So far so good

Well, is CILIP’s new Governance System a success?  I’ve spent a number of days out and about in the last few weeks and this is one of the questions I’m being asked by CILIP Members.

Of course it’s early days but we’ve now had three meetings of the new Council and, back in mid-March, the first meeting of the new Policy Forum - and the signs are good.

As we had hoped, work with the Trustees now feels like a continuous conversation rather than an occasional event, and good early progress has been made on key areas of work like communications, ICT, and the future of CILIP’s Framework of Qualifications and Accreditations.

As we had hoped, work on professional policy now feels like an inclusive process engaging colleagues across the CILIP community, and there were some excellent discussions at the first meeting of the Policy Forum not just about the process of policy development but also around substantive policy issues - particularly around learning through libraries and also around the ‘professionalism’ agenda.

And as we had hoped, the two gatherings feel very different.  Trustees, Honorary Officers and senior staff sitting round a table together to share quarterly reports on performance for all parts of the Ridgmount Street operation - this felt like a very focused and business-like Board meeting.  The Policy Forum engaging in facilitated and animated discussion on priority areas of policy development - this felt like a very participative and energetic workshop or seminar.