Meeta Kaur MRTPI is the Chair of the Board of Trustees at the Royal Town Planning Institute.
Governance may not get everyone’s juices flowing, but your Board of Trustees dedicate their time and attention to keeping your institute on the right track.
However, the decisions taken by this dedicated group of volunteers can often feel remote and opaque to some of our members. As a result of that, and in my position as chair of the board I thought it would be a good idea to shine a light on the activities of your trustee board and bring our decision making to the fore.
Obviously, there will be items discussed that cannot be shared through a blog post, but where I can, I would like to help you understand how and why we are doing what we are doing. My hope is that this will give you a sense of how your institute is run in your best interests while also giving you early sight of some of the projects to expect as we continue to deliver against our corporate strategy.
As this was the first meeting of the year there were many end of year reports to get through, reviewing last year's achievements across a range of fronts: I can assure you that your institute is in good financial health and saw a successful growth in membership through 2024. We also heard an annual report on our communications statistics, which shows we are making progress in shaping the debate in both political and journalistic circles.
Much of what we achieved through 2024 can be found in our end of year report which we shared with you in December.
Realistically, though much of our job as trustees is to look forward.
That is why I was pleased to hear the latest from our Education for Everyone review. You will no doubt know that this has been ongoing for some time and aims to ensure that planning education is fit for the future.
This update was tinged with some sadness, as Tony Crook, trustee and one of the driving forces behind the review sadly passed away at the end of last year. However, I think he would have been happy to see the progress that is being made on this project.
Keep an eye on the RTPI website, our social media channels and your monthly bulletin in the coming weeks for an update on this review.
Meanwhile, as we discuss education, I really want to highlight and make you aware of the RTPI mentoring platform and the RTPI work experience guide which have been launched through February. If we are to secure our profession for the future then the one thing we have to do is make sure we are helping the next generation understand the positive world changing job that planning can be.
