Annual General Meeting

Transcript

[Mark Jones]
Good morning ladies and gentlemen, and welcome. I'm Mark Jones, Chair of the National Trust for Scotland, and I'm very pleased to see you all here in Kirkcaldy. And of course welcome also to those ...
[I can't hear you!]
Is the mic not on? Is it on? I'll give it a try. I'll try again.
I'm very pleased to welcome both those of you here present in Kirkcaldy, and those watching online, to our 93rd Annual General Meeting. It's a pleasure to be able to attend this meeting again in person, after a few years when it simply wasn't possible.
I'm joined today by Phil Long to my right, the Trust's Chief Executive; Lesley-Ann Logan, interim Chief Financial and Corporate Officer; and Stephen Small, the Trust's Secretary and Director of Legal & Governance. You'll be hearing from all of them through the course of the day.

Before we begin, I must mention that the proceedings are being recorded so that we have a full and accurate record of the meeting.
For this year's meeting, we've introduced some small changes to our online voting processes, which we hope will make the event run more smoothly and leave Stephen Small with fewer awkward gaps to fill!
For those of us here in Fife, it's all very straightforward. When it's time to vote, you simply raise your hand.
For our online attendees, votes were open before the meeting started. If you haven't voted so far, don't worry -- you will still have the chance to vote at the same time as the audience here in the theatre. You'll be prompted by a slide on screen.
We hope that this change will help us to keep the meeting moving along with fewer stops and starts throughout.

Now, to start the meeting I'd like us to move swiftly to our first vote.
I refer to the minutes of the 2023 Annual General Meeting, which was staged in Aberdeen and online on Friday 22 September 2023.
A copy of the minutes was available in advance of today's meeting, and I hope that you've had time to study them.
All amendments already noted, notified and not substantive in nature have already been incorporated into the minutes.
Before we move to a vote, can I ask if there are any other amendments? No. Thank you.
On that basis I'm about to ask you for your vote to approve the minutes.
Please vote by raising your hand here or voting online if you haven't already done so.

[Stephen Small]
If you'd like to approve, can you please raise your hand in the room. Thank you very much.
And any votes against? Thank you very much. That is passed in the room.
And there is still a little time lag while I wait for the votes online.

[Mark Jones]
Right, I think we can take it that the minutes are approved.

[Stephen Small]
They are indeed.

[Mark Jones]
Members attending here today in Fife had an opportunity to cast final votes in the Trustee election as they arrived this morning.
Members who are attending virtually and who haven't yet cast theirs in the election will have received a separate email from UK Engage instructing them to do so now.
Voting on the Trustee election will close at 12:30 today and we'll be notified of the result recorded online, and this will be tallied up with those cast earlier in Kirkcaldy by Stephen Small, the Trust Secretary.
We are now ready to finalise voting ... oh sorry, which we've already done ...
Can I have a proposer? Do we need to have a proposer or have we really skipped over that?

[Stephen Small]
I think we can assume we've approved it.

[Mark Jones]
Yeah, I think we can assume we've done that.
So, the next order of business is the election of the president.
And you may have spotted the Trust President Jackie Bird, as you arrived this morning.
Jackie has now served two years as president of our charity and works tremendously hard to represent the Trust.
In the past year she's hosted numerous fundraising events, represented the Trust in New York City's Tartan Day parade, and helped to generate support for our charity in many ways.
As you know, she's integral to the success of our award-winning Love Scotland podcast, which is soon about to celebrate its 100th episode. Jackie's commitment to telling stories to connect people with Scotland,its history and heritage is a great asset to the Trust.
We feel very fortunate to have an ambassador and advocate of such passion, professionalism and profile.
As regular attenders will be aware, the reason I'm chairing the meeting, which is technically speaking the president's meeting, is that under the Trust's founding act our president must be elected or re-elected each year at our AGM.
I'm sure that you will be glad to hear that Jackie has once again volunteered to continue in the role of President, and I and my fellow Trustees have no hesitation in recommending to you that she continue in the role.
Should you support Jackie's reappointment today, I will then hand the meeting over to her to chair with her customary skill.
The proposal is that Jackie Bird be reappointed as President of the National Trust for Scotland with effect from today.
Those in the hall, please indicate by raising your hand if you approve of the resolution.
And online, if you haven't already done so, please vote now.
Right, I think we can say ...

[Stephen Small]
Do we have any votes against? No votes against, thank you.

[Mark Jones]
Right, well, thank you very much. I think that shows how much we value Jackie as our president and I will now pass the proceedings over to her.

[Applause]

[Jackie Bird]
Thank you; thank you very much for that. Thank you for your voting.
It doesn't get any less nerve-wracking, I can tell you! I warned my husband if I'm home before lunch, you know it hasn't gone well!
Thank you all for being here today; it's lovely to see so many of you.
I had a chat with a few of you beforehand so I understand why you're here today. Well, there's nothing on the telly; it's raining; and you want to have a look at the new look!
I hope you will enjoy our proceedings today because we've got some great things to share with you.
From my point of view, although it's been two years, I am continuing to try to tick off as many National Trust for Scotland properties in the book that I can visit. Recently I was in Killiecrankie on a beautiful summer's day,- and obviously I got a chance to just indulge in the history and the landscape there.
And then very much more recently, a couple of weeks ago,I was down at Smail's Printworks in Innerleithen. I know we've got some representatives from Smail's here. How many of you have visited Smail's in Innerleithen? Oh, that's good! Oh, that's fantastic! Isn't it astonishing?
And also the fact that, as I only discovered, everything was about to be thrown out. Everything, all the machinery -- 160/170 years of industrial heritage was going to go in the bin, before the National Trust for Scotland stepped in, and that is just great.
And that is why we are here and that is why we have your support, so thank you for that.
I have to share with you though, in the summer holidays I managed to get up to Culloden on a day it was heaving -- international travel is back with a vengeance.
I just marvelled, as ever, at the knowledge of the tour guides. A young man called Gavin who was asked all sorts of detailed questions, not only about Culloden and about Scottish history, but then about geopolitics, etc. After the tour had moved on, I had a chat with him. I said, does anything flummox you? He said, well ...
Not so long ago a party of Americans were so caught up in the whole spirit of Culloden that one of them pointed to one of the puddles and asked if it was possible to drink the peatbog water. He wanted to imbibe the spirit of Culloden, heart and soul!
So, Gavin used all of his diplomatic skills to advise him that no, that wasn't quite such a good idea.
But anyway, I'm making my way around as many properties as I can, and I hope that you are too.

So, on to business today, ladies and gentlemen.
Throughout the morning, as you've heard, we will hear from a number of speakers from the National Trust for Scotland and some of the presentations will follow with a vote, along the lines of you've just completed.
We will have two built-in question & answer sessions.
In the first, the questions have been submitted in advance as well as some submitted by you today, and the later session will be based solely on questions from you the audience, or online.
If you're typing them in through the Q&A function of the online software you are watching on, she says, pretending to understand everything I'm about to say to you!
If you are watching online, I think our camera is over here somewhere.
You'll see there's a bar on the bottom of your screen. There's a double speech button symbol slightly to the left of centre, marked Q&A. If you click on this, you will bring up a dialogue box into which you can type questions throughout the meeting. Please don't click -- it says here -- on the chat symbol instead of the ... I have no idea what horrors will follow if ... just don't click on the chat! Terrible things will happen -- you'll probably be taken to your online shopping from Sainsburys or something like that. Because if you do that, we won't be able to see your question, so make sure it's on the chat.
If you're asking online, please remember to include your name for our formal record of the meeting so we can find out where you live! If you don't do that, I'm sorry we can't include your question.
Here in the venue also, if you are asking a question, please include your name for our formal records.
Trust colleagues are compiling the questions received and we'll try to respond to as many as we can. I will read out the questions in advance for those of you who are online.

For the rest of the meeting, we will begin with the annual review of the Trust's performance for the financial year from Phil, the chief executive, and he will also take you through some of the charity's key achievements over the past year.
He will be followed by the interim Chief Finance and Corporate Officer Lesley-Ann, along here, and with a fair bit of summary as to how this year is faring so far.
Our external auditors will then make a brief statement -- that's a shame, brief statement! -- and then it's time for the first Q&A session.
After that, it's next in our series of votes on the adoption of our annual review and accounts --printed copies of these were available to pick up at registration desks -- and then votes for the re-election of external auditors, the re-election of Vice-Presidents, followed by a proposal to change the price of an Ordinary membership subscription.
We're then going to move on to more of a Fife focus. Edinburgh & East curator Antonia Laurence Allen is going to share some of her incredible knowledge and fascinating insights into some of the beautiful places and collections in the Trust's care here in the Kingdom. I highly commend Antonia to you. She is a regular contributor to the Love Scotland podcast and is my go-to for queries about just about anything concerned with Scotland's heritage.
After Antonia, we will have our next Q&A session and then we'll take questions live.
Following that, the results for a ballot for the election of new Trustees and after all of that, we do, as Mark said, aim to complete the meeting at about 1:15 in time for some lunch.
We hope you will take some time to stay with us for lunch and maybe because we'll have a little bit more time take a chance to meet the teams from Kingarrock Hickory Golf, which I'm sure you're all familiar with, and from Robert Smail's Printing Works who have joined us for the day. Perhaps some of you will be encouraged to stay in Fife for the rest of the afternoon if you've travelled here and enjoy some more of our places.
I understand that there is a cake voucher some of you have picked up on the way in? Was there a cake voucher? We haven't got a ... did we get a cake voucher?

[Stephen Small]
Sorry, no cake voucher. Sorry, President.

[Jackie Bird]
Can I please have a cake voucher awaiting my leave?
So, let's get going. Firstly we're going to review the Trust's performance over the last complete financial year 23/24, which concluded on 29 February 2023.
I will now hand over to Phil who is going to tell you all about the wonderful things that have been happening within the Trust. Phil.

[Phil Long]
Thank you very much. A very warm welcome to all of you to this wonderful venue. It's a pleasure to have you with us, whether you're here in the room or online, you are all very welcome indeed.
Now, for me, sharing our charity's achievements with our dedicated supporters at our Annual General Meeting is one of the highlights of the Trust year. As chief executive, I am immensely proud of the scope and scale of the National Trust for Scotland's achievements, all it does to care for and share Scotland's heritage. And I hope that you agree, as we move into the final year of the first phase of the Trust's 10-year strategy -- Nature, Beauty and Heritage for Everyone -- that we can take stock of what we've achieved and look ahead to the future. There's much to be celebrated and there is much to look forward to.
In the last few years we, like many organisations, have been focused on recovery and planning as we worked to address the impact of the global pandemic and navigate the ongoing financial and economic issues, which of course have affected everyone.
Delighted to report that in the last financial year, more people have enjoyed Trust places than ever before, with over 4.5 million visitors recorded, and that exceeds even our pre-pandemic visitor levels. I think it's a huge compliment to the Trust, to our places and to our colleagues that so many people do choose to spend their time with us.
The National Trust for Scotland remains an independent charity that depends on our members, our generous supporters and our enterprise to look after all of our special places in the face of continuing world uncertainty, economic challenge and the growing crises, of course, of climate change and biodiversity loss.
Our work has inspired record levels of support, through membership subscriptions, grants and philanthropy, showing that people feel the work that we do is valuable and worthy of their contributions.
In the year that we're reporting on, we were absolutely humbled to receive an exceptional single donation of £2.4 million from one member for whom the Trust's places have been such an important part of their family life for very many years.
We also continue to receive vital financial support from the NTS Foundation USA, which does such great work as an international advocate for the Trust. We could not be more grateful for their support, all that they do for us.

And indeed support is the theme that runs throughout this presentation today. There is nothing that you will hear about, which has not been achieved by generous, by creative, by committed people, working together for the love of our country's heritage.
One of our key recent achievements is the publication of our first Plan for Nature. This has been an extensive piece of work, involving people across our organisation as well as much wider consultation.
Ever since the founding of our charity back in the 1930s, we've taken responsibility for the natural environment, whether it's the romantic beauty of places such as Glencoe, Kintail or Torridon, or our gardens, croft lands, islands and coastlines.
Drawing together all the Trust's expertise, the Plan for Nature sets out our wish to accelerate restoration of all of our places into good ecological condition. It explains how we'll prioritise our conservation efforts towards habitats and species for which we have national and international responsibility. It also places a high value on landscape aesthetic and maintaining a sense of wildness, for which Scotland's landscapes are so special and valued from around the world.
Among the habitats which we've identified as a priority are our seabird cliffs and our islands.
In July 2023 we were delighted to add another of these to our care, thanks to the generosity of the Hebridean Trust and our supporters in the National Trust for Scotland US Foundation.
The Treshnish Isles in the Hebrides were added to our portfolio.
This archipelago of islands and skerries is rich in natural life, particularly seabirds. It's also rich in human heritage. Its acquisition helps the Trust bring renewed attention to the importance of our precious coastlines and the marine environment, threatened by rising sea temperatures and levels caused by changing climate.
Our charity is also lucky enough to care for much of Iona along with the Burg Peninsula on Mull and the famous Isle of Staffa where, as we speak, we're beginning to work on improvements on the infrastructure to make the many thousands of visits to this small, world-famous island more enjoyable and safer and to help protect its precious heritage.
And so bringing the Treshnish Isles into the Trust's care means that we can provide an expanded area of protection in the Inner Hebrides for the benefit of its flora and fauna, and share the area's fascinating stories with visitors as our rangers welcome people to these beautiful places.

Property acquisitions by the Trust are now rare as we work to care for our existing estate built up over the last 90 years or so. But we'll always be mindful of our duty to protect Scotland's heritage at risk, whether through ownership or working in partnership.
And so after a very successful independently led restoration, Glasgow's Mackintosh at the Willow faced concerns for its future. Both the pandemic and the impact of the second fire at the Glasgow School of Art had made trading over the past few years very difficult.
I think with admirable foresight the trustees of Mackintosh's Original Willow Tearoom building contacted us to propose that we work together to take this brilliant work of design into the Trust's care.
After many months of discussion, we were very pleased to add this very special place to the portfolio in January just this year. As with the Treshnish Isles, the fact that the owners wanted to entrust the future of one of Mackintosh's rare remaining works to the National Trust for Scotland can be seen, I think, as affirmation of the respect that people have for our charity and our enduring conservation mission.
Bringing Mackintosh at the Willow permanently into our guardianship also adds to our presence in Glasgow, during a year in which Pollok House was returned to the care of its owners, Glasgow City Council, for restoration.
Along with our other properties there -- with the Tenement House, Greek Thomson's Holmwood and Greenbank Garden -- all of these presences help to make the Trust more accessible to more people in the west.
Mackintosh at the Willow welcomes over 200,000 visitors per year, who come for a wonderful dining experience in surroundings designed by one of Scotland's most internationally respected creative artists some 120 years ago.
They also see a brilliant exhibition which covers the inspiring Miss Cranston and her entrepreneurial endeavours, and how Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his partner and professional collaborator Margaret Macdonald worked with her to fulfil that vision.
Visitors can also learn about the story of the recent restoration and the incredible attention to detail which has made it so successful.
We could not be more delighted to play our part in protecting it for the future and I hope that you will visit soon if you haven't been able to do so already.

A further success in the past year has been the creation and launch of our new Burns Collection online portal.
Through this we digitised some 2,500 items of the Trust's outstanding Burns collection that's held at Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in Alloway, and now of course enriched further by the addition of precious items from the newly acquired Blavatnik Honresfield collection.
High quality images and information about each piece is now available onlin eto people from all over the world, whenever they choose.
That's a great step forward in making our collections more accessible, and again has only been made possible due to the support of a generous donor and of course through our skilled teams working together to develop and deliver this excellent and innovative resource for those who want to find out more about Burns wherever they are, as I've said, in the world.
It's my hope too that this is the beginning of a future ambition to make our rich collections of art, design and much else much more greatly available in this way.

Over the past year, we've continued to carry out ambitious conservation projects on our beautiful and historic buildings.
The 18-month-long Pink Again project at magical Craigievar Castle to restore the pink harling concluded with the castle reopening to worldwide media attention in late May.
The work there not only makes the castle look fantastic once again, it now importantly provides the protective conditions for the building itself and the exquisite ceiling plasterwork and rare collections inside.
Also in Aberdeenshire, Drum Castle has benefitted from works to the earliest part of its structure: its old tower.
Extreme weather conditions in late 2020 onwards worsened a longstanding issue with water ingress. The crenulated wallheads have been capped with sheet lead to protect the structure and allow it to dry out, protecting the collection and the library inside.
We've been hard at work on a number of our islands too, carrying out substantial conservation works at Brodick Castle on Arran with roof and window repairs which will protect its fantastic interiors and exceptional art and design collections for future generations.
In the Hebrides, Canna House has undergone extensive repair and restoration works. When it reopens in spring 2025, it will tell the fascinating story of its former residents and donors to the Trust John Lorne Campbell and Margaret Fay Shaw's incredible work to collect and document so much Gaelic culture.
In 2025 we're all greatly looking forward to seeing the doors open to the public once more.

We've had some milestone reopenings over the past year too.
At Linlithgow, the House of the Binns welcomed visitors again following an extensive programme of refurbishment and redecoration. This fascinating historic home of the Dalyell family offers a fantastic experience with a very warm welcome and tours revealing their extraordinary history at the centre of Scottish political life for some four centuries.
There were new openings to celebrate too, as our Gateway to Nature at Corrieshalloch Gorge National Nature Reserve welcomed visitors for the first time. This not only adds important new facilities for a popular visitor destination, but also opens up even more areas to explore and enjoy in this National Nature Reserve, the Trust's smallest but undoubtedly one of its most dramatic.
Supported by substantial funding from the Natural and Cultural Heritage Fund led by NatureScot, and part-funded through the European Regional Development Fund, the project is already making a welcome contribution to the Highlands, both for visitors and local communities.
Another wonderful opening took place over in Aberdeenshire again, as the Crathes Rose Garden bloomed. In reinventing the centuries-old rose garden at Crathes, the team looked across five millennia for inspiration including the area's Neolithic past, the history of Crathes and the local area, the Arts and Crafts movement and 21st-century sustainability challenges. What has been created is very special indeed.
The work to reinvent the Crathes Rose Garden was made possible, thank you, by the late Professor Ian Young and his wife Sylvia, who enjoyed a long association with Aberdeenshire and its gardens. They're both now much missed but through their legacy, they will never be forgotten by the Trust.
In Scotland's most famous glen -- Glencoe -- we're hard at work creating a shared-use path enabling local people and visitors to walk, cycle or wheel into the heart of this breathtaking landscape.
This low-level path opens up exploration to a much wider group of people, and makes it even easier to explore the area, and in a more environmentally friendly way.
We're looking forward to completing the most challenging element of the project in the coming weeks in fact, as a tunnel enabling the path will go under the very busy A82.
We're very grateful again to all the funders who are supporting this important project: the Scottish Government via Sustrans, Scotland's Network Development Fund, the Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund, and funding raised by the players of People's Postcode Lottery, whose support in particular adds so much to our work to care for nature all across the Trust's places.

Our organisation and our conservation mission will always face challenges, and so it's important that the Trust stands up for our heritage, whenever this is needed.
While the Trust of course supports the development of energy from renewable sources, we did object to the position of the Berwick Bank Wind Farm project that threatens the seabird population of St Abb's Head and the wider south-east coast of Scotland.
We continued too to defend Culloden Battlefield from development.
Most recently, the Trust called for the Scottish Government to intervene to stop a damaging proposed development on the land at the heart of the 1314 Bannockburn Battlefield, the historic significance of which continues to ring down through the ages.
And we were delighted to learn that Scottish Ministers heeded the concerns expressed by many people about the proposed horse harness racetrack at Bannockburn and has called the decision in made by Stirling Council, who approved those plans.
We'd like to thank everyone who wrote to the Scottish Government to object to this damaging and unsuitable development, which we will continue to oppose and we will continue to use our voice and expertise forcefully to request that our important historic places are given the protection that they so clearly need.

In Fife, where we find ourselves today, and in fact where I live, so it's very nice to be here, we've been hard at work too.
I'm very pleased to report that our beautiful Fife places have had a strong season so far, with admissions and income up.
And of course we've been hard at work on a wide range of conservation projects also --completing extensive repairs to the garden wall at Hill of Tarvit, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Kingarrock Hickory Golf Course there, with our dedicated greenkeeper Owen Browne receiving a prestigious award nomination, recognising his commitment to sustainable practices.
We're delighted to be welcoming a growing number of visitors to this unique experience, which I really encourage you all to try.
We've completed another phase of masonry works at Falkland Palace and repaired its beautiful historic tapestries, and carried out conservation works to a historic four-poster bed.
At Kellie Castle, the garden has become the first in the Trust to acquire organic accreditation, leading the way for our charity in this.
You'll hear more about Kellie, as well as our other Fife properties, later today from our expert curator Antonia Laurence Allen.
At Culross Palace, the talented needlework group have been hard at work. They've created a fantastic waistcoat to go on display in the Laird's Room. The historic burgh has also hosted a number of filming projects over the past year, most of which we cannot yet discuss, but you can expect Culross to continue to be a star on the screen.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of our staff and our volunteers, including our Trustees and our Vice-Presidents without whose very hard work our charity could not operate.
None of the work I've covered today would be possible without their combined commitment, their talents and their teamwork.
I'd also especially like to thank our president Jackie Bird, who I'm delighted you have chosen to re-elect. Jackie's passion for our places and Scotland's heritage makes an exceptional difference- to the work of our charity, whether it's hosting events for major donors, representing the National Trust for Scotland in global events in New York, or meeting our Royal Patron. It's a privilege to have Jackie as an advocate for all we do.
I'm sure also that you are all avid listeners of our award-winning podcast series Love Scotland, which Jackie expertly and enthusiastically hosts. I think it is the most fantastic resource on Scotland's life and history, and I commend it to you all.
I want to take the opportunity also to recognise the role of our ambassador Cal Major. Cal's films, some of which you will have seen playing at the start of this meeting, show the importance of the natural world particularly to our well-being and to our health. These beautiful films, which are made with the support of Cal's talented partner James Appleton, also show the challenges of caring for these natural environments and the species that live there as the changing climate continues to take its toll.
Cal's voice is a powerful one and an expert one that also helps our charity speak to an even wider range of people about issues which matter to us all.
Finally, at the National Trust for Scotland, we are all delighted by the news that we received that His Majesty The King continues to honour the National Trust for Scotland with his patronage.
We've enjoyed a long relationship together, following his many years of being our Patron as the Duke of Rothesay, and it means a great deal indeed that we will continue to receive his support in the years ahead. He is after all now a very busy man.

As we think of the years ahead, you won't be surprised to hear, I hope, that our plans will continue as ambitious as they have been.
Our most engaged members and supporters here, I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know about some of the important plans that we do have that are in progress.
Over the coming years, for example, we have big plans to transform the understanding of Mackintosh and his wife and partner Margaret Macdonald.
Our Mackintosh Illuminated project will deliver an inspiring programme of public engagement and groundbreaking conservation, using our now two Mackintosh properties.
The Mackintosh at the Willow now becomes central to these ambitions too, as is of course the Hill House where we're undertaking a major conservation project to protect this architectural masterpiece from further deterioration caused by chronic damp.
Also at a priority and at an earlier stage in its development is our project to invest in Fyvie Castle in Aberdeenshire. It's one of Scotland's most loved and dramatic buildings, with a rich human history dating back at least to the medieval period. It's also blessed with a priceless collection of art and design, including Batoni's famous portrait of Colonel Gordon and an extraordinary collection of works by Raeburn, some of which were on display at the Georgian House in Edinburgh during last summer.
Over the coming years we plan to restore Fyvie's 18th-century old home farm to provide essential visitor facilities. We'll also undertake much-needed restoration work to the castle itself and develop the wider Fyvie estate as a more exciting and inspiring place for people to visit.
We look forward to sharing more news of these plans and many more -- the vast array of our other vital conservation work -- that we will carry out in the 12 months ahead at a future AGM, as we continue to look forward and now not so many years away from the Trust's centenary in 2031.
For now, thank you for joining us today and to you, our members especially, for your support in all we do. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much.

[Applause]

[Jackie Bird]
Thank you. Thank you, Phil. What a year of achievements. That was decidedly uplifting, so thank you.
And I can just reiterate what Phil was saying: we could not do it without you, so thank you too.
Now, you may have some questions following Phil's presentation. Hold your horses! Because you may even have some more after we hear from our next presentation, which is from Lesley-Ann Logan, the Director of Finance.

[Lesley-Ann Logan]
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
Conservation, engagement and sustainability: the three pillars of our 10-year strategy.
To achieve this we need a strong, resilient financial base. This means we can afford to maintain all our wonderful places, now and in the future.
Today, as the Trust's Interim Chief Financial and Corporate Officer, I'm delighted to report to you on the continuing progress in the Trust's finances.
It was a year of challenges and opportunity; it was a year of planned change and continued growth, and overall we have performed very well.
Let's take a look at some of the highlights of the last financial year 23/24. Here's some of the key numbers:

• 84% of memberships remained with the Trust; that's 2% more than last year.
• A total income figure of over £69.5 million; a 20% increase.
• A total expenditure of £75.5 million; a 15% increase.
• And a total net deficit resulting from that of £6.4 million -- that's before gains on investments. This is £1.4 million better than in 2023 and this compares to a planned net deficit of £10.1 million, so we have exceeded our expectations and beaten our budget.

Our members as ever are vital to us and I'm delighted to report that membership numbers have again risen year on year. At the end of February 2024 we had around 326,000 registered members who contributed £18 million in membership income, our largest single source of revenue.
Our strong financial recovery post-Covid has been driven by the continued generous support of our members. We welcomed 4.5 million visitors in 23/24 compared to 3.8 million the previous year, beating our pre-pandemic high of 4.2 million.
How has this impacted on the Trust's recovery? This slide shows the journey from 2019/20 through the difficulties of the Covid pandemic and recovery to where we are, at the end of 23/24. The red bars show income and the blue bars are expenditure.
Income at the end of 23/24 financial year has grown to 120% of the pre-Covid level. This is an excellent result and is uncharted territory for the Trust.
Expenditure though follows the same direction -- more on that later.
The substantial increase in visitor numbers and income is despite testing times for many, and the impact of cost of living rises.
Our members, international and domestic visitors continue to support our beautiful properties even when times are tough, and that means a great deal to us.

Looking at income in a bit more detail, we've earned more than we planned.
Total income for the year was a 20% increase at £69.5 million.
You'll see the graph here with bars for each of the main income sources. The pink bars are 23/24 values and the green bars stand for the prior year, over the next three slides.
Overall, income increased by £11.7 million or 20% to just under £70 million for the year. This is on top of income growth of 18% the previous year.
I'll highlight some of the key movements in income levels.
Income from memberships in 23/24 was £17.8 million, up from £17 million the previous year. It's important to emphasise that where a member signs up for Gift Aid, then the Trust gets an extra 25p from His Majesty's Revenue and Customs for every £1 of membership fee. In 23/24 Gift Aid amounted to just under £2 million, and is a substantial boost to income from memberships, so I would encourage anyone who hasn't already done so to sign up for Gift Aid.
Income from appeals and donations of £7 million is almost double the £3.6 million received in the previous year, underpinned by an enormous amount of hard work by our fundraising team.
Legacy income, by its very nature unpredictable, totalled £6.2 million in 23/24, down a million on the year before. As always, we are immensely grateful to everyone who makes a provision for the Trust in their Will.
Looking at the drivers of growth, after memberships, our next largest source of income is from Commercial Enterprise, up £3.2 million to £17.4 million.
And you can see the various types of commercial income that we have. As you can see, income from retail and food & beverage sources saw increases over the previous year of 38% and 28% respectively.
Introduction of new products in our shops and online have contributed to the growth in retail sales. They include the gorgeous Raithean skincare and fragrance range, inspired by the scents of our gardens, and the extremely popular Pink Again products, celebrating the return of Craigievar Castle to its glorious best. Our Pink Castle gin is sold out already -- over 1,100 bottles and I didn't get my hands on one! The product launch was so successful that it's been shortlisted for the Scottish Gin of the Year Awards. We've also sold almost 40,000 pairs of socks, almost enough for everyone in Kirkcaldy to have a pair!
We've seen high occupancy rates in our holiday cottages, generating high scoring reviews on TripAdvisor.
And in mid-January this year, the Trust acquired Mackintosh at the Willow and began integrating its trading results into our finances.

So, turning now to expenditure. We spent £75.5 million -- that's about just under £10 million or 15% more than in the previous year, but we had planned for our expenditure to increase.
The bulk of the increased spend is made up of £6.9 million in properties and conservation, and there's also a cost rise of around £2.5 million on commercial activities, which sits alongside the increased income from this sector.
But included in all of these costs, the costs of staff to maintain and run our whole operations is our single largest cost. We employed more staff in 23/24 and our commitment to the real living wage has increased our costs in this area.
We've continued to spend on new capital projects as well as essential building maintenance and conservation work.

Taking away our expenditure from our income gives a deficit of £6.4 million before investment gains. This deficit is £1.4 million lower than in 23, so we have managed to reduce the deficit year on year. The actual deficit of £6.4 million is less than half of what we had budgeted, which was £14.1 million for 23/24, so we're extremely pleased that the planned recovery continues.

Regarding our investments, although we still see continuing geopolitical and economic unrest, the value of our investments grew and ended the year £7.9 million higher than at the start of the year. Our funds are invested across a range of different products and sectors, which protects the assets in a downturn but can generate returns when markets are favourable.
Taking all of this into account, we've reported a net surplus of £1.5 million for 23/24. As we planned for a deficit, this result is better than planned.

Our reserves, which we call our General Income Fund, stood at £37 million in February 24 and higher than the minimum value of £30 million.
We've applied around £13 million from our general reserves in 23/24.
The General Income Fund is important to us. As long as these funds are used for the Trust's charitable purpose, there are no other restrictions on how we apply this money. We manage this fund to ensure that we have a sufficient buffer to deal with unexpected circumstances such as severe storm damage.
We have other funds which we call restricted funds. Restricted funds have been donated or left to the Trust with strings attached. They have conditions in place on how they might be spent. This may be for a particular place or may be related to a specific activity, such as conservation of seabirds or footpath restoration.
It is part of my role to ensure through careful investment and management that we can apply restricted and unrestricted funds in a planned and controlled way to our various operations and activities. This in turn will ensure that we maintain a financially sustainable balance for continued Trust operations and investment in exciting new projects.

On the negative side, we're experiencing the impact of global price pressures on our costs, both current and future.
In the UK, inflation has levelled off, but we await the outcome of the US presidential election with anticipation. Inflationary increases have been expected and are included in our budget planning.
We're well aware of the choices many of our members and visitors must make on how to spend their money, so we're doing everything we can to make visits to our properties special for you.
Over the last year, I've been privileged to visit several special places in the Trust's care, from Fyvie Castle in the North East to Threave House and Garden in the South West, and a number of places in between.
In July I visited the newly pink again, reharled Craigievar Castle, a gem of a building. On the same trip I saw work being done to repair the storm-damaged racquets court at Fyvie Castle, and learned about the work needed to develop Fyvie's full potential. I saw the important work being undertaken at Mar Lodge Estate to manage the deer population and to promote the natural regeneration of the Caledonian pine forest.
I've seen for myself the substantial remediation work required on Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Hill House. This, together with the stunning Mackintosh at the Willow tearoom in Glasgow, forms part of our developing Mackintosh Illuminated project.
Everywhere I've seen the hard work put in by our staff and volunteers to deliver an incredible experience for our visitors. All of this helps me to better support the Trust in forward financial planning.

Now turning to the present.
Positives and some more negative outlook -- or challenging outlook -- items.
This financial year we have a total income target of £73 million, and we are currently well on track with this.
Total visitor numbers from March to August 24, at 3.6 million, are almost 10% higher than planned and 33% up on the same period in 23, so we're seeing the continued growth.
We're experiencing further growth in line with our rolling three-year budget plan.
But there are challenges ahead, over which we have little or no control such as climate change and the impact of global inflation. The cost of living crisis is still ongoing for many, and the economic policies to address this are still unfolding under a new UK government.
There are pressures still in some areas of recruitment, which affects our ability to have premises open as long as we would like. It's a rapidly changing environment which needs caution and careful navigation.
To do this, we have a resilient financial plan to meet current and future challenges. We can influence areas under our control.
We're making some important investments behind the scenes, which also support the visitor experience. We're spending money on making our charity more resilient and well managed.
In IT, over the last year or so, our man with the van has been driving around the Trust properties connecting them up to Wi-Fi. This is almost complete, with only Brodick Castle still to be connected. This is great for visitors to upload photos of your visit there and then tell people what a wonderful time you're having and find out when to catch the bus home.
Wi-Fi will also allow Trust staff to work from regional hubs, which in turn reduces our own carbon footprint.
We've got a programme to introduce new upgraded tills across all our shops and cafes. This will speed up the information flow from our properties to our back office operations, to allow better, faster analysis and improved decision making enabling us to offer an even better experience for our members and visitors.
We've also added more layers of security to protect our IT systems and data.
In the finance team, we're now fully staffed with a well-trained team, including dedicated partners for our regions and national operations. We've updated our sustainable business travel policy for staff and expenses policy.
In project management we've created a standard framework, which will help us to manage the complex investments in our properties. Our project oversight committee helps us to review the progress in our project pipeline.
In data protection we continue to invest to ensure we're compliant with relevant law and to protect the Trust against the threat of cyber crime.
And in governance, last year we administered over £8 million of legacies, which themselves in turn will lead to greater investment income.
And we support the Board and sub-committees, including the induction of a number of new Trustees and committee members, whose input is so invaluable to our operations.
We'll continue to focus on work that's aligned with achieving our strategic goals.
We'll look at priorities and ensure that all ongoing committed work and obligations are met.
We'll strive to achieve a balance between managing our finances for the present, whilst retaining a pipeline of projects for the longer term.
We'll continue to identify and implement financial and operational efficiencies.
We'll strengthen our financial base so that we can continue to care for and protect nature, beauty and heritage for everyone.
As ever, we thank you -- our members -- for your support. Thank you very much.

[Applause]

[Jackie Bird]
Well, we're staying on that financial theme. Our next presentation is by Andy Shaw of the Trust's external auditors AAB Audit Ltd to present their statement for the Trust accounts for the year ended 29 February 2024. Andy, over to you.

[Andy Shaw]
Thank you. The fun bit: the auditor's statement! It's brief!
Hello, I'm Andy Shaw. I'm an audit partner at AAB. I'm the auditor to the National Trust for Scotland, and I'm pleased to be with you today to provide a statement on the Trust's annual report and financial statements.
The audit for the year ended 29 February 2024 was the second year for AAB as auditor, and the audit team and myself are appreciative of the support of all the members of the Trust's finance team during the audit process. The audit process was smooth and progressed to the required timetable.
The responsibilities of AAB as auditor are set out in the auditor's report in the financial statements that you have. Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.
It is the responsibilities of the Trustees to prepare the financial statements in such a way that they are free from material error.
In performing the external audit, we need to assess which areas of the financial statements are most at risk of material misstatement, and specifically focus our work on those areas.
The areas which we focus upon are the income recognition fraud risk, the valuation of the Trust's investments, completeness of the Trust's property-related liabilities, and a management override of controls fraud risk.
We also focused our work on the Trust's acquisition of Mackintosh at the Willow.

Across all of these areas, we've concluded that the financial statements are materially appropriately stated, that the accounting policies are appropriate, and I'm pleased to say there are no unadjusted audit misstatements which could have material impact.

Another area covered within the auditor's report is the extent to which the audit is capable of detecting fraud and other irregularities.
Our auditor's report within the financial statements sets out our approach to identifying the relevant legal and regulatory frameworks and how we consider which areas are most at risk of non-compliance or fraud.
There are no material matters to bring to your attention.

The Trustees have prepared the accounts on a going concern basis, which means that they've been prepared on the assumption that the Trust has sufficient funds to meet all its liabilities over the year ahead.
As auditor we have reviewed the financial forecasts for the next 12 months and considered the cash and investments that the Trust holds, and we concur that the financial statements should be prepared on a going concern basis.

On behalf of AAB, I have issued an unqualified audit opinion, which states that the financial statements give a true and fair view of the state of the Trust's affairs, have been properly prepared in accordance with UK generally accepted accounting practice, and have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the relevant regulations.
In providing an opinion, I must be independent, and I confirm that myself and AAB are independent of the Trust.
So, that concludes the areas for me to cover, with a key takeaway for you being that I have issued an unqualified audit opinion.
Thank you for listening. Thank you.

[Applause]

[Jackie Bird]
And now it's time for our first question & answer session. In this, we will deal with questions submitted in advance.
I will read the questions and then I'll ask Phil to respond, or if they are particularly challenging, he'll no doubt pass them on!
So, here we go. We've got about 15 minutes for this.

[Phil Long]
This is where my colleagues look at me in worried anticipation as to where I'm going to point.

[Jackie Bird]
So, the first question comes from David Chalmers.
David asks: when is the AGM going to return to a Saturday? It seems a much better choice than a Friday because on Saturday most people don't work, so Saturday is a more convenient day for members. I understand you had one Saturday AGM with a poor attendance but I've attended many AGMs over the years on Saturdays and the venue has always been well filled. Phil.

[Phil Long]
David, thank you for your question.
Can I just ask if you can hear me? Is that all right? No? Let's bring it up a bit closer. How does that sound? Is that better? Great.
Right, so yes, we tried our AGM on Friday last year and that was in response to feedback that attendees would in fact prefer a weekday event. And that did seem to work well, and in-person attendance was in line with levels over and around the past 10 years or so.
So, on that basis we have decided to stick with a Friday for this year, and again in-person attendance is around about the same level but we will continue to keep this under review and we'll always be glad to have comments on that from members.

[Jackie Bird]
Thanks, Phil. Our next question has been in the newspapers recently. I'm sure you've all noted -- and it comes from Kenneth Thompson. Thank you for your question. It is:
Under the UK-wide SRN (Shared Rural Network) programme, many masts along with associated generators, solar panels, wind turbines, access tracks etc are being proposed in order to provide 4G coverage in remote wild areas,with no local demand -- says Kenneth -- and with little or no human landscape features.
These include sites on NTS properties such as Mar Lodge Estate and Torridon. What is the Trust's attitude to such proposals? And what action is being taken to these approaches by contractors for access to such sites?

[Phil Long]
Kenneth, we welcome your question and I'm going to ask my colleague Stuart Brooks, our Director of Conservation & Policy to respond. Stuart.

[Stuart Brooks]
Thanks Phil and thank you Mr Thompson.
We very much share Mr Thompson's concern about this very significant proliferation of masts in response to UK government geographical target for 4G coverage.
We have objected, particularly where there is no community benefit from enhanced connectivity, and where the impacts are very significant in wild and remote places.
And that does include Mar Lodge and Torridon, and other Trust properties.
Importantly, we're also working at the strategic end of that and working with other organisations to try and influence UK government policy to change the geographical target, and probably a little bit more behind the scenes. Also working and speaking with the mobile companies to help them prioritise away from these very sensitive sites.
Did you want to add anything to that, Phil?

[Phil Long]
No, I think that covers it very well, Stuart. Thank you. We have a number of questions to get through, so we must make sure we've got time for them all.

[Jackie Bird]
Ok, we have a clutch of questions now but they're all very good questions from Keith Otto who is a Life member and a volunteer guide at Kellie Castle and a former chair of Edinburgh Members' Centre, so he certainly knows his Trust! Keith says:
With dwindling numbers of new recruits coming forward, what steps are the Trust taking to attract new recruits? Has any research been undertaken to look at attitudes to volunteering, particularly among recent retirees, either by the Trust alone or in conjunction with other charities?

[Phil Long]
Keith, thank you very much for your question. Volunteering is central and always has been to the Trust, so we always must make sure we look at this very carefully. I'm going to ask my colleague, our People Director Pam Milne, if you wouldn't mind addressing Keith's question?

[Pam Milne]
Ok, thank you Keith for the question.
Firstly, I too would like to acknowledge that volunteers are such a vital part of our team, and we really couldn't achieve all that we do without them.
Across the Trust, volunteering numbers have actually been growing slightly since the pandemic, although we are very aware that levels are very variable, property to property. It's local managers, who know their sites and their communities best, who are responsible for recruiting volunteers and for making sure that they are looked after once they're on board.
Nationally, we publicise volunteering roles on our website, through social media, and at a range of in-person events such as university fairs and so on.
We do try to keep up to date with news and research on volunteering trends, and indeed we can see changing attitudes and preferences. For example, I think it's been said that some people like to perhaps work on specific projects these days, rather than having a regular volunteering role in a particular place.
The Trust does carry out its own annual survey of volunteers, which helps us to understand how volunteers feel about their time with the Trust. Indeed, we've just launched the survey for this year. However, the volunteers that took part in the survey last year were very positive, with 90% of the volunteers reporting that they were proud to volunteer for the Trust, and 96% saying that they really enjoyed their volunteering role with the Trust.
Finally, the last point I'd like to make is we have recently appointed a new colleague to lead on volunteering, and looking at volunteering recruitment is going to be one of the first of their focuses, along with how we can offer volunteering experiences that are open and accessible to even more people. Thank you.

[Jackie Bird]
Absolutely! Thank you very much. Volunteers, as someone who visits the many properties, are a lifeblood of the Trust, and you can't buy that sort of enthusiasm and talent. Thank goodness we don't have to! So let's do all we can to keep them coming.
Keith again. Keith believes the Trust's use of technology is very poor. We have had to turn away a considerable number of visitors at Kellie Castle in the summer. There appears to be a marked reluctance to use booking technology such as Eventbrite to ensure reasonable control and access to the castle, yet Eventbrite is in use elsewhere in the Trust, for example at the House of the Binns. Is this simply a case of failing to adopt locally?

[Phil Long]
Thank you, Keith. Booking (or not booking) at Trust properties is a subject that we debate constantly. Where we have put this in place, in some instances that can work well, and in others we have found that people that book do not always take up their booking and block access to others. And so it is a challenge for us, given particularly the small scale of some of our properties.
One of the things that we are doing particularly, and you have seen in Lesley-Ann's presentation, about not just the investment that we're making in conservation activity, but also in systems improvements across the Trust, especially in digital infrastructure, which is expensive but necessary for the Trust to keep on top of.
Within that, we're currently scoping our new EPOS system, which we hope to begin to roll out. This is an electronic point of sale system. It's an upgrade of technology that comes through all of our tools at all of our places, and this will eventually provide a much more integrated and online bookable solution that will be consistent across the Trust properties.
During the pandemic we did introduce more comprehensively online bookings as we began to reopen our properties, and we did implement that temporary measure through Eventbrite. It is still in place at a number of properties.
As I've mentioned, each has its own unique challenges in this, and so, Keith, we will review that experience at Kellie and see if the implementation of online bookings for next year through Eventbrite will help improve accessibility to that property for our members and visitors. I'll make sure that your Regional Manager keeps you in touch with that.

[Jackie Bird]
We have another question coming up from Keith on that subject of technology. And I was chatting to someone before we came here. For all of us, well for many of us today, it's an ever-changing world. We were not born into it. And it's a case of, yes we have to keep up with things, but we can't leave people behind if it becomes too complicated. If everything is online in QR codes, then we leave out a certain group of society, so we have to be careful of that.
That said, the final point from Keith is: the NTS set up a downloadable app in the App Store for visitors several years ago and has probably been downloaded into countless thousands of devices, yet it has never been updated. In fact, it now seems to have been discontinued. With changes in opening days, it is now catching visitors out. They roll up on Tuesdays and Wednesdays to discover Kellie Castle is shut. If a decision is made to go with technology, it needs to be maintained properly.

[Phil Long]
I will also take that one.
Absolutely right, investment in technology needs to be maintained. It has the challenge of becoming obsolete or superseded very quickly.
The app that Keith is mentioning will be the Trust Trails, which was launched back in 2013, I think.
It was discontinued prior to the pandemic, and that was in recognition of the fact that at that point the Trust did not have the internal resource to update it or to keep it maintained. It's no longer available to download from the App Store, and I would advise anyone that has it on their phone to remove it.
In fact, at present our focus is ensuring that the Trust's website is optimised for mobile users. In fact, over 80% of our users of our website now access it from a mobile device.
You heard earlier in our presentation that, bar one property at Brodick, we have completed an internet upgrade at all of our places,and so this should mean using the website at Trust places is now much easier.
I would always recommend that visitors go online to our website to check about their visit beforehand, to make sure that they are up to date with property opening times, because it can be necessary for operational reasons and for reasons beyond our control to change opening times at fairly short notice. But we do everything we can to make sure that those opening times are as up-to-date as possible.

[Jackie Bird]
Thank you. A question now close to home. It's from Penelope and Steven Klein.
What are the plans for the Sailor's Walk property on the Kirkcaldy waterfront? Are there any further open days planned for the property?

[Phil Long]
Possibly not a very well-known property to many Trust members. We have many properties which are not open to the public, but which we continue to own for conservation purposes. And of course we always want to find a good use for those.
My colleague Stuart Maxwell, our Regional Director for Edinburgh & East, has Sailor's Walk under his responsibility. Stuart, may I ask you to answer Penelope and Steven Klein's question?

[Stuart Maxwell]
Thank you, Phil. Sailor's Walk is on the High Street in Kirkcaldy.
We held a very successful open day in October 2023. Unfortunately, we haven't had the time or resource to plan one for 2024, but I can assure you we will have at least one or two in 2025.
Over the last couple of years we have been making the building wind- and watertight with limited resources, limited time.
Myself and our team and our national Buildings team are still working on future plans. They involve other stakeholders, including Historic Environment Scotland, and the Fife Heritage Trust, and we're continuing to work on the building and its future uses.
But I can assure you there will be at least one open day in 2025.

[Jackie Bird]
Thank you very much. Now, we're running out of time, so we're going to have to race through but I think it's important to get as many in as we possibly can. This is the second question from Penelope and Steven:
Some NTS properties are located in rural areas with limited public transportation options. Are any efforts being planned to work with tour or bus companies to facilitate visits for NTS members, and non-members without their own transportation?

[Phil Long]
It's a good question. Many Trust properties are by their nature in remote, rural, hard-to-reach locations.
Many tour companies do already have Trust sites on their itineraries, and they bring visitors to us, so there is a part answer to that.
We have in the past explored relationships of this type at some of our places, where we would bear the costs but the reality is that the costs involved make it unviable for the Trust and the transport company.
Sustainable transport plans will always be important for us in the future and we will continue to look at this.

[Jackie Bird]
Thank you. From Peter Man who is the editor of the Cambridge Friends of NTS:
will the NTS do more to promote Members' Centres and Friends' Groups on a regular basis through its emails, mail shots and magazines?

[Phil Long]
We value the Members' and Friends' Centres very much. They've been going for many years across the country, including in Cambridge.
They are, in the main, independent charities and we are keen to support them in their work. We promote them in our Guide and we promote them in every third magazine. There's a lot of competition for space in that -- and we're very happy to promote their e-newsletters.
Members' Centres and Friends' Groups also have a section on the Trust website under Support Us, and we recently moved that within the website so it is more easy to navigate to.
We share regular communications and run mailings for the Members' Centres and Friends' Groups for their members in their postcode areas. We're always very happy to work with groups to support also the production of leaflets.
We need communications from the Members' Centres and Friends' Groups to keep us up to date with what they they are doing, so anyone involved in these, please do keep in touch with us and we will give you the support that we are able to.

[Jackie Bird]
Another question from Cambridge Friends NTS -- good to see you're so active! From Donald Douglas: there was for many years an insert in the magazine with details of the talks and events of all Members' Centres, with contact details. It ceased without explanation. Please can it be reinstated?

[Phil Long]
Thank you, Donald. You are right that that was produced for a number of years,but it has not been produced for quite some time now.
It proved very, very challenging to coordinate across all of the members' centres, joining up the programming dates that they all worked on as individual charities, and so that needed to come to an end.
We don't have a plan to reinstate a Members' Centre-wide publication, but we will do what we can, as I think I've said in the last question, to support the communications of Members' Centres and Friends' Groups, and we're always very pleased to discuss that with them.
We are in fact undertaking a review overall of membership at the Trust in the coming year, and that will include the category of Friends' and Members' Centres. We will want to have their views on that.

[Jackie Bird]
Ok, I'll squeeze in one more. It's a long question so I will paraphrase. It comes from Alastair Learmont, who's a member, and Alastair says:
Margaret (or Peggy) Gore-Browne Henderson was a prolific benefactress to the NTS in the late 1960s, but her name and the significance of her generosity remains largely unknown to the vast majority of Trust members and possibly even Trust staff. In recognition of a gift of £10,000, she underwrote the contents of the Georgian House for example. NTS many years ago named a room in her honour -- the Gore-Browne parlour -- but sadly that memorial has not stood the test of time. A lasting public memorial would not only recognise Peggy's considerable ongoing generosity to properties in the Trust's care but serve perhaps to encourage future donors, when large-scale donations matter as they do.

[Phil Long]
Thank you, Alastair. Alastair, thank you very much for raising that very valid question.
And of course it is extremely important that the Trust gives proper accreditation to all those that support it over the many long years of the history, and so I'll answer this in a sort of Trust-wide way.
We want to make sure that there is equity of recognition for all of our donors. Given the extent of donations to the Trust over many years, that of course is quite challenging to do but it is something that we are going to look further at in work that we are doing, looking at how we recognise supporters with all of their generous philanthropy.
As far as that donor is concerned in particular, at present we don't have a specific plan but we are looking at conservation and restoration at places that Peggy Gore-Browne did support, and so we will consider that as part of that planning.

[Jackie Bird]
Thank you very much. Well, we'll call a halt to the Q&A for the moment, but again I just remind you there will be a chance for you to get involved later.
But there's a chance for you to get involved now because it's time to vote again.
We're going to turn to the formal adoption of the annual review and accounts for 23/24.
When I put forward the resolution, those in the theatre please raise your hands to signal your approval.
And online, if you have not already done so, please vote now.
The resolution is to formally adopt the annual review and accounts for 23/24. Can I have a proposer please?

[Stephen Small]
We have a proposer; thank you.
Can you raise your hands now please?
Thank you -- and do we have any votes against?
No, that is fine. Thank you. And with the tallies from home, that will be passed.

[Jackie Bird]
Super, thank you. The 93rd ... oh getting closer ... The 93rd Annual Review and accounts for 23/24 are now duly adopted.
Now time to consider the re-election of the external auditors.
The Board of Trustees unanimously recommend the re-election of AAB Audit Limited of George Street, Edinburgh as the external auditors. Do we have a proposer? Thank you.
Time to vote again, ladies and gentlemen.

[Stephen Small]
Once again, please raise your hands and for our online audience, if you've not already voted, do so now.
But firstly in the theatre. Thank you. Any votes against?
Thank you very much and that is passed.
Thank you, Jackie.

[Jackie Bird]
The re-election of AAB Audit Limited as the Trust's external auditors has now been confirmed.
We now come to the election of the Trust's Vice-Presidents.
Much like the role of President, Vice-Presidents do not have direct responsibility for the governance of the Trust. Their role is ambassadorial, and each carries out vital duties that will generate goodwill, nurture relationships, and help develop links and networks to support the Trust's ever ambitious and important fundraising events.
The current cohort of Vice-Presidents are dedicated and they certainly serve the Trust well, so the Board of Trustees is therefore pleased to recommend that the Duchess of Fife, Professor Hugh Cheape, Caroline Borwick and Professor Michael Scott Morton be reappointed as Vice-Presidents of the Trust, with effect from today.
Do we have a proposer for this resolution? Thank you.
Can I ask you to vote please in the appropriate way.

[Stephen Small]
Thank you. In the room, do we have any votes against?
Thank you, and the resolution is passed. Thank you.

[Jackie Bird]
Thank you very much and a personal thank you from me to the Duchess of Fife, Professor Hugh Cheape, Caroline Borwick and Professor Michael Scott Morton are duly elected as Vice-Presidents of the National Trust for Scotland and continue to do their great work.
Now for the next item. Kerryn Kirkpatrick, who is the Trust's Head of Membership, will come to the floor to propose an increase in the Ordinary membership subscription. That's the baseline annual amount paid to be a member of the Trust. Kerryn.

[Kerryn Kirkpatrick]
Thank you, Jackie. Good afternoon everyone. I'm Kerryn Kirkpatrick, I'm the interim Head of Membership. It's so nice to see so many of you here today and meet some of you as well.
The Ordinary membership subscription is the basic rate at which a single adult can become a member of the National Trust for Scotland, and from this all other subscription rates we offer are calculated. We always strive to ensure that the Ordinary membership and the other rates are priced at a fair level, reflecting both the need to balance household budgets as well as our own.
We believe that the Trust offers members remarkable value for money, providing free access and parking at over 100 of our most important historic and natural places. Membership subscription fees also directly support all of the places in our care and allow us to make sure that we can share them with everyone to enjoy.
Our approach is to make modest increments at a fair rate, which reflects the increased cost to providing the best service and experience for members that we can, and supporting the Trust's broad range of activities.
Last year, a 5% increase in the rate was approved and enacted. This year we're proposing to raise the Ordinary membership subscription rate from £69.30 to £74.40. This equates to an increase of 7% or 40p a month.
If approved, this will take effect from 1 January 2025.
It should be noted as well, as Phil mentioned, that we are currently undertaking a review of membership as a whole to ensure that in future the pricing structure, the categories and the benefits of membership are fit for purpose, not only to retain our current members but to attract new members and a broad diverse membership as well.
We therefore respectfully ask you to approve the proposed rise in the Ordinary membership subscription rate for 2025. Thank you.

[Jackie Bird]
Thank you very much. So, Kerryn has proposed that, for the reasons she's outlined, with effect from 1 January 2025 the Ordinary member annual subscription should be raised from £69.30 to £74.40.
This is the penultimate resolution prior to the election of Trustees, and can I ask you once again to raise your hands?

[Stephen Small]
Thank you very much -- and any votes against the resolution?
Thank you sir, and the resolution is passed. Thank you.

[Jackie Bird]
Thank you very much. So, that's now confirmed from 1 January, the Ordinary member annual subscription will be £74.40. Thank you for that.
So, we have completed most of the procedural business, ladies and gentlemen. Let's take some time out now to enjoy -- and I mean that -- our final presentation of the meeting.
As I mentioned earlier, Antonia Laurence Allen is a regular guest on the Love Scotland podcasts. Her knowledge and enthusiasm for the beautiful places and collections in her care knows no bounds.
For those of you who are local to Fife, I'm sure you've already explored places like Kellie Castle or Hill of Tarvit. They are packed full of treasures and tales, and Antonia is going to take us on a tour of some of the highlights. Antonia, hello.

[Antonia Laurence Allen]
Hello, thank you very much. Gosh, you really bigged me up there! I'm going to have to meet the expectations.
I don't have very much time. Normally, if you come to one of my talks, you're here for an hour and a half -- and I don't have that much time so this is going to be a real whistle-stop tour.
And in the spirit of raising your hands, I'm going to ask you a few questions.
Basically, do you know Fife? I used to live in Kirkcaldy, and I didn't know the word 'ken' before I came to Kirkcaldy but now I'm quite aware.
So, do you ken Fife is my question for you today.
Because of the spirit of time, I've got some multiple choice questions as we go along. I'm going to say to you if you think A, raise your hand; if you think B, raise your hand.
So, there's still lots of raising to go, plus I'm standing between you and lunch so I understand that I've got to keep you awake!

First question, this is made a tiny bit easier by some of the stuff that we've already seen today.
We have four visited properties in Fife and a couple ... actually we have five but I'm not mentioning one of them. We have one that was mentioned that is not technically a visited property.
Where does everybody think this is from?
Correct! Falkland Palace. The Stuart hunting lodge that was restored by the third Marquess of Bute in the 1890s, made into a home by his grandson Michael and Michael's wife Barbara after World War II.
Anybody know where this is?
Kellie Castle, the quirky building that basically evolved from a 15th-century tower house into a 17th-century mansion and then a 16th-century Arts and Crafts home.
Where do we think this is?
Hill of Tarvit -- you guys here are Fifers, aren't you? This is a property adopted for outdoor living and it holds the most fabulous art collection. It was redone in the early 1900s and replaced an earlier mansion house that was built in the 1700s.
Where are we now?
No, not Falkland; Culross, well done! Culross Palace was never actually a palace. In the deeds it said a palatial home, and the Victorians just assumed that meant palace. It's actually a working home for a merchant trading coal to the Low Countries.
Now, where's this? This is your trick question. Anybody know where this is?
Somebody has mentioned it today. Sailor's Walk, well done, yes. This is Sailor's Walk, which we still want to know a little bit more about. There's still a lot of research to be done into this building. It's leased out, as Stuart said. It's open for open days, and it dates back to the 1600s. It's next to the harbour, which is why it has the seafaring reference.

This is a whistle-stop tour by the way, and what I want to do really is show some of the connections between some of the properties across Fife.
We'll start with Falkland. It sits on a site which is much older than sometimes we mention. James II actually started building here in the 15th century and he granted the Royal Manor of Falkland to his wife, Mary of Guelders in 1451. She kept it until her death 12 years later. The royal hunting lodge with its chapel and the French chateau-inspired facade that you can see there is largely the work of this man, James V, and his wife Mary of Guise, and also his parents James IV and Margaret Tudor.
I'm going to test your knowledge of Falkland. It was James V who had the tennis court built. So, the question is when was the work carried out?
Hands up for the 1490s. Hands up for the 1530s. And hands up for the 1560s.
Well, the answer is the 1530s. Actually, James wasn't even born in the 1490s. He was born in 1539 and he actually died in 1542 at Falkland. During his short adult life, James spent £41,000 on remodelling and rebuilding new residences. That's about £28 million in today's money. Significant work focused on Falkland Palace and Stirling Castle. However, he was only 30 when he died in the chapel here at Falkland, where his body stayed for about a month due to heavy ice and snow that blocked the roads out of the village.

It's thought that he died of dysentery.
Now, an apothecary would have been in Falkland at the time, trying to help him. So, I've got another question for you.
Here's some wonderfully, absolutely true recipes from the 1530s.
Which one do you think was used to kill lice? Which is obviously just a wonderful problem still these days.
Hands up for A: powder of coral and crab's eyes. What do you think? Anybody takers for rubbing that in your hair?
And what about B: honey and the gall bladder of a hare? Always good for itchy lice, I would think!
What about C: quicklime and the juice of wallwort?
You guys are clever -- that is the answer, but what's really brilliant is the other ones are also! One's for fevers and boils,and the other is for cataracts. I'm just thinking rubbing honey in your eyes for cataracts -- not entirely sure that would work.
During the 1500s though, ointments and syrups like these were made from herbs, and barks and flowers and fruits, much of which could be found on the estate of Falkland. Like this little yellow plant: agrimony. This was used externally to treat sores, and internally to help liver complaints, both of which this man had in abundance.
This is James IV's grandson, and actually Jackie, when you had a conversation with Steven Reid, he talked a lot about James VI. I would really recommend you listen to those podcasts. James VI, as you probably know, became King of Scotland when he was only 1, when his infamous mother Mary, Queen of Scots was forced to abdicate. Both Mary and her son James VI loved to hunt, and both had Falkland's forests stocked with deer and boar.They had a huge staff on site to manage a whole range of activities, from falconry to archery.
The question I've got for you now is: what was banned under forest law at the time?
Was it gathering kindling? Hands up for gathering kindling.
Or hunting badgers and foxes? Let's see some hands for hunting badgers and foxes.
Or C: giving the dogs the first share of the catch -- was that banned?
The answer is gathering kindling. Forest law was actually introduced in England by William the Conqueror, specifically ensuring that it remained a royal pursuit, hunting. Cutting down trees and gathering kindling was prohibited because wood was such a valuable resource.
Badgers, foxes and other animals, like otters and squirrels, were often killed, because they were considered harmful to the deer.
And dogs, well they were a huge part of the hunt, so they were always given their share before anyone else.

James VI loved the freedom of Falkland. He'd been raised at Stirling under the guardianship of the Erskine family of Alloa. This is Alexander Gogar, who was the keeper of Stirling Castle and became the guardian of the young king. James was born the same year as Alexander's own son, Thomas Erskine, and as the king had no siblings or cousins, the Erskines became a proxy family. Thomas Erskine was a childhood friend who became a really close confidant to the king as the years progressed.
Fast forward to 1613 and Thomas Erskine purchases the Kellie estate in Fife. Thomas had made a name for himself in Scotland as Keeper of Holyrood Palace's abbey and gardens. He was also a gentleman of the King's Bedchamber, which was one of the most intimate roles for a courtier.
When Thomas purchased Kellie, it had just been turned into a mansion house. The principal floor you can see here had the State Apartments. The hall followed by a chamber of dais, or a withdrawing room, then a bedroom which has been used as a study and library since. This arrangement followed the interior design fashion of the 17th century. The further into the apartments you go, the more privileged you are as a guest.
The ceiling in the bedchamber was added by Thomas in 1617. We are sure that he was improving this room just in case the king, his friend, chose to stay with him while he was in Scotland because this was the year that James was celebrating 50 years of being Scotland's king and 14 years of being England's king. He had rushed down down to London in 1603 to claim the throne when Queen Elizabeth died, and had not been back to Scotland since. All at his court knew how important it was for him in 1617 to come back to Scotland.
So my question: while this ceiling was being commissioned in anticipation for the visit of the king, James was travelling from London to Edinburgh with a retinue of people and possessions. How many wagon loads do you think he brought with him?
Hands up for 40 -- that's quite a lot, by the way, 40 wagons.
What about 50? Some for 50 ...
and what about 60?
Ah, you're right of course. It's 60! It's not going to be any less than that is it?
Those wagons are filled with courtiers and clothing; they're filled with flat-pack furniture, wall hangings to impress the Scots. It takes him 2 months to get from London to Edinburgh, where the English courtiers stay, while he then takes a smaller retinue and he comes to Fife. He visits Dunfermline, he visits St Andrews and Falkland. We don't know though if the king stayed at Kellie, but 2 years later Thomas was given an earldom and becomes the first Earl of Kellie.
Several centuries later, in the 1600s, the Earls of Kellie no longer live at the property, and one sunny afternoon in the 1870s, this couple discovered the place while they're exploring during a family holiday. Professor and Mrs Hannah Lorimer lived in Edinburgh but came to Fife for the fresh air, and fell in love with this rambling home, as you do when you're in Fife. It was empty, but they discovered the Great Hall was still in use.
My question is: what was this room being used for?
Was it A: being used as a barn? Hands up if you think a barn.
What about B: an antique store?
Or C: an artist's workshop? Any takers?
Well, if you guessed a barn, you would be right! It was used to store hay by the local farmer.- When the family first viewed Kellie, it was in a really sorry state of disrepair, with parts of the roof falling in, the doors were smashed, and every pane of glass was broken. The interiors were water-damaged; house martins were nesting in the plasterwork ceilings; and the fireplaces were filled with twigs from jackdaw nests that filled the chimneys.
The Lorimers agreed a lease with the Earl of Mar and Kellie, whose main residence was at Alloa, and the family restored much of the house. There are some really lovely stories about the restoration. For example, local plasterers from Pittenweem, they were employed to recreate this ceiling on the north wall of the Vine Room here, which had largely failed because of excessive damp. The plasterers took moulds from the other three sections of the ceiling, replicating the vine leaf design and restoring the room to its former glory.
But what they did not know was the round section in the middle had originally held a painting. So, a question: what's the story that you think most likely? Where did the painting go?
Was it A: destroyed and remade? Hands up for that.
Or B: was it found in Ireland and returned? Any guesses on that one?
Or C: was it discovered under the floorboards?
Yeah, well, those who put your hand up for that are wrong! It was found in Ireland. The reason it was in Ireland is the daughter of the 11th Earl, I think is quite a crafty woman. It's closing down in 1829; there's nobody living at Kellie. So, she decides to just put it in her handbag and take it to Ireland with her. But she didn't tell anybody, so it was tracked down by her descendants almost 100 years later and it was installed back in Kellie in 1916.
What's interesting about this ceiling is the roundel completes the scheme that's directly inspired by the bedchamber at Holyrood Palace made for Charles II after he was restored to the throne in 1660. But why is it at Kellie? Well, in the 1660s the 3rd Earl of Kellie was a Privy Counsellor to the king and he had first-hand knowledge of what the bedchamber was like, but also the architect for the job was William Bruce, who just happened to be a neighbour of the Earl of Kellie's, living several miles from Kellie on the Balcaskie Estate.
If you look at this, it's really fun because it even has the spaniels that King Charles was famed for adoring; he gave them the run of Whitehall apparently. There's this fabulous quote from Samuel Pepys, who was the king's private secretary and kept a daily diary. He wrote a really frustrated note one day in 1667, saying 'the king is being silly playing with his dogs all the while, rather than minding the business of court'.
But the king's whims certainly inspired the Lorimers centuries later. If you come to Kellie now, it's a story of a creative family living at a time when nature and crafts were at the heart of creating a home.
The children were mostly in their 20s and late teens when they moved into the house in 1878. They all helped with the restoration work and they were all greatly inspired by Kellie. The eldest sister Hannah learned how to form the plasterwork, getting up on the ladders and helping. She became a painter, a sculptor, a musician, an art teacher and a botanist. Her first botanical drawings were made in Kellie's gardens and much of her work is now in the collection at Kew. I've brought out her work and displayed it in this bedroom principally, which was designed in the mid-20th century by a woman for her daughter.

The stories of women living and working at properties across Fife can be found in articles and in the podcasts on the Trust's website. But the link that I've chosen today between Kellie and Tarvit is Hannah's brother Robert. He was only 14 when the family started living at Kellie. The building had a huge influence on his decision to become an architect and a furniture designer. And in 1904 he was hired to create Tarvit.
Kellie was such an inspiration to Robert that he went on to buy his own Fife home, that you can see behind him in this picture here. This was just outside the village of Arncroach, next to Kellie and on the way to Hill of Tarvit. Arncroach was where many of the workers lived who helped to restore Kellie.
Robert learned to turn and shape wood from the local carpenter there, Willy Wheeler, who was on site at Kellie working on the doors, the floors, the walls -- pretty much anything that had wood on it. Robert became well known for his use of wood, to which he owed much to the local artisans like Wheeler. In the 1890s, Robert employed Wheeler for example to make furniture for Arts and Crafts exhibitions in London. Both this chair and the writing desk are really good examples. The writing desk, for example, Wheeler would have made the unit, and then Lorimer would have got his favourite cabinet makers Whytock & Reid to make the decorative panel, the marquetry panel.
If you look at this piece of furniture, can you guess how many woods Robert Lorimer used to make this cabinet?
Do you think it was A: 3 woods?
Do you think it was B: 5?
Or C: 7?
It's 7. It's quite stunning really, this little piece. You can see it in Kellie. The main body is made from oak but the marquetry has rosewood, walnut, mahogany, elm, birch and yew. And we know this because we've got some of the sketches and he annotated these sketches with his own hand, writing instructions to Whytock & Reid on what wood should be used and even which direction the wood should be laid in, in order to create a shape, a form and a tone.
And all this expertise he used when remodelling and extending an old 18th-century mansion house for a young couple in 1904. Here you can see the side of the old house becomes the new entrance in the 1900s, and the front is extended with two wings and a grand terrace that cascades down to the lawns below.
The goal was to modernise the house for two young people of Fife -- Frederick and Beatrice Sharp -- while retaining the character of an existing older Wemyss House, and thereby it integrated the couple into the noble history of Scottish aristocracy but also made a modern home.
The interiors were specifically designed to showcase the couple's collection. Lorimer designed particularly a French reception room for their Louis XV and Louis XVI furniture, and a baronial hall for their Scottish and English furniture. Off the hall and up the stairs, there are units for Chinese ceramics. There are over 300 pieces at Tarvit, which Sharp collected with the help of Robert Lorimer, but also with Lorimer's friend and fellow collector William Burrell.
Right, here's another question for you guys. Here are four ceramics from the collection. I want you to find the one that's the earliest.
Do you think it's A?
Do you think it's B?
Do you think it's C?
Or D?
It's C and this is really thanks to a research project that the curatorial department commissioned a few years ago. We now know a lot more about the collection of the East Asian ceramics that we have across the Trust, and we've identified that this vessel is older by a long shot. It's basically an earthenware version of a bronze wine container. The others were made for the export market. The Ming vase is older and finer than the newer vases, but the last one is quite unusual because it imitates something from an older period. But if you notice all the brown enamel -- that's what dates it to around 1800.
Crucially, Tarvit was built at the tail end of the Victorian era as an estate for leisure, the 20th-century version of Falkland Palace, I suppose you could say. It was a family home, and the father Frederick Sharp worked in Dundee, so he could catch the train from Cupar; it's very useful.
He also purchased the estate because the Fife foxhound hunt traditionally met at Wemyss Hall and this gave the property the status that a middle-class businessman might hope to attain. This is his son Hugh on a horse in his older age; holding their puppy as a young boy; skiing with his uncles; and mountain climbing. You can see Hugh's mother Beatrice in the picture here, lying on the ground with her tennis racket. Both her family and the Sharps lived in Fife and loved the outdoors.
And what's wonderful about Tarvit is how the inside and the outside come together as a whole. The doors on the ground floor literally fling open to a garden terrace, and the art collection references the family's love for sport, especially golf. Frederick, his son and his brothers all loved the game and they sat on the rules committee for the Royal & Ancient Golf Club in St Andrews.

If Tarvit is about relaxing in the landscape, our last property here is the direct opposite. Culross is the product of a working landscape and was built specifically as a working home.
It's a place we will meet again James VI for we have proof that he visited in 1617.
So, a question: why did King James visit Culross in 1617?
Was it A: to make Culross a royal burgh?
Was it B: to visit a coal mine? You guys know your history!
Was it to witness a witch trial?
So, yes, you're right. The answer is James wanted to visit a coal mine.
The town actually, just so you know, had already been granted royal status, and you probably already know that James VI had a particular obsession for hunting so-called witches. His book Daemonology encouraged the persecution of men and women. We also commissioned in 2021 a study looking all across the Trust how witch trials and the persecution of men and women are related to our properties. It shows that from this period of 1620 to 1675, a huge percentage of witch trials happened in Culross, and many of the witches were imprisoned in the old Tolbooth, which is now in Culross's townhouse.
James VI visited the coal mine because he had knighted George Bruce some years earlier for successfully inventing the first underwater pit, which had two land entrances and went about 40ft deep under the seabed, which sounds absolutely terrifying. Water was drained from the tunnels using buckets and horsepower, and the coal itself was heaved up to the surface onto this pier. This is what the pier might have looked like, which could be accessed by boats at high tide.
Now, Culross itself was one of Scotland's first industrial communities, and George Bruce was at the heart of this busy port. He had a mining business, an iron manufacturing business and a salt panning business. So, last question: in 1590 how much of all of Scottish salt -- the whole production -- was manufactured in Culross?
Do you think A: 45% of all salt production?
Or B: 73%?
Or C: 89%?
The answer is amazingly C: 89%, and actually George Bruce himself had a large percentage of this, which is why he became so wealthy and how he could afford to build this kind of property in 1597 and then extend it in 1611.
This room gives you an idea of the lavish money that he spent on his interiors. The fashion for the day was these painted ceilings, these painted walls -- and this watercolour here that was done in the 50s gives you an idea of how glorious the walls and ceilings might have been when they were first painted. The black and white photograph shows how much still survives, and the Trust played a massive part in that. The colour photograph shows you what we're trying to do now with the atmosphere of the room, installing lighting and sound just to give you an idea of what it might have felt like to read or to have lunch in that room.
Actually on that note, I think we're going to end. That's going to be the end of my presentation because my stomach is rumbling -- I can hear it!
Hands up for someone who got all the questions right. Anybody? Anybody? I can't see. No?
No, oh dear, what a shame. Well, you're going to have to get out to Fife more then I think.
Well, thank you very much for your time.

[Applause]

[Jackie Bird]
Thank you very much, Antonia. I think we've come up with an idea for some more income. We could have NTS quiz nights! We should have split you all into teams.
Well, we've had you working hard answering the questions but now you can get your own back please because it's our live question & answer session, should you choose.
If you have a question, please raise your hand. We have a roving microphone which will find its way to you.
Good! We've got quite a lot ... which will find its way to you. Please give us your name for our records and then you can ask your question.
Let's begin at ... where is the microphone at the moment? Heading to the back ... We have two roving microphones!
Let's start with the gentleman in the back centre with his hand still raised, and then after the gentleman, there is a lady two rows in front. So, if the microphone there can be on standby to go to the lady. Can you raise your hand again please? Yes, so ready for that, for the next question but not yet!
So, sir, hello.

[Audience member]
Yes, thank you. I'm Keith Griffiths, a member. Can I first of all commend Phil and Lesley-Ann and Antonia for excellent presentations

[Applause]

Amazingly slick synchronisation between Phil and the slides, marred only by his not voting and not taking a stance on the questions that Antonia asked. Well done Lesley-Ann for answering.

[Phil Long]
I didn't want to be the person that got them all right, Keith!

[Audience member]
Aye right. Two questions. The first one is on the Willow Tearooms. An excellent acquisition -- it was not possible though to work out from the accounts, was this a donation to NTS or did NTS actually buy the property from the previous owners, who I believe were also a charity of some sort? And where does that information sit within the accounts?

[Phil Long]
We did purchase the Willow Tearooms. It is not unusual in the Trust's history for money to have passed hands, for the Trust to take something on. That was the case with Fyvie Castle; it is the case with other properties.
The amount in total that the Trust expended was about £1.7 million to effectively save the Willow Tearooms. My understanding is it is mentioned in our annual ...

[Lesley-Ann Logan]
It's part of our fixed asset additions in the year, and I think we do note that.

[Phil Long]
Yes, I think, Keith, the annual accounts are extensive but my recollection is that we do refer to the cost of the acquisition as a fixed asset.

[inaudible comment from audience]

[Phil Long]
Just a little bit more explanation, if it's helpful, the reality with Willow Tearooms was that, despite the outstanding job that was done by the independent charity that saved the Willow Tearooms after many decades of neglect, I mentioned earlier on in my presentation that circumstances, largely externally to do with the pandemic and the closure of Sauchiehall Street, affected their trading -- they had incurred a debt, which was, as a consequence, difficult for them to deal with. The business in itself runs well and we expect it to run profitably, but it was not possible for them to deal with the capital debt, and so it was at risk of being lost.
And so, on balance, after I can tell you extensive discussion by the Trustees and grilling of the team, the decision was taken that it was the right thing to do to use some Trust reserves to deal with the debt and to save the Willow Tearooms.

[Audience member]
Ok, thank you. The other question is on the whole issue of carbon emissions. On page 9 we talk about the strategic review objectives and we're quite self-congratulatory regarding reductions in emissions, but if I read this properly, this is only referring to Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, which would mean that the carbon emissions from visitors travelling to the properties as encouraged by us, and we've already heard it's very difficult to get to many of them other than by private car, we're not capturing that information. Is that correct?

[Phil Long]
This is quite a technical subject, but Keith you're absolutely right to raise it, because it is also controversial and in debate within the Trust. I can see that Stuart Brooks, Director of Conservation & Policy, is itching to get to his feet to respond to this one.

[Stuart Brooks]
Thanks Phil and thanks Keith. Yes, you're absolutely right.
What we've been in a position to do, up to this point, is to record all about Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. These are all the emissions from the direct activities of the Trust, where we're actually burning fossil fuels or where we're buying in energy and somebody else is accounting for those emissions. So, all of the electricity that the organisation purchases is zero-rated because it's guaranteed from renewable energy sources, so that's all good.
We are just in the process -- and we had a really great workshop a couple of weeks ago with the organisation that we're working with -- to begin to have a really detailed accounting of all of those Scope 3 emissions. These are the indirect emissions that the organisation has, from things like the purchasing of products that we sell in the shops, or quite rightly potentially also the emissions that are derived from our visitors. It also includes emissions that might relate to our investments.
So, we are just compiling all of this information and we discussed this with the Board also recently. The objective now is to work out what can we influence and what can we include in that overall target, and then we're now going to be reporting, once we've had that definition and plan, on this much more comprehensive assessment of our emissions, including potentially some of the Scope 3 emissions that we feel that we can actually have some reasonable influence over.
So, that performance indicator is going to evolve -- there'll be a new baseline and new reporting against it.

[Jackie Bird]
Thank you very much. I think if we can just pass a microphone two rows down, two rows down to the lady -- there you are -- with your hand raised. Hello!

[Audience member]
Hello there, my name is Tracy Stewart. I'm from Kirkcaldy.

[Jackie Bird]
Sorry, I didn't catch your first name?

[Audience member]
Tracy. I want to refer back to Phil's mention of the digitisation of the Robert Burns artefacts and putting those online -- first off, is access to that portal completely free to everybody?

[Phil Long]
Yes it is.

[Audience member]
In that case then, does that not potentially limit footfall and possible income from visitors?

[Phil Long]
Good question. I think over quite some time there has been a debate that the more we provide digital access to precious and unique cultural material, does that in fact affect people's inclination/propensity to visit?
My strong view on that is that through providing increased access and understanding through digital means, in a sense it increases the preciousness and the sense of value of the one-off original work, and as a consequence people will become more aware. And when they are able to, will want to see the original in itself.
I also think that the collections material -- the Trust was founded to care for but also to provide access. It is comparatively easy to see our physical places. It is much harder to see the extent of collections like the Burns material, which is often manuscript material. Its precious conservation nature means it can't be put on show.
This means that I think we've got a responsibility to think about how we do provide, how we open up access to material that can't be seen in an easy way, and I would like to see us expand access to our collections, particularly perhaps our harder-to-reach collections like our material on Canna in that way in future years.

[Jackie Bird]
Ok, thank you. Thank you -- good question. The gentleman in front in the sweater with his hand raised, just in the centre. When the music stops, you have to ask a question if you've got the microphone!

[Audience member]
Thanks very much. My name is Alastair Learmont. I actually did table a written question before. I'm a longtime member of the Trust; I've been a member for 54 years. I was closely associated with the National Trust property at Malleny, where my family lived as tenants for 51 years, and my father was also the inaugural Curator of the National Trust for 27 years. I was also a member of Youth Trust as a boy as well, so you can say that my links with the National Trust for Scotland are very very close.
Whatever I may say now, I want to stress that I am totally supportive of the National Trust's aims, totally supportive -- but I feel that I have to be slightly critical as a friend. I was actually only going to ask one question but I have to ask two questions in light of the minutes which have been produced today.
Last year I was absent but I tabled a written question. Both my questions incidentally are about a particular property and the panel will be aware that Malleny is just outside Edinburgh. Last year I tabled a question, and you can see it on page 4 of the minutes from last year. I asked for a value on the endowment of the property and also specification of the use of income from the fund since 2009. Now, I was given a value at that time and I think Phil did make an undertaking to provide me with specification of income since 2009. I should be clear about the reason why I raised the question because having obviously first-hand knowledge of the property, I found it almost impossible to reconcile the apparent neglect of the property with what I knew through research to be the existence of a substantial endowment. I haven't been given disclosure -- key elements of disclosure and transparency -- so I raise that question again: could you kindly provide me with specification of the use of the income from the endowment so the matter can be completely resolved -- and I think it would be resolved through disclosure.
The second question also relates to Malleny and it's simply this: I think there are broader concerns about the way that the National Trust for Scotland represents itself to the public. It's not some sort of Mickey Mouse question about a small property outside Edinburgh. Does the National Trust for Scotland have plans to review the interpretation of Malleny? I have countlessly and at some length rehearsed my concerns about the interpretation of Malleny. It seems to me that the interpretation boards are a litany of grammatical errors and historical misinformation. We have Rosebery, as in the Earls of Rosebery, spelled like Burberry, for example. We have probably the worst of all the misspelling -- we've referred to Peggy Gore-Browne -- it's actually Peggy Gore-Browne Henderson. We've referred to her today, and this massively generous donor to the Trust, her name is even misspelled by the National Trust. Now, that seems to me to be indefensible.

[Jackie Bird]
Alastair, sorry -- can I just stop you there? You have two questions.

[Audience member]
I've asked a question; I'm just providing the context.

[Jackie Bird]
Exactly. Who wants to take this?

[Phil Long]
I'll begin. The second question is the review of the interpretation. Thank you for raising your questions within the context of the AGM.
As you know, we are in touch quite regularly about Malleny and very happy to continue to follow up in detail with ambitions and plans for Malleny. You asked about the value of funds. The endowment fund I understand is currently valued at about £930,000, and the reserve value about £172,000, and that we would expect to generate just under £40,000 from the endowment, which would be restricted to Malleny. The endowment in itself of course will be a sum that we cannot in itself touch.
On the plans for Malleny, I, like you, would object to grammatical errors and misspellings particularly when it refers to donors to whom we owe a great debt, and so thank you for mentioning that. We are working on a plan to restore Malleny, which we want to deal with.
The Trust has so much property across its estate and so much investment that needs to be made on it, it is very hard for us to look after everything to the standard that we would all want, all the time. But it is our intention to deal with Malleny, as it is with other properties that are perhaps harder to deal with, in the sense of opening them to the public. We have a design team appointed and we are working on proposals for that. The research that's being undertaken into Malleny is helping us understand some gaps in the knowledge about our building, and we are wanting to see proposals brought forward for the care of Malleny later this year so that we can plan that into budgeting exercises that we are going through now as we look at our forward three-year plan.
We have been pleased to be able to invest some money recently at Malleny, in particular in the greenhouses and we're working hard to keep the community abreast of our plans. In the interest of time, I think, Alastair, I look forward to keeping in touch with you and we will make sure that we do timeously answer the questions that you ask.

[Jackie Bird]
Thank you, thank you very much. Oh, we have another question from the third row, up over on the far side. It would be the far side, wouldn't it? I think this is possibly our last question, so make it a good one! I'm sure it will be. There we are.

[Audience member]
Patricia Coelho.

[Jackie Bird]
Sorry, Patricia did you say? Hello, Patricia.

[Audience member]
I'm a member for over 40 years and also a volunteer. My question is very simple: by which method do you disseminate the surveys to volunteers? I ask this because I have never had one.

[Phil Long]
Interesting. First of all, I'll just thank you for being a member for such a long time; and Alastair also -- thank you for being a member for such a long time. We greatly appreciate that.
We work to disseminate the survey across not just the staff but the volunteers by email where we have email addresses; we do not always have email addresses. And then directly through properties that volunteers will work at.
You have not had that survey then, and you haven't had that survey for some time?

[Audience member]
I haven't had that survey ever.

[Phil Long]
What property do you volunteer at?

[Audience member]
Hill of Tarvit.

[Phil Long]
You volunteer at Hill of Tarvit, so let me look into that personally.
It is very important that we get as representative a view from our volunteers as possible, and so I will look personally into why you haven't had access to that.
I think it's understandable that it's harder to reach our volunteers than it is our employees, but we do want to try and do that with the survey we are just launching now, our new revised survey, and I will make sure that you get a copy of that.

[Jackie Bird]
Thank you very much Patricia for your question, and I think that draws to an end our question & answer session.
We have one more matter of business to take care of and that is to share the outcome of this year's membership ballot for places on the Board of Trustees.
The election process, which was open to all Trust members, began in June with a mailing in the summer edition of the Trust magazine.
This year we were looking for Trustees with expertise in two areas: one, a commitment to the Trust and our work; and historic buildings conservation and contemporary design.
Now, three candidates who met the skills and experience criteria for each of these specialisms came forward, and so ballots for both places have been held.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the meeting, electronic voting was closed at 12.30 today and we now have a final tally of votes received, and Stephen is going to announce the results.

[Stephen Small]
Thank you, Jackie. Ladies and gentlemen, I have the final results for the Trustee elections for 2024. We've taken the votes cast in advance of this meeting, added those cast today in person, online and by proxy. I will announce the results in alphabetical order.
In the category of candidates with a commitment to the Trust and our work: Dr Robert Horton 692 votes; Jillian King 990 votes; Ian Turnbull 1,657 votes.
In the category of candidates with experience in historic buildings conservation and contemporary design: Michael Day 721 votes; Harriet Devlin 1,033 votes; Peter Drummond 1,608 votes.
So, Ian Turnbull and Peter Drummond have each received the most votes in their respective categories and are duly elected to the Board of Trustees of the National Trust for Scotland. Congratulations to you, Ian and Peter.
[Applause]
As always, my thanks go to all the candidates who ran in the election and to all the members who cast their votes. Thank you, and I'll hand back to you.

[Jackie Bird]
Thank you very much and it is really important. Thank you for voting and thank you -- it's important that you get your say.
My last duty -- at least as far as this meeting goes -- is to let you know when the next AGM convenes and it's going to be Friday 19 September 2025, the venue still to be confirmed. So, if you have a particular part of Scotland that you're fond of and that you would like us to visit, please let us know. We will of course share all the details of the AGM through the website and in the magazine once we get it all confirmed.
So, with business now concluded, thank you so much for coming today. As we have said countless times and we can't say it enough we can only do what we do and share our special places with you because of your support, and we are very grateful. I hope today has inspired you to maybe visit some of the places that you have seen on screen.
What I'd like to say now is please come through and enjoy a bite of lunch with us, and safe home.
Thank you very much. Thank you.

[Applause]