Agenda item

To consider a report of the Chairman.

The Chairman of the Livery Committee reported on events since the last meeting. He began by adding his own congratulations to those who had received an Honour in Her Majesty’s New Year Awards (the late Lord Mayor - Alderman Sir David Wootton, His Honour Judge Peter Beaumont QC CBE – The Recorder of London, Michael Henderson-Begg CC MBE and Lt Col. Richard Martin MBE).

The Chairman went on to comment on the arrangements for the Election of Lord Mayor at Common Hall in October. He reported that the new arrangements that had been introduced in 2012 in an attempt to shorten the proceedings had been very well received. He added that he had, however, received some comments regarding the overcrowding of the cloakroom area in the Guildhall Art Gallery after the event. The Town Clerk undertook to feed these comments back to the Remembrancer and to look at what improvements might be made in future years.

The Chairman reported on several recent exhibitions including the Turners’ Company ‘Wizardy in Wood’ exhibit in October 2012 and the Worshipful Company of Bowyers Exhibition which was currently being held in the Guildhall Library. The Chairman reported that the Bowyers Exhibit was intended to be a prototype for other Companies to hold similar exhibitions in this space in the future. He highlighted that the Gardeners’ were now planning to exhibit here from May-July 2013, the Basketmakers’ in September 2013 and the Needlemakers’ from February – April 2014.

Members were reminded of the successful ‘Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Mark’ exhibition held in the Guildhall Art Gallery last summer. The Chairman stated that Geoffrey Bond had now contacted him to say that the Company formed for this project was now to be maintained under the strapline ‘Treasures of the Livery Companies’. Members were informed that the Company were keen to continue to use the Livery Committee Chairman’s badge as a logo. The Committee were content with this proposal.

The Chairman went on to refer to the Lord Mayor’s Livery Legacy initiative and updated the Committee on the 40 responses received to date. He reported that all of the responses had been generally positive and suggested that this seemed to have created an incentive for many companies to look at how they promote legacy giving. The Chairman went on to clarify that it was not the Lord Mayor’s intention to ‘cut across’ any Livery Company arrangements that were currently in place but that he was simply keen to highlight the value of legacy giving and to impress upon new Liverymen in particular the expectation that they might leave some form of legacy to their companies. He added that the Lord Mayor did, of course, recognise that this could not be made compulsory.

The Chairman went on to state that all charities were now issuing legacy appeals and that it was important for the Livery to keep pace with this. He informed the Committee that it was envisaged that an example legacy form would soon be made available for those Companies who were interested. He added that he was happy to continue to receive feedback on the initiative from all those who had not responded to date.

A Member commented that he was pleased to hear that this would not be made compulsory given that it could then have tax implications. He added that the Tax Advisers’ Company would be happy to host a conference on charitable giving if this was felt helpful/appropriate.

Another Member stated that, whilst Livery Company Clerks supported the concept of legacies and appreciated their role, they had some background concerns around the execution and sensitivity of these.

The Chairman went on to refer to several recent articles that had appeared in various publications. He had copies of the articles available for those who had not yet seen them and was pleased to report that all were very positive and a great ‘advert’ for the Livery movement following on from the publicity around the Jubilee last year.

The Chairman referred to the annual ‘Open House’ weekend scheduled for September and took this opportunity to encourage as many companies with halls as possible to participate in this if they were not already doing so.

The Committee were informed that the first edition of the City’s new ‘Livery Briefing’ had been circulated earlier this week in an attempt to co-ordinate with but not replicate the Briefing issued by this Committee after each of its meetings. The Chairman highlighted that he would welcome feedback on the new publication which it was envisaged would be circulated by the City’s Public Relations Office four times a year. A Member commented that some concern had been expressed in terms of omissions in the new Livery Briefing. He stated that he would be happy to pass on these concerns directly to the City’s Public Relations Office.

Finally, the Chairman reported that this year’s Committee Dinner would be held on 11 June 2013 at Cutlers’ Hall.