Part 6: Summer school falling-out led to trustee resignations

With plans for Dartington’s traditional international summer music school uncertain, Dartington Hall Trust last year formed a four-person subgroup of its trustees to try to find a way forward.

What might have been…

According to an unpublished statement by former trustee Glenn Woodcock that The Totnes Pulse has seen, he and three other trustees sent a paper on possible options for the summer school for consideration by the full board on October 6.

Radical Ideas

One of the central options explored by the group was to organise a joint venture for the school, involving the trust and the Dartington International Summer School Foundation, a separate charity that over the years has had a low-key role in assisting with the summer school’s planning. A radical element to the subgroup’s ideas was for the trust to transfer to the foundation as a gift, any of its physical assets and intellectual property involving the summer school, leaving the foundation free to use these in organising future versions of the event.

The people in the subgroup would have realised this idea would not necessarily be welcomed by the other six trustees, as it would have meant the trust would have relinquished the possibility of ever running the summer school again on its own. Nonetheless they regarded it as a possibility worth discussing.

 

According to Woodock’s statement, the idea provoked an extraordinary reaction from Lord David Triesman and David Buchler, respectively chair and adviser of the trust. Woodcock’s account says that at the online October 6 meeting Triesman and Buchler stopped any discussion of the proposals on the grounds that the trustees who had prepared the paper had a “conflict of interest” over the idea of a joint approach. Woodcock resigned from the board the same day.

Out of Order

In the statement Woodcock says the meeting started with “an opening address [from Triesman and Buchler] on the significance of propriety and conflicts of interest, relating to an alleged ‘out of order’ paper submitted [by the subgroup] to the board”.  Following this, according to Woodock’s account, a representative from Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, a big US-based law firm that the trust had engaged as legal adviser, “also addressed conflicts of interest, emphasising the serious consequences of not declaring them. Trustees involved in the summer school proposal were requested to leave the meeting whilst the remaining trustees deliberated on the matter”.

It seemed to be an overreaction.

Robert Fedder, the trust’s interim chief executive, gave his own version of what happened. “Lord Triesman may have said something to start the meeting. The BCLP lawyer made a statement reminding trustees about guiding principles regarding possible conflicts of interest.
“In the context of potential partnering arrangements with other parties [over events such as the summer school], this is an important point.
“What was said was not directed at anyone  at the meeting. No participant was asked to leave. It appeared one of the trustees [Woodcock] didn’t like what [the BCLP lawyer] was saying and decided to leave the meeting. I was surprised. It seemed to be an overreaction.”

Ex Trustees

Of the four members of the trustee subgroup besides Woodcock, all have now left. Like Woodcock, Emma Gladstone resigned on October 6. Sally Basker announced she was quitting three weeks later. (Gladstone – after an illustrious career in the dance world – died in January from cancer.) Amanda Jordan, the fourth member of the subgroup, left in May 2024 after serving what is regarded as a full term of four years.

 

The Full Report :

Part 1: “Conflict of interest” claim over pay deal adds to Dartington strains

Part 2: Former employee who quit “made an example of”, says resignation statement  

Part 3: Adviser’s contacts helped fill management vacuum

Part 4: Few warnings ahead of the Dartington storm

Part 5: Discord over music festivals after joint-venture plans founder