May I, as an EFDSS Trustee and a NC member involved in this matter, echo Malcolm's post and ask that you all refrain from making comments on assumptions based on misquotations of a confidential discussion document. Announcements will be made and information given as and when appropriate.

I would also ask that those people amongst you who have been, or who may be in the future, given sight of any confidential document relating to this matter refrain from quoting from it or discussing it on any forum, public or private, as it breaches the confidence not only of the EFDSS, but also of the other EFDSS staff members who have chosen to keep this matter in confidence.

Thank you
Robbie H Thomas
EFDSS National Council National Member

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Now, I'd like to make some purely personal comments arising from a couple of points made in earlier posts on this thread:

(1) Cecil Sharp house is the headquarters of a UK national folk organisation - the English Folk Dance and Song Society - whose Mission Statement is:
"The EFDSS will develop its resources, namely the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, Cecil Sharp House, its professional staff and members, to:
•maintain itself as a centre of excellence for the study, practice and dissemination of traditional English folk song, dance and music;
•provide national and local outreach services that enable and increase access;
•celebrate diversity and promote equality"

The EFDSS is also the Trustee of the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, whose Mission Statement is:
"To:
•Continuously expand access to the library, by always being outward looking and developing partnerships which celebrate the many and various cultural traditions of England'
•Build our membership and encourage a larger and more diverse range of people to discover, use and develop the library
•Make a full contribution to national, regional and local educational and social programmes which develop citizenship and help to build communities
•Maintain and enhance our unique heritage asset in innovative ways to achieve the highest standards of care for the collection and the building it lives in
•Employ the best staff and volunteers possible, and to continuously support their professional development to the benefit of our users."

The agreed and declared Strategy of the EFDSS is:
1. EFDSS will commit itself to a major renovation of Cecil Sharp House which will greatly increase the capacity of the VWML; enable the collection to be preserved in accordance with professional standards, renovate the performance spaces; increase the areas also suitable for commercial letting (in order to offset running costs); add an exhibition space and an interactive "museum" space and significantly rework the public areas.
2. Nationally, EFDSS will continue with and expand its outreach programme by disseminating information through the VWML; through EFDSS publications; through its education programme and by providing access to its extensive network of folk contacts.
3. Locally, EFDSS will concentrate on outreach projects that: promote use of the VWML through educational activities; and that promote use of CSH through folk activities (particularly those involving children, the disabled, the elderly and ethnic groups).
4. EFDSS will give priority to programmes and projects which can be developed in partnership with other organisations.

Those Mission Statements and Strategy are what the EFDSS and the VWML are committed to, and everything that they do is being aligned with that Mission Statement and Strategy.

(2) As well as housing the administrative office of the Society, Cecil Sharp House is the home of the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.

(3) Any surplus from the operation of Cecil Sharp House (and CSH does generate an operational surplus annually), any surplus from the membership income of the Society (after the costs of running the Society, producing the Folk Music Journal and English Dance and Song), any surplus from the Society's Publications programme, and any other available monies (ie that are not given or raised for a specific pupose) that come into, or are generated by, the Society from grants, fundraising, donations, legacies etc go towards supporting the costs of running of the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library and the upkeep of the building that houses it - Cecil Sharp House. Some of these additional monies (for example the annual grant from the Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust) are given to the Society specifically for the Library.

As a Trustee of the EFDSS I have a legal duty to ensure that the Society fulfils its charitable purposes, makes best use of its resources and that it is and remains financially secure.

On a personal level I thoroughly resent, and feel extremely insulted by, being told in this thread that I should be ashamed of myself, that I'm only interested in having a London dance club house, that I've "... decided that they (sic) looked a bit too much like a working folk organisation, so decided to sack some people and get the boot in...." and being accused of all the other clap-trap that gets regurgitated incessantly every time CSH and EFDSS get mentioned in the same breath.

I'm happy to discuss and debate with anyone, anywhere and on any forum what EFDSS could and should be doing, but I'm not happy to be gratuitously insulted. If anyone wants to accuse me (and by extension the EFDSS National Council)of getting something wrong then tell me to my face and I'll respond and defend our actions and motives - and I'll happily admit it and change my and the NC's ways if you're right and we're wrong... but you'd better have your facts right and not just be regurgitating ancient assertions!

In this day and age where other organisations, some commercial, some charitable, have sprung up to take advantage of "market opportunities" and available grants for "projects" and the like, the EFDSS remains the only organisation that is dedicated to preserving a national treasure and resource (the library) and to "maintain itself as a centre of excellence in the development of traditional English folk dance, song and music by providing national and local outreach services which enable and increase access to all; to celebrate diversity and promote equality."

The EFDSS gets very little grant funding (unlike many other folk arts organisations) as the majority of the costs that it has to find are core costs and, as anyone who works with funders knows, it's much easier to get funding for an eye-catching project than to get funding for core activities - especially when these core activities are as unglamorous as keeping a folk music, dance and song archive (in our case the VWML) going and growing.

I'll be the first to state (not to admit, but to state) that EFDSS hasn't got everything right in the past and it hasn't got everything all right now. Furthermore, I have my own severe and valid criticisms of how, where and why it does what it does. However, unlike many of the detractors out there who are only too quick to bitch about what EFDSS did and didn't do over the last 75 years, does and doesn't do now, should and shouldn't do in the future and those who are seemingly stuck in the self-destructive timewarp of the "Sell the House" debate, I decided last year to get stuck in and to help the Society work towards ensuring that it (and thereby the VWML) survives and prospers.

One lesson that I have learned in life is that I can't change what happened yesterday, what is happening today was largely decided yesterday and that the only difference that I can make is to change what is going to happen tomorrow. Or as my Mum used to say, "Don't cry over spilt milk, mop it up and get on with milking the cow!"

With regard to EFDSS, its operation and its relationship with the wider folk world there is a tremendous amount that needs to be done, there is a lot that is being done and there is an awful lot that is going to be done. To people like me and the other NC members who are all working together to drive the transformation of the EFDSS into a strong, relevant, proactive organisation and thereby to ensure an enhanced future for the VWML, many of the comments elsewhere on this thread are unhelpful at best and downright insulting at worst.

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That's my personal comments over.

Just to reiterate where I started from - can I again echo Malcolm's post and ask you all to refrain from comment on this confidential matter until something actually happens. Announcements will be made and information given as and when appropriate.

Thanks again,
Robbie Thomas
EFDSS National Council National Member