Too much fun with FOLAR ?
2026 Agenda and Reports below
FOLAR AGM 19 May 2026
Chair’s Report
Introduction
FOLAR is a not-for-profit friends group of landscape architects and other interested parties tasked with supporting and advising The MERL (University of Reading), on behalf of the Landscape Institute (LI), with regard to maintaining and developing the landscape archive and library.
FOLAR was also established to support the LI in the delivery of its charitable objects: ‘to protect, conserve and enhance the natural and built environment for the benefit of the public by promoting the arts and sciences of Landscape Architecture…and for that purpose to foster and encourage the dissemination of knowledge relating to Landscape Architecture and the promotion of research and education therein…’
We are beginning our 13th year, and thanks to everyone who has kept this vessel afloat – FOLAR members, speakers, listeners, our friends at The MERL and the LI, our zoom partners at The Gardens Trust, our committee members, and many others who have made contact with us or responded to our requests.
This report outlines FOLAR’s activities since May 2025, and our plans and aspirations for the next 12 months. Our previous AGM was May 2025 on zoom. (Current draft and all past AGM minutes are available on the FOLAR website https://www.folar.uk/minutes ).
Summary of May 2025 – May 2026
FOLAR’s symposia and talks
Celebration of Hal Moggridge – September 2025 day event at Royal College of Physicians - this was the highlight of the year - brilliantly organised and executed by Tim Gale, with Diana Armstrong Bell, Helen Neve, Mary McHugh; it was informative, new, collaborative and warm, a classy event in a great venue. And for me, one of the best bits was watching the expressions on Hal’s face. We had wonderful speakers and contributors, and merging with the IFLA President’s Award was icing on the cake and introducing UK to the delightful Martha Fajardo. It is the biggest undertaking FOLAR has yet carried out, and it was more than a full-time job working on this so many thanks again to all those who contributed to it being such a rich event. It was recorded and is available under Specials on our website in 16 episodes for anyone to watch. https://www.folar.uk/hal-moggridge
We asked Lindsey Abbott - who carried out interviews of some of the great and good for Heritage Archive Working Group (HAWG) set up by Penny Becket 15 years ago - to do a follow up oral history interview with Hal and this was carried out in Jan this year and is with The MERL – we have asked that we can have a link to the recording to add to our website. It is not so useful knowing it’s there without being able to just access it.
We have a few more pipeline events to plan in our year of Hal.
Some of our supporters asked if we could include contemporary women landscape architects in our long running series - and we have this year in the Women crossing Boundaries series with the Gardens Trust, 6 talks, and 3 are from contemporary speakers. We were very pleased that Saira Ali LI president (next month) agreed to be one of the participants in this series.
Our current series of talks is on Doing a PhD - 2 doing, 1 recently completed and 2 completed some time back, time enough to asses the merits and impact on their careers.
We are attracting broader audiences, always new people, but not huge numbers yet.
Future events
Joint event pencilled in with LI West Midlands on Trimpley Reservoir for early October.
Working with GT and Landscape Foundation (LF) on New Towns: Learning from the Past, Shaping the Future Sep 23 – 24
And with LF on Designing London: The Landscape Legacy of the Greater London Council, 40 Years On, 31 October
We are planning a skyline day with Hal and others who need to be influenced to not just see money in the sky, in the new year 2027
We would like to do something with MERL this year – workshop with Hal and his archive ?
We are currently working on compiling information about Pirkko Higson and her life and works, in conjunction with Neil Higson and others.
Website - pushed and squeezed to its limit, converted past talks to blog posts to make them more accessible , changed bits of the front page, and are also beginning to pick up wind and steam via social media outlets.
Proposed activities and ambitions May 2026-May 2027:
• Continue with request for landscape journals 1930’s-2000s at The MERL to be digitised and made publicly accessible
• Complete our website and digital improvements
• Keep on raising our profile and getting the message through to the landscape profession – practitioners, students, academics – about the landscape collection at The MERL and what a wealth of wisdom inspiration is packed n there
On our committee
I want to thank all my colleagues on the FOLAR committee for all their commitment, ideas and actions. It is a fabulous group of people to be a part of. My grateful thanks to all and especially to Helen Neve and Mary McHugh as hon treasurer and hon secretary and for always doing and being much more than a job description.
I would like to thank The MERL, particularly Guy Baxter and Caroline Gould for their support and the opportunities they have offered us, and not least hosting and being so enthusiastic about our annual symposia, and for regularly attending our committee meetings.
I would like to thank the LI for their continued financial support for the landscape Institute’s Collection. we are delighted that Robert Hughes came to our Hal celebration last September. In 13 years he is the first LI CEO to attend one of our events.
We hope that this may advance the understanding by the LI Board, Trustees, Advisory Council and the members also, how and why the archive is such a precious and active asset to the Landscape Institute
To our fans - thank you again for your support, interest, engagement, inquiries, encouragement – this is what keeps us carrying on!
Please get in touch if you would like to help / join the FOLAR committee info@folar.uk
Annabel Downs 28 April 2026
FOLAR | Chair
Treasurer’s Report
Last year, I noted that the pattern of FOLAR’s finances was changing, and this trend has continued throughout 2025/6. During this year, our turnover continued to increase, and by year-end we had recorded a 60% increase in income compared with the previous year. During the same period, the increase in our expenditure was held to just under 30%.
The headline figures are as follows:
Events
At this time last year, we were developing a special Celebratory Event for Hal Moggridge. An occasion of this size and scope was a new venture for FOLAR and presented a number of potential risks and possible pitfalls. Thanks to an entirely voluntary development team, led by Tim Gale, the event was a huge success. Tim worked tirelessly to ensure excellence on all fronts but was particularly conscientious in ensuring that the finances were kept well in the black. This was FOLAR’s first foray into sponsorship and, although it meant a considerable work load for Tim, the financial rewards were significant. FOLAR volunteers are not asked to keep timesheets, so I cannot report on the value of this event’s volunteer hours, but I can assure you that they represented a considerable investment in FOLAR’s activities. Thank you Tim and team.
Other events included our first field trip – a visit to the garden of Upton Wold In Gloucestershire - and two series of online talks. The first of these, on 20C Women in landscape design, was once again held in partnership with The Gardens Trust, and has made a satisfactory surplus, although the income did not reach us during the 2025/26 financial year and does not show in the above figures. The second series, on ‘Doing a PhD’, is ongoing and also straddles two financial years. I will report on this event in 2027.
Investment in Technology
Adequate technological resourcing is crucial to FOLAR in both the meeting of our objectives and to maintain our financial viability. As a result, we continue to invest in on-going programmes of website improvement, up-grading our recording of talks and events, improving their accessibility via the website, using mass mailing platforms to keep in touch with, and increase numbers of, members and supporters, and promoting and improving our use of social media (the latter is low cost but heavy on volunteer time). Around 23% of FOLAR’s expenditure is related to technological support and infrastructure.
Membership
This year, membership subscriptions provided just under 6% of FOLAR’s income. Although this appears to be a small percentage, I would argue that members are valuable in ways that are not directly visible in financial spreadsheets: members provide a valuable knowledge resource, an enormous skill base and valuable critical friend functions. As noted above, the membership is already providing many hours of skilled volunteer time. For this reason alone I would recommend investing in recruiting, retaining and inspiring members.
On a purely financial note please remember that FOLAR only receives the full membership subscription if it is paid via standing order, direct debit or electronic banking. We only receive about 90% if paid via the web site.
Please, do renew your memberships and encourage others to join as well.
In conclusion I am still of the opinion that FOLAR offers excellent value for money and that our finances for 2026/27 are sufficient to offer a diverse programme of activities and outreach, and to enable commencement of other projects (such as recoding oral histories) throughout the current financial year.
A summary of income and expenditure for 2025/26 is given in the tables on below.
Helen Neve, Hon Treasurer, 23rd April 2025