KEY ISSUES

Location of the Society’s Working Library.

We believe it is essential for the Society to maintain a well stocked, up-to-date library, supported by a full-time experienced librarian/archivist, at 4 Hamilton Place. It reflects the importance attached by members to the ability to combine library access with visits for conferences, lectures or on other HQ business. The library function is integral to the headquarters facilities for members and is a significant gateway for prospective members – especially the large student population in the London area.

The creation of the National Aerospace Library, with its working library in London and much of its archive material now in the Hub at Farnborough, followed a suggestion made at the turn of the century by one of our number. To quote from The Aerospace Professional in August 2009, “The National Aerospace Library, officially launched on 15 January 2008, is a new archive established to complement the existing Library collections and service at the Royal Aeronautical Society’s headquarters in London.” And from the Chief Executive’s Message in The Aerospace Professional in September 2007, “I think it is important to emphasise that the Library on the third floor here at Hamilton Place will remain fully operational, to allow members to borrow books and to carry out research. The facilities at Farnborough will focus on public access and provide us with a much needed expanded storage facility for our own collection and other collections that may be given to us in the future.”

We fully agree with these words and fully support the location of the archive at Farnborough, in what is an excellent environment. However, the difficulty of access to Farnborough by members who do not live in the near neighbourhood make it a highly unsuitable location for the Society’s main working library. We consider the move of the Librarian and most of the 4 Hamilton Place stock to Farnborough to be a disservice to the Society’s members and we believe it should be reversed.

Location of the Careers Centre

Since its opening in 1997, the Careers Centre has helped thousands of people wanting to pursue a career in aerospace and aviation and has become the focal point for young people, aerospace professionals and educators. Its work requires interaction with staff in other departments of the Society, with representatives of a wide range of organisations from all over the country, with the Specialist Groups and individual members of the Society and with students. The Careers Centre needs to have easy communications with all these and the Society headquarters is the obvious place for it, enabling much of its interaction with Society members to be done on an opportunity basis when the contacts are in the building for other reasons.

The Centre has been, in particular, a key point of contact between the Society and young people entering the aerospace profession, a valuable source of advice to them and a means of attracting new members into the Society. Its location in central London has been an important asset, being at the centre of a large body of students at universities in London and the Home Counties and giving comparatively easy access for students from further afield. Many of the students who have gained valuable advice from the Careers Centre have done so through being able to ‘drop in’ whilst visiting London for some other reason. In contrast, from the responses we have received to the requisition, it is evident that the Hub at Farnborough is a highly unsuitable place to house such a department because of the difficulty of access from everywhere except the counties to the south-west of London.

Appropriate use of 4 Hamilton Place

We applaud the purchase of the freehold of 4 Hamilton Place. We recognise also the benefit to the Society of being able to generate revenue by acting as commercial providers of services and space to outside organisations, within the limits of its own requirements, when there is the opportunity. A balance must be struck, however, between providing headquarters services to members and generating revenue to support more general services to members. In this context, we do not believe that it is an appropriate use of 4 Hamilton Place to displace the working library and Careers Centre – the two ‘front office’ headquarters services most used by members – in order to make space available on the third floor for long-term tenants. The library is one of the few remaining facilities of general interest for visitors and members and its removal to Farnborough could have a marked long term impact on membership numbers.

The key issue is the displacement of headquarters functions from 4 Hamilton Place by bodies with no connection with the Society. We are strongly opposed to this in principle.  A further issue, on which many supporters of the requisition clearly feel very strongly, is the nature of the business pursued by the tenant that has displaced the library. We share their view, particularly in the light of recent disclosures (click on our copy of the Sunday Times Article), that any association – even ‘at arms length’ - is not appropriate for a learned society operating under Charity Commission and Royal Charter auspices.

The full article may still be on the Sunday Times web site

Governance

It is clear from the By-Laws that the Council is the governing body of the Society, responsible for all important decisions.  The move of the working library and Careers Centre to Farnborough was made without prior discussion or approval by the Council.  We believe that a change of such significance to the membership should not have been made without the express approval of the Council. There is no doubt that the supporters of the requisition share this view.

The General Meeting

As explained in our letter in the October Aerospace Professional, our decision to call a General Meeting was made, very reluctantly, in the face of a firm refusal to delay the moves to Farnborough to allow wider consultation. As, at that stage (late July), no announcement of the moves had been made, the members were being confronted with a fait accompli and we saw a General Meeting as the only way of allowing their views to be heard. The strength of the opinions received in support of the requisition, from a wide range of distinguished Fellows and Members of the Society, convinces us that it was the right thing to do.

The President notes, in his comment in the October Aerospace Professional, that the By-Laws are silent on how the Council should deal with the result of any General Meeting vote. He also notes that the timescales set in the By-Laws for arriving at a resolution by postal vote are long, so that by the time the result of the vote is known next year’s budget will have been approved and “things will have moved on”. We hope that the Council, acting in the interests of the members, will give the result of the vote due consideration and, in planning the budget, include a contingency plan for returning the services to Hamilton Place if that is clearly the wish of the members..