Today, Matthew Taylor ( @RSAMatthew) announced he's stepping down as head of @theRSAorg.

It'll be interesting to see what happens next, as his 15 years in charge accelerated a decades-long phase of major transformation. In my view, for the better.

In the early 20thC, the Society increasingly resembled a sort of learned society. It adopted the "Royal" in 1908, and in the 1910s it started to call its members "fellows", allowing them to put FRSA after their names.

Yet the actual nature of membership had not changed.

The perception of the RSA as a learned society was misleading, as it is nothing of the sort. Fellows have no privileges, nor are they "elected" for any achievements. Membership is, and *always* has been based on intentions - a willingness to subscribe to the public good.

That confusion persists - I think it always will, if it continues to use the words "royal" and "fellow".

But I think Matthew's tenure was especially good for dispelling a great deal of the artificial prestige.

That may sound like a superficial change, but it involved major structural reforms, with some groups of members putting up a very real resistance.

And image does matter. It changes the kinds of people attracted to become members (now younger, more diverse, more active).

Which brings me to a certain vision of the RSA. Since the 1980s, the Society's leaders have seen its tens of thousands of members as its main asset - or rather, as a valuable but untapped resource.

Most members passively subscribe, but what if they were active and organised?

The RSA is, after all, Britain's national improvement agency. It's meant to change things, not just call for changes. That's the aim. So a lot of the past 15 years have been about trying to build the organisational infrastructure so that members can be the agents of change.

In my opinion, it's not quite there yet. My book's last chapter was entitled "Building a Social Movement?" Question mark. I think it's too early to tell.

But there are some signs that it's working. My favourite, concrete example being its role in the creation of @SouthWestMutual

It'll be interesting to see who will take Matthew's place, and the direction the RSA takes next. So long as there are things in the world to improve, the Society has work cut out for it. So there's plenty still to do.

For more background, see my book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Arts-Minds-Society-Changed-Nation/dp/0691182647/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=