin Gordon, Assistant Director Membership to Gloucestershire Branch Chairman's Seminar at Dursley 08 Aug 15 Madam Chairman, Branch Chairmen, Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your kind invitation to address your annual Branch Chairmen's seminar. This is an opportune moment for me to address elements of our membership and I want to cover five major areas:

• a. Relationship between staff and members - valuing each other, recognising skills and

attributes, moving away from "them and us".

• b. The Royal British Legion in the 21st Century - what does that mean?
• c. What does community look like for a 21st Century The Royal British Legion?
• d. Recruitment and retention - How do we get the youngsters to stay? 22,500 new joiners

last year - 33,000 leavers!

• e. New Comradeship Database project - the rationale, the impact, the benefits

Before addressing my five key areas, it may be useful for you to know who I am. Having been a resident of Gloucester for over a decade, you might reasonably expect me to have a West Country accent, - I'm afraid not! You will perhaps have detected that my tone is something akin to my fellow Ulsterman, Gary Mills. Similarly, I too served with the Ulster Defence Regiment and Royal Irish Regiment and continue to serve today with the RIFLES. I do therefore understand what it truly means when we say Service not Self. I have been with The Royal British Legion for three years, having initially served as Assistant Director Operations (South) and was responsible for the implementation of Pathway for Growth. My experience; however, is not limited to purely military service. I am a professionally qualified youth and community worker and have worked across all three Services delivering welfare and family support to Service families in Northern Ireland, Germany and mainland UK. I have also worked in disadvantaged communities in Birmingham. I said that I wanted to address five key points, so let me start with one that is close to my heart as a community worker. Relationship between staff and members - The Director General spoke an annual conference this year in Southport pointing out that the relationship between staff and members was not what it should be, there was, and is too much of "them and us", too much negativity. Whilst I echo his sentiment, I'm more interested in the why not the what! In my opinion, the relationship needs to be re-set and each aspect of the organisation needs to value each other for what they are and respectively why we do, what we do. TRBL combined income and expenditure in the last financial year was £248m and we manage assets valued at almost £304m. Let me quote directly from the DCs address - Our income last year was £133.5m. Of every pound raised, 61 pence was in the form of donations. Of this, roughly half - or 30 pence on the pound - came from the Poppy Appeal. The average income generated by each member of the fundraising team is a staggering £651,000 per head. But this number includes the staff who support the Poppy Appeal, whose efforts rely on

the huge number of committed and dedicated volunteers like you. So let's take the Poppy Appeal

• ut of the equation. And we find that the income generated by each of our fundraising staff is more

than £326,000 -and no, we don't pay them anywhere near this figure so a very good return on our investment I think you'll agree! In essence we manage a huge amount of money and assets. We deliver a vast array of services, including debt and money advice, war pensions advocacy, independent living advice and advocacy, home repairs, nursing homes, respite for carers and holidays for families in need,

• utreach services for the most vulnerable and not to mention our campaigning work, our

responsibilities as Custodians of Remembrance and of course, our ability to help those in immediate need with money, food or household goods. Our requirement to comply with regulatory frameworks imposed by national and local government drives our requirement to employ skilled professionals, capable of supporting our many volunteers, like those in this room. There are a great many skilled volunteers working in our Pop In centres, supporting our care homes and visiting those whom are elderly, house bound or infirm. We do, and should, work together, but make no mistake; TRBL cannot function without a dedicated, professional and paid staff cadre whom have the necessary skill sets to meet the accountability expectations of our society. There are problems on both sides of our respective houses, but collaboratively we become stronger, collectively we deliver effective services and as a parent is to their child, we tolerate mistakes and learn as we move forward on our journey to help those in the ex-Service community that need our support. TRBL in the 21st Century - what does that mean? For many in this room, changes in society have been profound; televisions in every room, telephones in our pockets, computers that control

• ur cars, not to mention advances in medical science, regulation for social and support services

and expectations amongst our younger generations that everything is immediate and focussed on the individual not the community. We cannot wind back technology and changes to policy and society cannot be undone, we have to work with the changes that have and are happening; to not do so, will result in TRBL becoming

• utmoded, outdated and isolated. No-one here today would want that to happen, we therefore

must embrace the change. Society today moves faster, thinks faster, acts faster - whether-that is good or bad is a moot point

• the fact is that's what happens. We in TRBL and you in branches need to keep up with the

change. At HH we've introduced Office365 to give branch officials access to email, digital records, electronic updates and immediate messaging. We have introduced LOMAS, an electronic accounting package that reconciles your end of year accounts, runs your report and provides HH with the data required to ensure we are complaint with the Charities Commission requirements for public accounting.

Some of you may think that the old way was best, so why change it? The level of public accountability, public scrutiny and a more sceptical general public makes it vitally important that we can trace, track and report on our finances and our activities. We have a fantastic brand, recognised as a national institution, but brands and institutions can fall through poor accountability, misconduct or simply poor management. You are part of the accountability and you are the local management. What does community look like for a 21st Century TRBL? Community is changing; our armed forces are shrinking and concentrating into fewer and fewer areas across the UK. HQ ARRC, RLC at South Cerney and RAF Fairford all play a part in the Gloucestershire community, more importantly, the Reserves and Cadets are the only uniforms some parts of our communities ever

• see. The presence of TRBL is therefore even more important.

I would suggest to you that society will continue in its current vein, with families diverging to seek employment and communities becoming more diverse. Cash will become a thing of the past and TRBL must, alongside our army of volunteers, address the way in which we conduct and collect for the Poppy Appeal. We will need your support to continue with the Poppy Appeal, which was at its most successful last year, bringing in almost £45m. Liaison with local military units for this task and Remembrance remain a high priority and of course, the spin offs are potential new members. If we are to present ourselves as the organisation we are; professional, competent, capable, delivering high quality support services, then we must also have a purposeful membership with a clear vision and the ability to engage with and understand 21st Century technology and expectations. Recruitment and retention - Recruiting new members is rarely our problem, retaining them is. Bearing in mind the average age of our membership, how do we get the youngsters (relatively speaking!!), i.e. those under or around 50yrs, to stay? We had 22,500 new joiners last year; however, 33,000 lapsed their membership! The reasons they cite are painful listening, but to address the issue we need to listen, we need to listen actively and we need to act on it - the alternative is to continue on our current glide path of gentle decline. Rightly you will ask of me, what are the reasons cited, they include but are not exclusive to every branch and club: Unwelcoming atmosphere - some clubs/branches don't engage with newcomers Unwillingness to listen to new ideas -Branches/Clubs won't release positions of authority Branches/Clubs won't embrace technology and won't let others do it on their behalf Branches/Cubs don't do anything - there's nothing organised I want an honest conversation with our branches and clubs, that means we need to listen to each

• ther, understand our respective issues, but importantly be prepared to take the tough decisions

and where it is possible encourage, embrace and hand over responsibility to new generation.

I have the responsibility to set our strategic pathway for the next 10 years. That needs to include an element of investment in our membership, its structures and its infrastructure. More of that to follow in the coming months. New Comradeship Database project - Finally, the most recent change, driven by an outdated,

• utmoded, unsupported and unsustainable database and recordkeeping system that was beyond

creaking at the seams, the seams had already burst. So my first point is the IT infra-structure had to go. We combined it with our fundraising and volunteering database to create a single, multi-functional system that provides a comprehensive list of members, volunteers, supporters and contributors. We also wanted to have a relationship with individual members. At the moment, we write to MC, County and Branch chairmen and expect those personnel to cascade our messages outwards to the individual members of branches and clubs. Unsurprisingly, the message often doesn't get transmitted, or if it does, it has been amended in some way, dependant on the view of the chairman or persons involved. When we sent out payment preference letters recently, we were told by a great many people that this was the first they'd heard of the project, yet over the last 18 months it's been in the Legion Magazine, briefed to County Chairmen twice, discussed at Annual Conference twice; there's been a national road show at 50 locations through England, Wales and Nl, it's been on the website and we've recently published it through MAP (Membership Administration Portal). What it really means is that we're moving people away from an annual renewal process paid for at your branch or club to an anniversary of joining system, where you can pay by Direct Debit, Cheque, Credit Card, Debit Card, Pay Pal, Pay Point (Cash), Continuous Payment Authority (Credit/Debit Card). You can use these methods on-line, by telephone at the contact centre or by contacting your local branch. Members will then be contactable directly, hopefully with many more providing an email address. Membership cards will be posted to members' private addresses. The benefits therefore are more ways to pay, anniversary renewal, personal reminder letters and direct communication with our membership. Some branches have challenged the benefits stating that annual renewal is the time of year when they meet their members, can check whether they have a welfare need and provides an

• pportunity to recruit for the upcoming Poppy Appeal. I'm presuming that we meet our branch

members more than once a year and whilst I accept that the renewal in Oct provided such an excellent opportunity, this new system in no way stops branches from hosting an annual gathering, if that's their way of working. Conclusion - Thank you again for affording me the opportunity to speak to you. I've probably

• verrun on time - I usually do; but if anyone does have a question, I'm more than happy to try to

field it.