For 10 months after being elected as Lord Dean of Guild in May 2019, my diary was filled with a range of events – not only overseeing the running of the House but also attending meetings where I am a trustee ex officio, and representing the House at countless civic events, functions and religious ceremonies. Lockdown in the middle of March resulted in this ending swiftly and meetings are now held primarily via the Zoom or Microsoft Teams platforms, with only a few smaller scale events, all held outdoors.

Occasionally I am asked if I have a lot of spare time now that life has changed. The answer is that I am still incredibly busy and this week is a good example.

• Time has been spent discussing the detail of how to implement what has been agreed by the Directors regarding our acknowledgement of the links the House has to historic slavery.
• With the help of Vice Dean May Storrie, arrangements have been made to have Dr Bridget McConnell as the next speak in our webinar series.
• There have been talks about the detail of a mailing which will be sent to all members on the topic of Regular Giving and on the 5-year Strategic Business Plan which is nearing completion.
• Together with Vice Dewan May Storrie, I had a virtual meeting with the Lord Mayor of London to discuss how we might work more closely together.
• I gave a talk via Zoom to the Rotary Club of Glasgow on the subject of how Coronavirus has affected the House.
• I discussed with our General Manager Paul Martin the details of a tenant’s lease and signed the legal document (for obvious reasons this had to be an actual meeting).
• Together with the Lord Provost and the Deacon Convenor, in George Square I met with representatives of the Scottish Ahlul Bayt Society
• I had a (virtual) meeting with the University of Glasgow about our proposed sponsorship of the James McCune Smith Lecture Series.

The work of the House goes on – it is just significantly different from before.