Helpful Organistaions To Try If You Need A Committee

[Rea]

Following on from my other thread I thought you might like the list of organisations the chap at the Charity commission sent me. I havent had time to look at any of them, but they can all help with recruiting committee members.

 

"You may find our guidance on appointment of trustees which is available on our website helpful. I have enclosed a link to this guidance below:

http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/Publications/cc30.aspx

In addition a number of organisations maintain registers of potential trustees, or offer a trustee brokerage service, matching potential trustees with vacancies on the boards of charities.

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) operates a Trustee Bank, which offers a free service to advertise or view trustee vacancies.  It also provides information about becoming a trustee and on recruitment and induction practices. A number of other organisations can also assist in finding people interested in serving as charity trustees:

 The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) offers charities and other not-for-profit organisations the opportunity to gain access to its members through its ICAEWJobs website

 Getting on Board encourages people to develop board-level volunteering careers alongside their professional careers.

 Trusteefinder is a free service from Charity Trustee Networks

 Trustee Works, led by the skilled volunteering charity Reach

 The Ethnic Minority Foundation, whose Professional Volunteering Recruitment Scheme encourages professionals to lend their time, knowledge and experience to community-based organisations.

There are a number of other sources you can use to advertise trustee vacancies, including Do-it, a national database of volunteering opportunities in the United Kingdom. Specialist magazines, journals and newspapers also list trustee brokerage services.  Local infrastructure organisations in England (previously known as Councils for Voluntary Service), and County Voluntary Councils (CVCs) in Wales, may also be a source of further information. Networking with other charities, either from the same local area or offering similar services, can be another way of finding new trustees.  This can also be a useful way of sharing information and best practice.

 

 

Hope its useful

[Guest]

That's great, Rea, thanks.

 

I'm going to start looking right now for someone to replace me as chair at the end of this academic year (I'm probably going to be moving overseas, not even I am willing to do it from 2,000 miles away!)

 

I'm amazed there are people out there willing to do this job without having their arm twisted though!

[Rea]

Tempted to move overseas myself at the moment

[Inge]

I do think this is where being a charity and maintaining the standards required for Ofsted become 2 different things...

 

while recruiting a trustee suitable for the CCom.. would/are they suitable for Ofsted purposes, and would they also undertake that role..

 

 

they are really to my mind anyway.. 2 different roles... one is dealing with the financial side of the charity, and what happens to the funds, not as hands on as we require as Ofsted have no interest in that but do the education and standards... would you be able to find a trustee or even 2 from outside willing to take on the more hands on job of the pre-school and Ofsted.. would they be able to cope with the suitable persons and other stuff Ofsted want.

 

we had an issue with losing a chair mid year.. due to a move.. and Ofsted were happy with another committee member to double up as chair and treasurer for a month , in fact they said up to 2 months - so we could sort it out.... from Reas other post it makes me think CCom would not be happy with this arrangement.. I too tended to get committee to keep a low profile with CCom and duck under the radar.. so long as they got the annual return with audited accounts and enough names on them we never heard anything from them..

 

I often wondered if the charitable status was really worth all the issues and extra paperwork it involved... what did we gain from it? never did work that one out.. we failed every time we tried to get grants for charities and didn't fund-raise outside

 

Inge

[Rea]

I asked the CC chap if it was benefial for us to be a charity. He was rather lost on the answer to be honest, just said it was benefiial from a tax point of view. But I have wondered myslef to be honest. I certainly dont see any benefit at the moment, you'd think they'd be much more helpful and understanding.

[Inge]

I don't see we gained anything from a tax point of view... wonder how we gain .. maybe from VAT if a big enough charity.. could gain by having gift aid I suppose.. if we knew how to make it work.. if it even could for us...

 

its just so hard to dissolve it once it is a charity and to continue..

 

Inge

[Rea]

Too difficult I think.. I havent looked into at all, but i presume you would have to sell all the assets to the new owner and then start afresh, even if its the same setting to everyone else. That would mean a loan for someone and who would cost it all?

A minefield!

[Inge]

not just the assets there would be redundancy as well as lots more stuff!

 

a minefield..

 

Inge