Royal Gazette: Alana Anderson working to widen BNT membership

Royal Gazette: Alana Anderson working to widen BNT membership

Alana Anderson likes to say she has been a member of the Bermuda National Trust since birth.

Her parents, Henry and Conchita Ming, were heavily involved in the BNT when she was a child, and her father is now a past president.

“I can remember watching the ducks while my father attended a meeting,” Ms Anderson said.

She became involved with the charity in 2008, right after university.

“I thought it would be something really cool to do,” she said. “I got involved with the finance committee and fundraising. Then they asked me to join the central council. I did that for quite a while. I have always really appreciated the things that the BNT does.”

Ms Anderson took on her present role in 2017 and is preparing to step down in June, as per BNT rules. She has already held her seat for longer than the norm.

“I would be happy to remain on the Board if they want that,” she said. “It has been an amazing journey. I have always had a real affinity for culture, whether that is our natural heritage, or built heritage.”

She volunteers here time, while working as a full-time actuary at Sompo International.

“I am very lucky that they give me time to do this,” she said.

Much of her work over the last seven years has been focused on diversifying what has traditionally been a White, ageing membership.

“We just changed our membership platform so it will take a full year of renewals before we have hard data on race, gender, age and nationality,” she said. “But I don’t need hard numbers to know that our membership is not reflective of the population.”

To figure out why more Black Bermudians are not joining, they partnered with Curb in 2022.

During a Curb workshop held last year at the BNT’s headquarters at Waterville in Paget, some people pointed to portraits on the walls.

“They said the BNT is trying to be inclusive, but there are only paintings of White people,” Ms Anderson said.

She and other staff members took the paintings off the walls, right there and then.

Read the full article.

February 22, 2024 News