Most of this week has been spent in attending the last of my RA Committee meetings:  yesterday, the Summer Exhibition Committee and Council;  today, the Library and Collections Committee and the Schools Committee.   When I arrived at the RA, I was encouraged to dump my attendance at all the committees as being too time consuming and a distraction from the real business of the RA.   But I argued, which I would still maintain, that they are the bread-and-butter of the institutional machine, the way in which the RAs keep a watch over how the organisation operates and interact with the staff.   Today, we had a long discussion over a possible acquisition in which Humphrey Ocean RA and Hughie O’Donoghue RA demonstrated their visual intelligence in talking about, and describing, works of art.   Maybe I will miss all those committees after all.