Will I live to be sixty?

December 7, 2010 by
Filed under: The RSA 

Apparently I should start drinking milk with powdered aspirin if I want to live longer. I’m not sure how useful this is for me. Yesterday was the first day of my fifties but if the sixth decade goes on like it started there’s no way I’ll make it to the end.

As days in my life as RSA chief executive go I think yesterday could reasonably be described as ‘full-on’. The morning saw the launch of our Tomorrow’s Investor project report. It attracted huge media interest, including an item on the Today programme, BBC News, front page coverage in the Daily Telegraph plus extensive articles in other broadsheets and other expert publications.  As well as this fantastic coverage, the main message of the report – that relatively minor changes to our regulatory framework could boost pension returns by 40 percent – seems to have really struck a chord, with a lot of follow-up from policy makers, universities and think tanks. 

When David Pitt Watson – the report’s author (and Fellow) – spoke at yesterday’s launch he started by reminding the audience that the whole project began with a focus group made up largely of RSA Fellows. It was their horrified reaction to being told the impact that fees have on their private pensions (costing up to 50% of the money saved over the full life of the pension) which confirmed that this was something we should pursue. I have real hope that our recommendations will in time lead to a shift in Government policy.

Then yesterday evening we had our AGM.

I should start with a big ‘thank you’ to all those Fellows who turned out in the bitter cold (I know many of you travelled from far afield) and to everyone who took part by voting.  Discussions have been raging (quite literally at times!) over the last few weeks on some of the issues on the agenda but there was virtually unanimous backing for a Fellow’s proposal to set up a Governance Review Panel and we will be putting the wheels in motion on this as soon as possible.  I think we should set ourselves the ambition not just of finding a way forward on the issue of Trustee composition but of creating a model governance structure, ranging from the Board to regional structures and Fellows’ rights.

As any past Board Chair or Chief Executive of the RSA will confirm, the issue of relations between the centre, the regions and Fellows themselves has often been problematic. With more Fellow activity now than ever before, and a real enthusiasm among staff and Trustees to put Fellows at the heart of the Society, we have a chance to create a modern, open, flexible form of governance which provides the best possible platform for the RSA to be a powerful force for good and acts as a model for other membership organisations facing similar issues.

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7 Comments on Will I live to be sixty?

  1. Elaine Michel on Tue, 7th Dec 2010 12:48 pm

    2. You won’t live longer, it’ll just feel longer, as the old adage goes =-)

  2. Michael on Tue, 7th Dec 2010 2:57 pm

    3. Happy Birthday Matthew. I wonder if there is a measure of “blog years” like dog and cat ages? You must be through the diffcult teenage years anyway.

    I am just a few years behind you, but I am starting with regular, if not daily, milk/aspirin. Very interesting research. (reminder – BBC says consult your doctor first).

  3. Mike Crowl on Tue, 7th Dec 2010 7:50 pm

    4. Haven’t ever heard of drinking milk powder with aspirin. Wouldn’t go for it if I was you….unless it was absolutely necessary. I’m 65 and it’s never been part of my diet…!

  4. Mike Crowl on Tue, 7th Dec 2010 7:56 pm

    5. Meant to say a [belated] Happy Birthday too, but was too busy thinking about milk powder and aspirin and going….yecchhh

  5. Christopher McCracken on Wed, 8th Dec 2010 12:35 am

    6. Hi Matthew.
    Despite the fantastic impact of the Tomorrow’s Investor Project, and the importance of the AGM, I think it is very touching that contributors have instead focused on your birthday (which you incidentally share with my mum) and your health. And I am sure you will make it to at least 65 – the determination to benefit from the fruition of the Project and collect your extra 40% will spur you on!
    Chris

  6. Tal on Wed, 8th Dec 2010 8:40 pm

    7. Hi Matthew!

    I fully appreciate and resonate with your inquisitive approach to reality.

    It strikes me as interesting that Nature is so very complex, and yet able to function harmoniously, while us humans, who are also a part of Nature, feel so lost, disconnected and destructive to our surroundings. We find new drugs and new illneses arise, we make technological breakthroughs and put ourselves in bigger fixes…Why can’t we be more like Nature?

    We can see how everything in Nature has a purpose, every cell in the body has its important role to play- but then what is the purpose of the whole body?
    How can it be that Nature has forgotten to fill us in on what we are meant to do in this ecosystem it has built and how?

    What I believe is, that we are but a fruit that is yet unripe…and so we seem so bitter and unedible when really our purpose is to become wonderfully delicious, juicy and to make absolute sense.

    I would like to invite you to take a look at this wonderful website where I have found some great (terribly relevant) ancient ideas. Ideas that shaped Plato and Aristotle’s thinking and the whole world actually..perhaps it is the closest i have come to having Nature tell me what it is I am supposed to do!
    http://www.kab.info

    With lots of Love!

    Tal from Israel

  7. Theodore Taptiklis on Thu, 9th Dec 2010 2:27 am

    8. Perhaps milk, aspirin & stout? H B’day.

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