After ten years in post as chief executive at the Institute of Fundraising, Lindsay Boswell is off to pastures new. Tania Mason went to his leaving reception.
Lindsay Boswell’s leaving do, held last night in a trendy white pillared room lit with UV lamps near London Bridge, was an abject lesson in how not to deliver a speech.
Not by Lindsay, I hasten to add. His address was highly amusing and had most of the room lol from the off. And not even by Institute chair Paul Amadi, whose NLP training more than made up for his dodgy comic timing.
No, the speechy part of the evening was ruined singlehandedly by Mr Mumble Mumble from some US umbrella body for fundraising consultants (and no, he wasn’t even a Yank, but a Brit). But I won’t relive the pain for those unlucky enough to witness it in person; they wouldn’t thank me. Suffice to say, when he announced ten minutes into his soliloquy that he had a few tributes for Lindsay from colleagues back home that he felt he should read out verbatim, some desperate soul from the back of the room called out ‘No, please don’t!’ Though not loud enough, unfortunately.
Shortly afterward, the Institute’s chief operating officer Bruce Leeke lost concentration and dropped the iPhone he’d been recording the speeches on, while another Institute staffer muttered under their breath that they’d almost lost the will to live.
But that is not to distract from what were otherwise some perfectly good speeches at a perfectly fine leaving do, attended by all the usual suspects (though former chair Joe Saxton was notable by his absence). Current chair Amadi described it as a “bittersweet occasion” and outlined some of the advancements Boswell had overseen at the Institute during his ten years at its helm.
“Even though he’s only five foot six, he’s a sector giant,” said Amadi. “He is genuinely highly regarded by trustees and staff alike, is a delight to work with, and genuinely cares about the sector.
"But,” he added, “he still makes lousy tea.”
Amadi also reminded viewers of the state the Institute was in when Boswell took over: “Parlous”.
“It was reputationally compromised, on the brink financially, and facing a very, very bleak future.
“It makes you question why Lindsay took the job in the first place.”
“Perhaps because I was desperate,” responded Boswell to great hilarity when it was his turn at the mike. “I came in for six months on an interim basis as chief operations officer, but the recruitment agency didn’t tell me it was a formal interview, so I had met a mate and had two pints beforehand. You can imagine how I felt when I walked into the room half-cut to find a four-person panel ready to interview me.” But as always, he said, his answers were “sharp and on the button”, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Boswell carried on with a few more anecdotes, mostly from National Convention – jousting with Stephen Pidgeon while dressed as a pirate (“Knowing he was going to be a trustee, I let him win”); coming downstairs all ready for the first morning to find three of the speakers still downing pints, and potentially best of all, confiding that he “slept with one of the trustees”. But this latter one turned out to be a frankly dull tale that most had heard before, merely that he had shared a twin room with Alan Gosschalk at Convention once. (Which means nothing, of course - just ask William Hague).
Lindsay then invited his successor Amanda McLean up on stage to say a few words. To her credit, she judged it perfectly, using the opportunity to make a quick and effective introduction - “I am a fundraiser born and bred” - before graciously bowing out to make way for the US Association of Fundraising Professionals guy. Nuff said.
But by far the most intriguing, not to mention confusing, remark of the night came from Paul Amadi, as he was describing the pivotal role that Lindsay played in setting up self-regulation, and what in time became “the PFRA”. Amadi then went on to make a similar reference to the part Boswell played in establishing the regulatory system for face-to-face, and name-checked “the FRSB”. Then, bizarrely, he made a great show of pretending to spit on the floor before declaring: “Sorry, that was a political point.” Goodness! Could it be that all is not sweetness and light in relations between the sector’s membership bodies? But which of the two organisations did Amadi intend to offend? Or did he mix them up deliberately to keep us all guessing?
Thankfully, all’s well that ends well, as Lindsay was invited to become an honorary Fellow of the Institute and Stephen Pidgeon brought the speeches to a close with a rousing “three cheers for Lindsay”, which everybody joined in heartily. And not just to get Mr AFP off the podium, I’m sure.
