 I'm, I'm pleased to see some of you here in person, and I hope many more have joined us online. Even were it to disappear tomorrow, COVID-19 has now shaped our lives for long enough to leave permanent effects on the way society as a whole, and this society in particular will function in the future. We've all had a crash course in digital communication. All forward planning has become provisional and will likely remain so for some time yet. In these trying circumstances, our staff largely working from home have continued to respond with notable skill and enthusiasm. I'm profoundly grateful for their constructive responses to the difficulties and particularly for seizing the opportunities for innovation that the pandemic has offered. The close of my term is perhaps an opportunity to take stock of the challenges and consider the opportunities that face the society. After this unprecedented period of disruption to our established ways of working, it is fashionable to see disruption as beneficial in provoking and accelerating change, break things as the motto. The challenge, of course, is to steer change in directions, both positive, both for the society and for the sectors in which our fellows operate. Delivering positive change will inevitably be a major preoccupation of Martin my successor. Following the changes to our statutes last year, our ethical conduct body is now established with appointments through an open and competitive process. In effect, it has ultimate responsibility for upholding the society's reputation, both externally and among the fellowship itself. The chair is our fellow Simon Morris, who is also a solicitor, and it includes seven other fellows and five external members. I'm very grateful to all of them for agreeing to serve, though I do hope they won't have too many calls on their time and expertise. The details approved by Council in May are on our website. The Society, and particularly Danielle, moved quickly last year to live stream our lectures and conferences, open to anyone registering to attend. The shift hugely expanded our outreach, with live online participation being typically measured in hundreds rather than tens. This has greatly raised awareness of what we do and who we are, both in Britain and beyond, reinforcing our international remit and aspirations. I hope too that it's helped to demystify us since the time on a formal ordinary meeting that precedes the lecture is included in both the live version and that on the YouTube channel. Technology of course cannot entirely substitute for a live meeting and the interactions that take place in its margins. To the extent that restrictions ease and confidence grows, competition for people's attention will inevitably grow. But we have already made the decision and the investment to live stream all our lectures and conferences in the future, including those held outside London to try to combine the advantages of in person virtual meetings. And you can experience some of the consequences of our increased investment with the new high resolution projection system. This will also allow us to invite speakers from distant locations without prohibitive costs for us or them. We also maintain and grow participation in our ordinary meetings, where I've seen particular interest from the near continent and Scandinavia, as well as indeed much further afield. We have gained an intent to maintain a distinction between lunchtime public lectures by experts but aimed as a general audience and evening lectures, ordinary meetings, disseminating the results of recent and ongoing specialist research. The figures achieved reflect the distinction with proportionately higher live participation in ordinary meetings, compared to a very high proportion of subsequent purings of the public lectures. Pre-pandemic, we had successfully trailed offerings and seats at our ordinary meetings to interested non-fellows, other than fellow guests. Not least because attendance by fellows put on occasion be embarrassingly low. Opening these meetings in the future should be the norm, will be the norm, assuming the appetite to attend live meetings in central London resumes. Access to our lectures goes to the heart of our charitable purpose to disseminate the results of emerging research on the human past. Conferences too have been online, with seals and the people of Britain attracting 550 live attendees, live on screen attendees, and lost frontiers and brown landscapes nearly 1400 with another 2300 subsequent views. This room holds 100 at best. And while I do hope to see it full again, the value of live streaming is obvious. Opening these events to people who could not justify the cost or the time of traveling to London, thus alone the growing hassle of our secure European border. Turning to our library and collections, the expansion of access to digital resources, including JSTOR, has been much appreciated by users, and most will be made permanently available. With the disruption of the pandemic, with the absence of physical readers, ironically enable Dunia and her team to make rapid progress in the switch to our new collections management system. And here are Frank and Becky in the library. And for those of you who haven't seen it recently, there is one major change. The card index catalog boxes have gone. The whole architectural space, once again, opened up the carols against the back wall, light and accessible. The front end of this management system is collections online, which went live in beta version last Friday. We use across all our collections by interrogating the new library catalog, the resources index, and the archives and objects. This is a major milestone, giving us a platform on which the records of our archives and collections will be expanded and enriched well into the future. This has been library management has been streamlined, barcodes have arrived. We have been able to appoint an archivist currently adding new records for our institutional archives, and so forth. This fantastic resource opens up the world of possibilities for us to share our collections and attract new audiences. The experience elsewhere suggests that the greater the visibility of our collections, the more researchers will become aware of them and be motivated to engage with them. The challenge now is to sustain the pace and involve more fellows in updating the catalog increase for collection items in their areas of expertise. We've promised once three of this job to update the many floor tiles, I hope others will follow suit. Turning to membership and fellowship, the dramatic acceleration of our outreach and engagement, our audience development through the lectures and events gives us a unique opportunity at this point to consolidate and build on what we have gained. Council decided in March that we should seize the opportunity to launch a category of membership working title affiliate by the end of this year. A few years ago we decided in principle that this was desirable, after establishing the power to do so in the 2014 statute reform, and indeed after more than half a century of intermittent and inconclusive discussion. We fell back because of the uncertainty about our tenure of Burlington House and perceptions that access to it would need to be a reasonably secure part of the offer. Our thoughts of course, falling back to the friend scheme at Kelmer Scott and many other historic sites. The pandemic has demonstrated that our core appeal is intellectual access to our resources lectures conferences, the library and collections, our publications, and of course our fellows. Widening access and participation as an affordable price should appeal to many from early career scholars to the interested public. We have increased the number of people regularly accessing our resources and contributing to the cost of providing. Last year I emphasize the increasingly urgent need to grow and diversify our aging fellowship. Since 2014 elections each year have averaged 100 new level with an average net annual growth of 20. In a total of 3,101 by March 2020. Our age profile, which is probably underestimated by the diagram top right because of data bias suggests that our trajectory will soon flip to a net annual reduction. What we have already have done so. As given the potential hardship. We have not enforced removal for non payment of subscriptions during the pandemic. That is fourth column from the left in the bottom table of the last two rows. Without rapid action fellowship income already too low to sustain the society's activities will fall further. And while our subscription has increased by about 5% in real terms over the past 20 years. Thus, in effect holding its real value benchmarking against comparable bodies and feedback from fellows suggests that there is little scope for a significant real terms increase. We will be leading thinking about how we can grow the fellowship within the charter criterion of excellence, of course, supported by a fellow fellowship committee to be established for the purpose. Initial thoughts include inviting individuals who clearly meet our criterion to apply and indeed facilitating applications fellowship. Such routes could be structured as alternative means of achieving a proposal and supporting fellows before going to ballot as usual. The need for change is not solely to grow and sustain the fellowship. Also to include ensure greater diversity among that fellowship. We should at least reflect the diversity of background of established practitioners across the fields of study we represent. Before I now turn to Burlington House issue. I want to play a short film that Michael Woods has made for us. And which of which you're getting a preview because it will figure in the next campaign next stage of our Burlington House campaign. So if all works well. We're just off Piccadilly in the heart of London's West End in a place which has played a great role in the story of the nation and in the culture of the world around us. The Geological Society, the Royal Astronomical Society, the Linnaean Society founded in the 18th century to study the history of nature and the Society of Antiquaries dedicated to the study of the past. It's no exaggeration to say that the institutions around this courtyard have helped shape our world. And in our troubled times they stand for really big ideas, enlightenment, the pursuit of knowledge, humanism. But these institutions now in 2021 face a really big challenge, a threat to the continuance of their role in our public culture. I'm Michael Wood. I'm a historian and a broadcaster, but I'm also a fellow of the Society. And I'm part of a campaign which is trying to keep the Society here in Burlington House to continue its great role, which is tired for more than 300 years in the public culture. The Society is an educational charity. It promotes the understanding of the human past. And its fellows, men and women, are elected because they've achieved distinction in this field. These are some of the fellows who founded the Society in a London tavern more than 300 years ago, although its roots go back even further to Tudor times, incredibly. And here are some of the fellows and researchers who are working today. Today the Society is a hub of research, exploration and discovery. It's home to over 40,000 objects, paintings, prints and drawings. People come from all over the world to study the collections here, where enthusiasts meet the experts and new ideas are born in the library in the lecture room. And this is the library. Just look at that. World famous. 130,000 books and manuscripts that have been gathered or gifted since the 18th century. Over 50 heritage charities use the building to support their activities each year. And the Society is also a key resource for early career researchers from around the UK who come here to explore the collections and to meet a network with its fellows. The Society's remit is to protect and foster public understanding of our heritage. A lot of the things you see today on TV have the Society's work behind them. For instance, the analysis and the publication of the Staffordshire Horde, and not to mention the story that lies behind Richard III. And the value of the Society's contribution to our national cultural life is incalculable. It's a medieval chronicle in the form of a genealogical tree. Incredibly, it's more than 40 feet long. The section you can see was compiled in the mid 15th century to prove the descent of King Henry VI. It goes from Adam and Eve to the time when Henry's claims to the throne were being fought over by Lancastrians and Yorkists. It's unbelievable. The detail of it is absolutely stunning, isn't it? This is every biblical personality. I've heard about this, but until you actually see it in the flesh, as they say, it's staggering, isn't it? Because this is being produced at the same moment that the Lancastrians and the Yorkists are actually fighting over the question of the bloodline. And here it is depicted for you. And this is just one of the astounding number of treasures that the Society keeps care of. However, the rent here at Burlington House is set by the government, and it's risen by over 3,000% over the last 10 years. And it's still increasing. As a self-funding charity, the Society will soon no longer be able to afford to stay. Unless this is resolved, the Society will have to consider selling off part of its collection. And if that happens, we're going to lose a precious part of our national heritage. But the government does have the opportunity to save the situation, to do what they did in 1874 when they first brought the Society here. In other words, to provide a safe, secure, long-term environment in which the Society's work can continue. So I hope you'll support this campaign to keep the Society of Antiquaries here in Burlington House. So it continued the work which has gone on now for more than 300 years. Well, he's persuaded me that if only he could persuade Mr. Generic, we'd be where we want to be. But our enforced separation from this building over most of the past year has, I think, helped put our relationship with it in some kind of perspective. Its functionality can be improved with major investment, but it will always be suboptimal, functionally in everything but its central London location. That is its key value to us. Last year, I recounted the sorry saga of events through 2019 and 2020, leading to the rejection of the learned Society's offer to purchase long leases at the then fair value at which New Burlington House was held in the Ministry of Communities, Housing and Local Government accounts. That value assumed that the sequence of leases up to a total of 80 years to which the Society is entitled under the 2005 initial lease would be taken up. For us and the majority of the poor child societies, our rent is already unaffordable. So in reality, if nothing is done, the reversion would fall into the Ministry's hands much sooner. Since then, the rent for 2022 has been assessed at 204,150 pounds roughly, representing about a third of market rent, and our proportion of the fair value as it stood at the 31st of March 2021 was 5.83 million up from 5.5 million at the time of our offer. In September, we have engaged the agency April 6 to help devise and manage a public campaign. Our final attempt to persuade the government of the net public value of a long term solution, which keeps the societies in their historic homes. Our campaign launched in November, and all of you would have seen the messaging. I was indeed delighted that so many of you put their case to their local MPs. In January, the Linnaean Society Geological Society and Royal Astronomical Society, followed our lead by initiating their own campaigns. So once again, the majority of the societies are acting jointly, the chemists are the one outside that. President Tim Lawton MP leads a cross party parliamentary group on the future of the Linnaean societies at Burlington House, and managed to secure a Westminster Hall debate on the 8th of June, which was right widely reported and is available still on Parliament TV, the transcript in Hansard. However, real progress with the Ministry has been very limited. On the 5th of May, they wrote to us offering to vary the formula used to calculate the annual rent, which would give certainty about the rate of increase of the rent between five yearly, rather than annual evaluations. The basis, the percentage of market rent payable would increase by about 6% at each revaluation, and the market rent itself would be rebased to its then current level. If that is greater than the passing rent. If not, it stays at the passing rent. The current in principle, the offer of a fixed 8% annual increase for five years offered last year. It comes with strings, it would require us to seek funding to increase public access and outreach, which of course we're keen to do, but we would not have a sufficient interest in the building to provide security to raise funds to invest and make this possible. It further requires us to, I quote, identify alternative sources of revenue and operational changes to achieve greater long term financial security. That is to say pay the escalating rent. The sources existed, we would have exploited them long ago. The offer completely fails to understand the nature and the purpose of the learning societies. The societies of course have responded that they cannot meet these demands. Our counter suggestion is that New Burlington House be regarded by the government as a heritage asset, not as an investment property. Whether retained by government, or as others like someone said House have been transferred on long lease to a charitable trust established for the purpose. This could secure the long term integrated management, primarily for public benefit of the whole Burlington House estate. But whether from government or such a trust, we and the other learned societies need to buy long leases of our apartments at a nominal rent. It allows us both security and the sufficient legal interest to be able to draw in perhaps four to five million pounds in donations from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and others to invest in and modernize the building to the extent that it's too star listing allows. That would allow us to enhance public access to our resources, accepted as a common objective between the societies and government, provide a secure and appropriate environment for our library and collections and provide excellent facilities for our staff fellows and visitors. We made it clear at the outset of the current negotiations in 2019 that we expected to pay a significant premium for such a piece. It was the then Minister Jake Berry, who promised us giving the society such pieces without payment, which unsurprisingly provoke the Treasury to refuse. They may still of course believe that it was our idea. We suggested later that the ownership of some of our objects, principally those on long term loan to national collections might be transferred to government in part payment analogous to the acceptance in new ski. One of them indeed is the Beckett casket, currently part of the British museums, Becky's 850th anniversary exhibition. The CMS refused to countenance this fear of setting a precedent. Our offer, however, was not dependent on that proposal. We do of course hope for a resolution of this matter that allows us to remain at Burlington House for a son that is no greater than the considerable cost of moving elsewhere. We will be investigating in detail the costs of relocation, our plan B. We cannot reasonably pay to stay at Burlington House, more than the cost of acquiring and moving to a building well placed outside the center or in a provincial city with a congenial academic community. It's difficult to justify to the charity commission, as we would do bound to do, competing with the market in the most expensive patch of real estate in the country, even if we could afford to do so. But I still hope that we may swayed the government that greater public value would flow from our remaining here, and the campaign will continue. And to financial matters generally the pandemic has meant was our loss of income from room higher Burlington House has evaporate has continued. And we have lost the year's income. We have lost the year's income in Kelmscott or not only in Kelmscott. Hence we've worked hard to secure covered related emergency funding to successful grant applications 75,000 from the cultural recovery fund, which is incidentally in parts gone towards our new facilities here. This is the equipment for digitizing our connections and 40,000 from the lotteries emergency fund operational costs. With the onset of covered last April the value of our investments and income fell dramatically. But since the autumn they've recovered, although the markets remain volatile. And of course, we are gradually eating into our capital to pay the escalating rent here at Burlington House. The other threat to our financial sustainability, the potential liabilities from the shortfall in the university superannuation scheme still hangs over us. The tuition rates recently proposed for employers and employees are regarded by almost all the employers as completely unrealistic, where there are now signs of some progress in negotiations between the USS trustees and universities UK. We have taken what steps we can to mitigate the risks, creating a new company Lampada to employ new staff joining the society, who can then enrolled in a different pension scheme, affordable both to them to us. Moving on to more successful engagement in property. By contrast, we own it. We have attracted major funds for investment in its physical repair transformation of the public and educational facilities now nearing completion. The slide shows the come Scott's campaign group, he in raising much of the funding for the project along of course with Dominic as our director of development. And on the left, those who joined the visit back in earlier this month with Martin Leavey the chair on the left, standing in front of the end of new education building with the manor house in the background, and the farm yard, the smaller picture. Obviously, much of the investment is based on the historic fabric, but a very high proportion in the things one cannot see the services. And the things which only the staff see, like this shiny new kitchen, all essential to the running of the operation and more from the visit. And showing the point to which we've now reached the final stage, the internal decoration of the house about to begin. The house will open before the content to return for a short season in September. In the process of the work a lot has been learned about evolution of the house. For example, when the data block on the right in the main picture was added at the end of the 17th century, how the front of the earlier house to the left was upgraded new gables new windows, smartened up and made fashionable at the same time. Also, we were learning a lot about the interiors despite the fact that we did our major work in 1960s. There were perhaps not quite the concern about understanding historic interior decoration. And although it's not part of the current scheme, we now do understand the importance and the prior to 1960s integrity of the tapestry room scheme, which seems to have been the first scheme of fitting out of that room, rather than some data alteration. But I'm getting carried away with what interests me. I think I must acknowledge our contractor Ken Biggs, who sustained a notably high standard of work within the budget. Additional staff to deliver the activities span the RNAHLF grants have now been appointed. We look forward to the full reopening in spring 2022. The challenge now is to attract enough visitors post pandemic to break even in revenue terms, and over the years begin to generate the surplus from which to set aside funds to address the next 25 to 30 year repair site. I've no doubt the society will be able to do so. And through the educational engagement program, including community archeology will be able to encourage many more people to explore the past through the lens of Kelmscott Morris. Moving on to grants, Kelmscott may be our demonstration site, but the demand for grants to support research and conservation are certainly held up, even though some project funded projects have been delayed. There's a headline overview of the grants dispersed dispersed. Looking at research and travel grants specifically applications holding up well awards about the same number as last year. But a notable increase in the total. Primarily because of a decision to institute major awards using a growing balance of the Janet Arnold fund that supports the in depth study of the history of press and materials from which it may. We made four major awards totally 94,000 call for applications which is on the screen emphasize the potential scope of this fun, allowing us to support innovative exciting projects. The subjects of the successful schemes range from professional tutor embroidery to modern Chinese fashion. The general fund, of course, most of our research grants are constrained by the terms of their requests as to the subject matter, geographical location of eligible projects. As usual, most applications related to archaeological project and traditional sense, or be it wide ranging in location and subject. And here are the recipients of a previous grant to a project in Nigeria. The William and Jane Morris grants conservation church fittings are more limited financially 23,400 pounds this year projects rather interesting. Here are a couple we have funded. This is Bishop Marshall's panel at land that's cathedral, all that remains of his 1480 archbishop throne. And this is the quite wonderful doom painting, that's Thomas of Canterbury church. Again, dating this dates from the last quarter of the fifth century turning to now to publications. We have a few new monographs exploring aspects of room in Yorkshire, is your room Briganton, an archaeological survey of room and all bro by Rose therapy and our new president Martin, and landscape and settlement in the veil of York by Steve Roscoe and Nathaniel. A monograph on the Staffordshire horde about which I spoke last year has made a significant impact. It was joint winner of the 2021 historians of British art book award is shortlisted for the current archaeology book of the year 2021 award. And I heard from John Heinz this very day that it's been awarded the best book by the International Society for the study of early medieval England. Third printing is currently underway, which must be something of a record for an archaeological monograph. The Nationalist Journal of course reached its centenary volume in 2020 is contents demonstrating the global reach and historical breadth of the society's interest. The challenge going forward is to manage the transition to a substantially open access publication to meet the demands of research funding bodies, but in general terms, a good principle. More of our monograph back catalog is being made freely available online. And we're also considering the feasibility of reviving archaeology as a primarily online vehicle for publishing papers that fall in length between the twin stools of the journal. On the one hand, the monograph. Finally looking at our role in seeking to influence public policy. November we published a manifesto the future of archaeology in England as a contribution to the ongoing debate focused on optimizing the public benefit from primarily commercial archaeology. In the coming months will be contributing to discussion and hosting events around the issues. The urgency of addressing long standing problems, including consistent local authority curatorial provision and the curation of archives has been focused by the government's decision to proceed with the radical increasingly controversial the invention of the spatial planning system. Trailed in last year's white paper, the study of archaeology in our universities is also under pressure as the study of stem subjects and funding for them is being privileged over the humanities, including history and archaeology. Despite of course archaeology having a major and increasing science component. The combination of reduced central funding for archaeology courses and falling student applications means that universities as businesses must consider cuts to related teaching staff, and in some cases closing or merging departments. Proposals at Chester more recently Sheffield have appeared in the press. It's not the role of the society to second guess the individual outcomes, but we are concerned and expressed our concern that unique areas of expertise, particularly scientific expertise, are not lost in a series of ad hoc decisions, shaping a field where some rationalization seems inevitable during the year to contested heritage has been a public issue. The society responded with a position statement on our website intended prompt constructive debate among fellows. Our approach is determined by our published values. In particular, equal rights and status of multiple communities in their relationship with heritage, and the relevance of heritage as a resource, fundamental, the senses of identity. We held an online conference intertwined histories, legacies of colonialism and empire, the launch event for a series of panel discussions on related themes, including diversity in employment in UK heritage, which will be held during the coming year and details on the website. Thank you to end. I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear those words. Summarizing what I believe should be among our priorities for the next three years and indeed beyond. As I outline the impact of the pandemic on the society's activities has so far been mixed losses of course but also innovations, accelerated technological progress and dramatic audience development. And thanks to the flexibility and commitment of our staff. We have demonstrated the society is resilient able to respond rapidly and effectively to drastic changes in circumstance. We need to continue on this path of radical and effective action to address matters which, though less dramatic than the pandemic will otherwise insidiously undermine us. What I believe is to try to sustain our hard one online following build on it through affiliate membership and grow the fellowship in real terms, addressing our lack of diversity in the process. We must invest in growth to ensure our relevance and our viability into the future and counter the demographic time bomb of our current fellowship profile. The Burlington House question really must be settled. I thought that three years ago, and it is still not settled. But it for years now it has distracted our energies consumed our resources, all for far too long. If despite our best and final efforts, which is what I think that the campaign must represent the government continues to hold its line will not come to an agreement that reflects the public value and potential of the co located societies and their collections. As well as the value of Burlington House to the societies, then we must move. We must do so by 2025. Otherwise, we will be the proverbial boiled frogs are capital eroded our ambitions energy and resources drained and constrained by an increasingly tired and dysfunctional and expensive building. We've shown at Kelmscott that we can summon both the vision and the funds to invest heavily in a building that we own. Whether by buying a lease that reflects the value of Burlington House advancing our charitable purposes and modernizing the place or doing so elsewhere. We have a track record of success and experience. Think of Kelmscott as a trial run for the main event. Looking to the sector beyond the society credit is of course due to the government for its emergency financial support to enable organizations to adapt the pandemic conditions and hopefully recover and survive beyond it. But for local authorities in particular, across their heritage roles from supporting museums to managing archaeology and the planning system. The potential impact of the inevitable years of fiscal responsibility, following a decade of public austerity cannot be other than a major concern for the set. We must continue to speak strongly to try to influence public policy as a major actor and provide an independent forum for public debate. All, sorry, I should have turned that one on some time ago. Anyway, all that remains I think is to thank our officers, Stephen Dunmore Chris skull Heather severe members of the council, committee members, our general secretary john Lewis, and all our staff at Burlington House and come together to discuss whether I mentioned them individually or not. They're unfailing hard work, especially in the exceptional circumstances of the past year. Thank you.