The Plater Steering Committee held its second meeting on 1st December at Portcullis House, Westminster from 10.30 until 2.30.
At its first meeting the Committee had agreed that Professor Simon Lee, as Committee Chair, request an early meeting with Archbishop of Birmingham, on behalf of the Trustees, to discuss with them the Committee’s emerging thinking.
As a result of that meeting, but without of course binding the Trustees, Professor Lee reported that he expected the following proposals would have the Trustees’ broad support:
a) that the Plater fund would not be spent on a new building or on adaptations to an existing building.
b) that the capital of the fund would not be disbursed but would be invested; the Plater Trust’s focus would involve, but not be totally defined by, the work of disbursing the interest earned by the capital which would be undertaken in the spirit of the parable of the talents.
The second meeting of the Steering Committee built on these interim decisions.
A draft mission statement was agreed which will be put to the Trustees in due course:
“Plater enables people to learn how the way we live and work can become more fully human in the light of the Gospel and the application of Catholic social thought.”
It was agreed that for the next meeting the following work would be completed by members of the committee, supported by the committee’s administrators:
a) a mapping of the expertise in the area of Catholic Social Teaching in the UK, Europe and North America;
b) a first draft of a structure for the Trust, to include audit, nominations and finance in the spirit of accountability and transparency, with external advice drawing on recent experience in drafting such charitable trust frameworks;
c) continued reflection by Committee members on various models for implementing the activity of the Plater Trust and on the areas of activity that might define the Trust’s focus and ensure that it was in keeping with the Plater mission, interpreted in the light of the signs of the times for contemporary needs, with particular reference to education, the responsibilities of Christians in the modern economy, concerns for the most disadvantaged and a commitment to continuing, fresh thinking on such matters;
d) an initial assessment of the content of the Plater archive.
The two projects which were mooted before the Committee was formed have been kept under review.
(i) It was noted that the Just News project was on target and developing well. The award day for TES Newsday and for Just News would be 29th June 2007 at a location to be confirmed.
(ii) The Committee did not think that there was a need, however, to provide a summer school in 2007, in the light of representations and information that had emerged about new summer school initiatives in the area of Catholic Social Teaching. The Committee noted that the current demand for summer schools seemed to be well catered for and that it would not be helpful to establish competing provision.
While the Committee is not responsible for investing or monitoring the proceeds of the sale, it continues to keep itself informed through the chair and the administrators that all is well with these funds.
The next meeting of the Committee will be held on Tuesday 13th February. It is expected that after that meeting, the Committee will be in a position to consult more broadly on its evolving recommendations. This will be a different enterprise to the exercise which pre-dated the formation of the Committee for two main reasons. First, the fate of what was then still in existence as a College and understandable interest in another college or building as a successor seemed to get in the way of more radical proposals. Second, so long as the broad thrust of the Committee’s thinking is followed, even were the Trustees to accept and start to implement such recommendations in, say, the second half of 2007, this would not be a once and for all resolution but continuing consultation or other new thinking could inform the disbursement of funds in later years. As a reciprocal courtesy, however, and pending the February meeting, the Committee would appreciate patience and will not be responding to pressure from groups, individuals or the media to pre-empt its deliberations.
