I have been following the recent news flow from the Landscape Institute regarding its rather precarious financial position and I have wondered if the Landscape Institute can recover?
In today's Hort Week piece, it has been revealed that the Landscape Institute is being forced to make greater cuts in its budget than previously proposed or envisaged, due to falling advertising revenues and issues with accounting and its gift aid, and it has has been criticised heavily for not keeping its members informed.
The Architects website revealed as far back as November 2008 that the LI's archive and library might be broken up if a new home cannot be found and Chief executive Alastair McCapra is quoted as saying: “We don’t have a professional archivist, we’ll never have the resources to look after the collection as it needs to be looked after.”
Many redundancies are also planned and I am beginning to think this this situation might just be too much for the organisation to dig its way out of?
Members of any association are increasingly demanding transparency within and a free flow of honest information coming from the top.
As Hort Week goes on to report, members are furious that they have not been informed properly and one member, Planit IE director Peter Swift, being quoted as saying: "I came to the meeting believing we were looking at £220,000 of cuts and that is not the case." and Robinson Landscape Design director Tom Robinson added: "It is unreasonable to be told we have a financial problem and not be presented with any detail of it.
"That is not how our organisation should be allowed to run."
It is clearly another nail in the coffin for paid up associations who work in an insular way and without the interests or their membership at the forefront of their organisation policy.
I reported only this week how the Association of Professional Landscapers are advising its members on one thing and completely ignoring their own advice.
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