Geographical journeys: Presidential Addressand record of the Royal Geographical Society

(with IBG) AGM 2012geoj_476 275..278

MICHAEL PALINRoyal Geographical Society (with IBG), 1 Kensington Gore, London, SW7 2AR

E-mail: director@rgs.org

In his third and final address as President of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute ofBritish Geographers), Michael Palin reflects on what led him to become President and what he haslearnt through this experience. He emphasises his hope that all will feel welcome at the Society andbe inspired by its work. His comments are followed by a summary of the proceedings of the RoyalGeographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) 2012 Annual General Meeting,including reflections on 2011 and the Society’s next strategy, which builds on its work in policy,research and higher education, schools and outdoor learning, geography in the workplace, expe-ditions and informed travel, and engaging the public.

KEY WORDS: geographical knowledge, travel, research practice, education, relevance, historicalgeography

Michael Palin’s 2012 Presidential Address

As this is my third and last AGM as PresidentI hope you will bear with me if I begin inretrospective mode, looking back before I look

forward. My initial reaction when just over three yearsago I was asked to take on the Presidency of thisesteemed, ancient and learned society was one ofextreme caution. I had no formal training in Geogra-phy, other than a hard-earned A level, and apart froma short stint as Chair of Transport 2000, now theCampaign For Better Transport, only modest experi-ence in any kind of administration. Being able to do asilly walk or sell a dead parrot were not exactly goingto help me fill the boots of Lord Curzon or Sir Clem-ents Markham. What I did have, in common withmany of you here today, was an abiding interest inand curiosity about the world in which we live, theway it looked, the reasons why the various landscapescould be so different one from the other and how thatdetermined so many different aspects of our lives.Geography, in fact.

For a boy growing up as I did on the edge of thePeak District there were plenty of natural wondersto feed my curiosity: rocky scars, dense woodland,remote reservoirs, wild moorland even – in the Britishscale of things – mountain peaks. But all this merelywhetted my appetite for the world beyond Sheffieldand the Peak District. In the early 1950s there waslittle chance to sample it, travel opportunities being

limited to Nottingham, or Leeds on a good day.Though I lived in an industrial city in the north ofEngland my perspective was ambitiously global. I readinsatiably and enviously of other people’s adventuresin faraway places, whether it was Biggles in the Gobior the real-life journeys of exploration, many of whichwere of course planned and celebrated by the RoyalGeographical Society. I can remember the awed dis-belief when I heard that one of the greatest of allEnglish explorers Captain James Cook came fromWhitby, just up the road. As far as I was concerned, Iwas resigned to seeing the world by proxy. Throughmy father’s fading sepia photos of his time in India,and his exotic stamp collection which was the resultof his being the export manager of one of Sheffield’ssteelworks, and through my aunt Betty, who lived inAustralia, and sent us food parcels. To me, with myfinger in the Australia page of the atlas, these werewonderful exotic things that had crossed the IndianOcean and passed through the Suez Canal beforeending up on our sideboard.

Fast forward 35 years and this same curiosity, thisneed to know, this sense of being part of a widerworld, not only remained with me but led, by somefortuitous accident, to the doors of the BBC Docu-mentary department, and the chance to go waybeyond Nottingham and Leeds. In fact, to girdle theearth, without flying and within 80 days – and to befilmed in the process. The response from the public toour version of Around The World In Eighty Days was

bs_bs_banner

The Geographical Journal, Vol. 178, No. 3, September 2012, pp. 275–278, doi: 10.1111/j.1475-4959.2012.00476.x

The Geographical Journal Vol. 178 No. 3, pp. 275–278, 2012 © 2012 The Author. The Geographical Journal © 2012 Royal Geographical Society(with the Institute of British Geographers)

way beyond any of my expectations but it left me alittle confused. Was the audience just enjoying thegimmick of the time constraint, or were they express-ing a similar curiosity about the world to my own? Idecided that the only way to find out was to embarkon another journey, one which relied not on a nine-teenth century French author’s whimsy, but a sense ofinterest in what I can only call geography for its ownsake. Pole to Pole was the chosen route; the BBC gaveus seven programmes. We gave them eight, andwe engaged and retained an average of 10 millionviewers each week.

I tell this tale only because it confirmed my sensethat the British appear to have much more of aninterest in the outside world than they are given creditfor and, of course, because it changed the course ofmy working life, enabling me, in five subsequentdocumentary series, to visit every continent on earth –and get paid for it. A childhood ambition realised farbeyond my wildest dreams. I’d become my own, miniJames Cook.

When I took over the Presidency, I resolved thatshort of any technical or administrative expertise, thisknowledge, this direct experience of visiting manyplaces and listening to many voices was going to haveto be the backbone of my contribution to the Society.And I was going to have to find ways of making thisexperience something more than just an endorsementof, and support for, geography. I had to try andchannel it into something of direct benefit to theSociety itself.

More than once on my travels I had been struck notby what divided people but what united them – someof the poorest communities I visited only survived byshared cooperative effort. Working together for thecommon good brought the best out of people, some-times on a spectacular scale: in Djenne in Mali, theentire community takes part in the annual re-dressingof the mud walls of their great and beautiful mosque;a small Muslim community in Zamboanga in the Phil-ippines with no electricity or proper sanitation hadworked together to create a shining dome for theirmosque fashioned from discarded tin sheets. Myinstinct and experience led me to appreciate that ourown Society was at its most effective when drawing onits harmony and unity, whilst appreciating that argu-ment and contrary opinion should always be a partof what makes the RGS-IBG lively, vigorous andfree-thinking.

My aim was to balance diversity with unity. To beopen to all the ideas that are the life-blood of a suc-cessful Society, whilst ensuring that the practical andeffective framework that runs a body as complex andwide ranging as this is preserved and supported. Thegood of the Society as a whole must always be the firstpriority of the President and Council.

What I learnt early on, both from meetings ofCouncil and from comprehensive briefings from theDirector and senior management, was the importance

of keeping one step ahead of the challenges. Thischimed very strongly with my experience in makingthe travel series. Plan thoroughly, but always beprepared to adapt to conditions on the ground. TheDirector and her management team were good atanticipation. And good too in detailing and describingthe issues in a way that even an ex-parrot salesmancould understand.

Knowing that there was a forward-thinking strategyin place, and with the day-to-day administration inclearly capable hands, I began to consider what inparticular I could do for the Society that wasn’t beingdone already. Being a bit of an old romantic I had avery soft spot for the headquarters here at LowtherLodge. The most important place to any traveller ishome, and I wanted the members and Fellows of theSociety to feel that this was their home, and we mustmake it the best home possible. Sympathetic and suc-cessful modern improvements, such as the FoyleReading Room and the Ondaatje Theatre, had kept usvery much up to date, but Lowther Lodge was built fornineteenth century style not for twenty-first centurypracticality and there was much to be done with theoriginal building to match up with its more recentadditions. I started from the position that membersand Fellows should learn something more of whatmade the place so special, hence my sponsorship ofJohn Price Williams’ guide to Lowther Lodge. Thepressing need for a new members’ room and a resto-ration of the North Face had been identified longbefore I became President. But I was glad to be able touse whatever clout my world travelling reputationcarried, to fly out to Hong Kong for what turned out tobe a week of most successful fundraising, which inone single auction almost doubled the amount we’draised from generous supporters here in the UK. AndI hope that my evening with David Attenborough in aweek’s time will raise enough funds for us to show offthe immaculately restored North Face, at night.

But it’s what goes on inside Lowther Lodge thatmatters most. In terms of engagement with the mem-bership, the Monday night lectures remain our goldstandard, and their popularity continues to the pointat which managing demand has become something ofa headache. Still, not a bad headache to have.

As part of my Presidency I put my mind to thinkingif there was any way I could contribute something tothe Society’s already extensive and lively programmeof debates, lectures and discussions. Calling on mytravel experience I suggested a series of personal andinformal conversations, which would bring to theOndaatje Theatre people who were not British, butwho had a story to tell. A chance for an intimate, lessformal glimpse into other people’s worlds and achance for them to tell us something about ourselves.With the help of Musa Ibrahim the Somali refugee,Mahjabeen Khan the Bangladeshi journalist, the irre-pressible Irish adventurer, Dervla Murphy, and manyothers, I have tried to create a particular forum which

276 Presidential Address and record of the RGS-IBG AGM 2012

The Geographical Journal Vol. 178 No. 3, pp. 275–278, 2012 © 2012 The Author. The Geographical Journal © 2012 Royal Geographical Society(with the Institute of British Geographers)

I hope will carry on in some shape or form after myPresidency is over.

I have also tried to help steer the Society in two veryimportant directions. One is to attract and enthuse thenext generation of members and Fellows, that poten-tial pool of young geographers who may be still atschool or college. Those who need encouragement tosee the Society as welcoming, as a vital place to go ifyou love geography, want to know more about it andwant to meet others who share your enthusiasm. OurYoung Geographers group of members has grownmarkedly in recent years, and I draw great encourage-ment from the number of enterprising youngsters whoattend the popular and highly successful Exploreweekends. Having visited schools myself and seen theenthusiasm when they hear my talk about my travels,I’m also delighted that every year, thanks to the gen-erosity of one of our sponsors, our Ambassadorprogramme will continue to send out hundreds ofenthusiastic Young Geographers to enthuse others atschool each year.

I felt it very important to also connect with thosemany members and Fellows who live outside London.The world of the Royal Geographical Society (withIBG) may be anchored at Lowther Lodge, but to showits relevance it must be prepared to set sail every nowand then. To this end, and in the company of ourindefatigable Director, I made a series of voyages toregions up and down the country, to find out whatthey’re doing and what they think about what weshould be doing. These have been very successfuloccasions, a real meeting of minds, I hope as useful tothem as they were to us.

So what of the future? The Society has never had amore important role to play. With some voices outthere calling for geography to be downgraded or side-lined, we must be resolute and united in defendingthe discipline that we care so much about. That meansbeing constantly aware of changes in the educationalstatus of geography, of paying constant attention todevelopments in the curriculum, of keeping an eye onthe political scene and how it affects us. This isof absolutely vital importance, as central to the inter-ests of the Society as the travelling, exploring andresearching which we continue to encourage, hearabout, and learn from.

The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) hasa practical, relevant role to play that many otherLearned Societies might envy. We are not keepers ofsome arcane truths, protecting narrow confines ofthreatened knowledge; we are a Society which isindissolubly linked to the present and most signifi-cantly, to the future.

Geography is for everybody. It’s a subject that is atthe core of our everyday life. It affects all of us as soonas we step outside our door in the morning, and evenbefore if you think of the geography of a breakfasttable – where food comes from, how much we pay forit, how and where it is grown. So it is with many other

mundane essentials of life such as transport systems,where our water comes from, how our weather pat-terns work, why we live where we live, how werecycle, where we get our energy supplies, how webuild, where we build and what we build. In any ofthese debates the geographer’s voice, with its special-ist knowledge, has a vital contribution to make.

As a Society we have good friends and strongsupport. Our major sponsors have stood by us over theyears not out of sentimental loyalty but because theyrecognise the value of our expertise. The Society haswon respect, not by just holding our ground but bybeing inclusive, forward looking and ceaselesslyactive. For that we owe, and I especially owe, a con-siderable debt of thanks to our longstanding Director,Rita Gardner, and to all the staff here. Presidents comeand go, but the continuity of the RGS-IBG is in thehands of everyone who works here. Those who comein here day after day, often working late into theevening, to deal with all the business that thisambitious Society has taken on.

To all those who have given me such unflaggingsupport here over the past three years: thank you. Tothose on Council and the unsung heroes of the com-mittees that help shape Council’s agenda: thank you.To all our members and Fellows who continue to keepa commitment and loyalty to the Society: I salute you.

It has been a great honour, but also a great source ofpride to have been your President these past threeyears. And though I shall be able to go out to the pubagain on Monday nights, I shall always remain inspirit, and I hope in participation, a friend of geogra-phy and of the Society that bears its name.

Notes of the RGS-IBG AGM

The President, Michael Palin CBE, welcomed allattendees to the 181st Annual General Meeting andinvited Dr Georgina Endfield, Honorary Secretary,Research and Higher Education, to read the minutesof the Annual General Meeting of 6 June 2011.

Annual Review

The Director, Dr Rita Gardner, presented a summaryof the Annual Review 2011. Planning for the futurewas a central theme in 2011, in particular the devel-opment of the Society’s next strategy (2012–2016). DrGardner described the Society’s development basedon its previous two strategies: 1998–2005 focused onopening up the Society and welcoming the world; and2006–2011 building on new strengths, audiences andreputations, particularly with the public, ethnic com-munities, schools (through the Action Plan for Geog-raphy) and policymakers. Core activities carriedthrough these strategies are also central to the Soci-ety’s next phase of work. The Director highlighted thevitality of each of the Society’s six main areas of workrelating to geography: policy, research and higher

Presidential Address and record of the RGS-IBG AGM 2012 277

The Geographical Journal Vol. 178 No. 3, pp. 275–278, 2012© 2012 The Author. The Geographical Journal © 2012 Royal Geographical Society(with the Institute of British Geographers)

education, schools and outdoor learning, geographyin the workplace, expeditions and informed travel,and engaging the public. Together these promote abroad and balanced Society, with many cross-cuttingpriorities.

Dr Gardner summarised 2011 as a year of consoli-dation, completing the 2006–2011 strategy, workingtogether and thinking ahead. She highlighted that thedelivery of the Society’s work is directly supported bythe time and expertise of more than 2000 membersand volunteers. Looking back at the AGM of 2011, theSociety has delivered on all core and project activi-ties. Looking forward, the 2012–2016 strategy has six,interrelated key aims, three of which are geographycentred (sustaining a vibrant discipline, promotingknowledge and understanding, advancing geographyin practice) and three of which are Society centred(growing reputation, enhancing membership andsecuring the future). Alongside core activities and sus-taining income, a number of projects are plannedduring the next strategy but all require externalfunding. The first ‘quick win’ project has already beengranted £75 000 of funding. 2012 will be a year ofpreparing in order to deliver on the newly announcedstrategy. In closing, Dr Gardner thanked volunteers,Fellows and members, staff, Trustees and the Presidentfor their hard work and support.

The full RGS-IBG Annual Review 2011 is avail-able from the RGS-IBG in print upon requestand online (www.rgs.org/AnnualReview). The newstrategy (2012–2016) is also available online(www.rgs.org/Strategy).

Financial Review

The Honorary Treasurer, Stephen Henwood, presentedthe 2011 accounts. These show an income of £4.72m,31% of which was from membership subscriptionsand which had remained stable thanks to members’commitment to the Society. Sixteen per cent was fromthe President’s Appeal and legacies. A downturn inEnterprise growth in part meant the Society wasunable to meet its target for a balanced budget across2010–2011, and closed 2011 with a £32 000 operat-ing deficit. Good and steady progress is being made toredress the pension deficit, the first payment towardsthe reduction of which was made in 2011. MrHenwood stated that the balance sheet showed theSociety’s resilience; and that prudent planning wouldbe the key to funding the new strategy, one aim of

which is to eliminate the structural deficit. New activi-ties will require separate fundraising and will not beundertaken at the expense of the Society’s financialstability.

Attendees were invited to ask questions based onthe Annual Review and the Financial Review. Onequestion was raised on the valuation and insurance ofthe Society’s Collections. Mr Henwood respondedthat, in line with Accounting Standards, the Societydoes not include the Collections at valuation in itsbalance sheet as there is little benefit to be gained, inline with many museums and archives. He assured thequestioner and audience that the Collections areinsured and are also well looked after in terms of theirstewardship.

Mr Henwood then offered a vote of thanks to thePresident at the last AGM of his three-year term, high-lighting the great value of his hard work and enthusi-asm for the Society and for geography. This wasgreeted by extended, warm applause from all inattendance.

Elections

The President announced the outcomes of theelections to Council. The candidates nominated forCouncil positions who were elected unopposed are:Professor Judith Rees as President; Peter Smith as VicePresident, General and Education; Dr Mark Mulliganas Honorary Secretary, Expeditions and Fieldwork;and Professor Jonathan Rigg for Chair of Annual Con-ference 2013. Elections were held for three positions.For Ordinary Councillor, Expeditions and Fieldwork,Rebecca Stephens was elected with 61% of the vote.For Ordinary Councillor, General and Education, PaulBaker was elected with 58% of the vote. For OrdinaryCouncillor, Research and Higher Education, ProfessorAlison Blunt was elected with 52% of the vote.

Michael warmly thanked those completing theirterms on the Council for their hard work: ProfessorDavid Petley for his contributions as Honorary Secre-tary, Expeditions and Fieldwork; Dr Nick Middleton,Ordinary Councillor, Expeditions and Fieldwork;Barnaby Lenon, Vice President, General and Educa-tion; Professor Stephen Daniels, Chair of Annual Con-ference 2011; and Professor Susan Owens, OrdinaryCouncillor, Research and Higher Education.

The Medals and Awards ceremony followed theAGM, an account of which is published in a separatearticle.

278 Presidential Address and record of the RGS-IBG AGM 2012

The Geographical Journal Vol. 178 No. 3, pp. 275–278, 2012 © 2012 The Author. The Geographical Journal © 2012 Royal Geographical Society(with the Institute of British Geographers)