Keeping Good Company
How do we revitalise the Beckenham and Bromley National Trust Centre to stay relevant?
In the summer National Trust magazine Karen Gregory puts the spotlight onto supporter groups. Notably National Trust Chair René Olivieri describes how he sees the role of Centres:
‘Our Supporter Groups offer opportunities to build strong local connections, enjoy visits to nearby historic places and take part in engaging discussions on topics such as the importance of heritage. They also play a vital fundraising role for the Trust.’
The timing is opportune as we move into our own 51st year in Beckenham and Bromley. In our last newsletter I interviewed our first Chairman, David Crowe. David told me that there was a group of local members who wanted to create the centre to bring like-minded people together and to raise money to support the National Trust.
The first talk on the programme in 1975 was about ‘Textile Preservation at Knole’ and we were soon able to make an appropriate donation to buy a washing tank for the Knole tapestries.
The same year a visit was organised and members could see the famous tapestries for themselves. This is an excellent example of how a local centre can learn together about how the National Trust operates on a local basis.
The priorities have not changed but they are becoming more difficult to achieve. Our membership has declined from nearly 1000 to just over 100. Sadly, with less attendees we are not making much money on our talks programme. Unfortunately, we have had to take the decision to stop regular Bromley talks because we are not covering the cost of the hall and the speaker. Inevitably this also makes it harder to donate to the Trust.
We offer an excellent programme of visits, I enjoyed a walk through Hawkwood and Petts Wood with a small group. I’ll also be joining the trip to Brooklands and the London Bus Museum on August 5. I wasn’t able to go but on a recent trip to Scotney Castle U3A members filled the spare seats on the bus and perhaps that is the way forward for us in the short term.
The National Trust has issued its strategy for the next 10 years and up to 2050. I’ll talk about this more in my next blog but to summarise briefly it is to defend nature and increase access to history, nature and the environment. In doing this we will have to do things differently to achieve the goals.
Locally we must look at how we can adapt to the changing needs of our existing supporters and attract new active members while continuing to meet the requirements of the Trust.
I’d like to hear from you about how we can engage more people in Beckenham and Bromley. What would you like to hear about in our talks, where would you like to visit? What would we need to do to engage your friends and family, especially your children and grandchildren?
Is there anything else you would like to do, would you be interested in a debate, a photo competition, to hear more from the Trust or the local Council or something different? Please let me know either by replying to this blog or, if you don’t want to make it public you can email me -chairman@ntbbcentre.org.uk.
All the best
John