NSEAD AGM Presidents remarks

NSEAD AGM

It was a pleasure to chair today the yearly Annual General Meeting for National Society for Education in Art and Design. Such a dedicated and wonderful group of Art & Design educators across the UK.

I wanted to share my opening Presidents remarks:

Good morning everyone, and welcome to our Annual General Meeting. Thank you for taking the time to be here today and for the commitment you continue to show to our society and subject community.

An AGM is far more than a constitutional requirement or a formal yearly gathering. It is an opportunity for members to come together, reflect on what has been achieved, review how the organisation has been governed, and help shape its future direction. It is where accountability, transparency, and participation come together in practice.

For a learned society, trade union and subject association such as ours, this matters deeply. We exist first and foremost for our members: to support scholarship, professional development, collaboration, advocacy, and the advancement of our subject. Our purpose is not to generate profits for shareholders, nor to serve the personal interests of directors, trustees, or board members. We are here because of our members, and we exist to serve them.

In many ways, organisations like ours also provide an important counterbalance to some of the wider pressures that have increasingly shaped education. Too often, education has been drawn towards a kind of “fast-food” mentality — quick fixes, packaged solutions, constant consumption of costly resources, and the idea that learning can simply be bought, branded, and marketed. Alongside this has grown a wider marketised philosophy of education and a commercial resource industry that has too often prospered on the back of schools, teachers, and constrained budgets.

As a learned society, we stand for something different. We believe in professional knowledge, intellectual curiosity, collaboration, and the sharing of expertise for the collective good. We value thoughtful practice over quick transactions, community over commercialism, and subject integrity over market trends. That makes member organisations like ours more important than ever.

That is also why your presence today matters so much. By attending, contributing, asking questions, and taking part in decisions, you help ensure that this organisation remains member-led, member-focused, and true to its values. The strength and credibility of any society like ours comes not from its finances alone, but from the engagement, expertise, and collective commitment of its membership.

So thank you once again for being here, for your support, and for the role each of you plays in sustaining and strengthening this community.