Icon’s first Board of Trustees was elected at Icon’s inaugural Annual General Meeting on 6 December 2005. In celebration of the Board’s anniversary, we’ve gone back into the Icon News archives to print an extract describing the landmark event.
Part 2 tells the story about what our first Trustees are up to now.
Icon News, Edition 2: January 2006
After she first met the members of the Interim Board a year ago, Lynne Thomas, Icon’s Project Manager, confided to her notebook: ‘lovely people, seem exhausted, don’t think they’ll make it’. Well, as she would be the first to admit, sometimes it’s great to be proved wrong. And 6 December – the date of Icon’s first AGM – was that proof.
The event was held at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, one of those splendid Victorian municipal buildings redolent of confidence and civic pride and housing a treasure trove of art and artefacts. So it was a most fitting setting for the AGM, ushering in a new Chair and new Board of Trustees and providing opportunities to discuss developments, learn more about digital imaging, meet old friends and make new ones. There were also terrific exhibitions in the galleries to visit at spare moments and tours of the new conservation laboratory.
The energy level was high throughout the day. As was the sense of being in at the beginning of something new, moving conservation to a new level as a profession
In the absence of Carole Milner, Chair of the Interim Board, the formal AGM was introduced by Board member Clare Meredith, who took the meeting through the Chair’s Report, starting with an overview of the work, key events and key personnel involved in getting through the transition to a single, new organisation. Members of the Interim Board and all staff were thanked for their enormous contribution.
Clare went on to draw out some of the lessons learned by the Board during the past year. She noted particularly the impact of Icon’s charitable status, which makes it so much more than just a professional body; it must also pursue its charitable aims and reach out to benefit the wider community. This also ties in with a principle dear to the Board – Icon’s inclusivity. As the Report puts it ‘everyone can find their place with us’, from accredited members at the pinnacle of professional expertise to supporters who are interested in conservation….
Overall conclusion? The energy level was high throughout the day. As was the sense of being in at the beginning of something new, moving conservation to a new level as a profession.
Read the full story in Icon News.
