The Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust which owns most of this island had a members' meeting last night where there were 50 or so of us - half the membership and a massive turnout - in the Village Hall with a consultant from HIE trying to reinvigorate the Trust and reconnect the management, both Board and paid staff, with the members. This was going to be real 'bottom up'.
This is because the Trust appears to have become progressively detached from the members and is now widely seen as following the Orwellian maxim:
"All islanders are equal but some are more equal than others".
Problems are perceived favouritism, cliques, poor communication, a culture of secrecy, lack of direction, poor management decisions, hostility, top down approach, failure to consult. In short - a community divided. The initial euphoria of self determination following the buyout has long gone and there is severe volunteer fatigue as it is the same 20-30 folk who tend to commit their time to running the show. At the start there were elections for Directors, but now there are too few folk coming forward every year so if you put your name forward then basically - you're on. And it is hard work, often thankless.
There are financial stringencies and revenue problems too in the current climate.
The Trust was originally established by HIE as what it optimistically describes as Social Enterprise. This means a Board of Directors has regular meetings and makes all the executive decisions with wider policy to be approved by the members at Members Meetings. It is basically a plc type structure with members taking the role of shareholders. The Board is advised by HIE who have a veto over many major decisions. The Trust company is limited by guarantee. Though what it guarantees and what it limits is unclear.
We were told that the Trust had been very successful in improving the island's housing, building the community wind turbines, reinvigorating the wonderful Achamore Gardens etc.,
We were told by the consultant that every Scottish rural community which aspires to community ownership wants the Gigha model. Dizzy with success ? (© JS)
All these are true and huge achievements for a small island, though the housing improvement programme leaves many folk very uneasy as every day 20 or so builders come over from the mainland which is where the money flows from our programme of housing rehabilitation. There is also some confusion as to whether the programme was ever tendered for and meets meaningful value for money criteria. Those building contracts are worth a lot of money.
In the introduction there was also a rather strange comment the gist of which was that if we did not like the way the Trust was running the place then perhaps we should move elsewhere. This slip really does reflect the divisions here.
Clearly HIE are very worried that their flagship Trust is flagging. It was the Eigg and Gigha buyouts that led to the 2003 Land Reform Act provisions. In our blood, these represent post devolution Scottish communitarianism and really are part of our national psyche and culture. On Gigha, there are major revenue problems with a small rental base, though good profits from the turbines, a break even from the Hotel and capital receipts from plot sales being the main cash flow.
We brainstormed in small groups towards a new Vision and new Aims for the Trust. The consultant was intending to take these away and structure them into a report for the Board who would then prioritise/decide and report back to the membership. There was remarkable unanimity in what we want - much motherhood and apple pie and this mostly because the issues really are that obvious. We do actually all want a strong cohesive vibrant community which is economically successful - though we did have the usual self interest of certain groups creeping in.
Hang on a minute - was the way we were being worked just as disengaged as usual ? Just a lip service consultation and then back to normal. HIE have been advising the Board for years that they made decisions (just like a plc Board) and the Members had relatively low status (just like minor shareholders). (I had been present at some of these pep talks by HIE advisers. They really were that dismissive of the members. Hardly empowering.)
And then - a challenge from the audience - why did we not decide the prioritisation of our own ideas collectively ? Islanders wanted to be active not passive. (The initial challenge came from an islander who is not a Trust member - but that is another story)
I suggested that the HIE Social Enterprise model was not a Community Development model which was what folk seemed to be wanting. This was not well received - the reply that everyone wants the Gigha model was a definite brush off. Now community development is not an HIE strong suit. Capacity building improves self confidence as well as local expertise, skills. There are enough talented people here to fill most gaps and provide a strong local economy instead of of being dependent on imports for everything - especially the high income stuff. We just need to be trained and build up our own skills and talents. Now training local people instead of importing expertise is real community development but capacity building is not actually an explicit IGHT objective. The Trust Manager has the job title Business Manager. The word Community is not immediately apparent.
The current exercise is a case in point - why do we do always seem to get HIE consultants parachuted in to find out what we want to do instead of being skilled to undertake this process of review ourselves? I can think of at least a dozen people on Gigha who really would be very good at this. We have become dependent on the HIE professional. They do business development and lots of it but appear to have real problems with building and growing communities where the bottom line is less clearly defined - though obviously recognising that all is not well on Gigha and if we go totally dysfunctional than a major piece of socio-economic engineering will blow back on them - as they set it up. Political embarrassment in no trumps.
The great hope for the future of this lovely place where we are all sharing our lives (okay there are a few SOGs too) is that there are so many talented people with such good ideas and such hope for our community. What was clear was that people really do want to be involved and not just as rubber stamps. OMG - too much democracy...where will it lead. Watch this space.
