Committee help

[zigzag]

We are a committee run pre-school and like a lot of us really struggle to get committee members. We currently have three but two are leaving as their children have now gone to school. We have a fab chair, who is the retired EYFS teacher and is a good support, but due to personal circumstances is going to have to step back for the next term. To be honest I think that she will probably end up stepping down. My problem is that our committee never understand what they are responsible for, they would run a mile if they did. At the end of the day they do a great job fundraising and that is it. I am interested in what other options are out there, as how we could run? I would really appreciate any information or advice that you could share with me.

[Cait]

Perhaps you could cherry pick a parent and get her to work alongside your current chair for this term. This would benefit the chair by possibly reducing her workload and also train up a really useful deputy who can step up if needed to.

I always found that asking a particular parent was better than waiting for one to come forward.

[zigzag]

Am interested in finding out about other ways that we can operate that would not need a committee. Do any of you run without a committee and how does it work? Really grateful for any advice you can share.

[Guest]

We are having the same problems, our fundraising committee is almost non-existent and the current Chair, treasurer and secretary are all standing down at the AGM in a few weeks with no sign of anyone interested in signing up :-(.

[hopeytg]

I was faced with the same problem and very nearly hit inadequate as the Chair performed really badly at our inspection - I decided I could not risk it again and I have now bought the business off the committee - who were more than happy to relinquish their responsibility (I don't think they really knew how much they were responsible for). We were a charity and the process wasn't too painful once I actually found a solicitor who understood what I wanted to do.

The other option is the old threatening letter - stand up for the committee or we close - we had to use that one a few times.

[GFCCCC]

If you are a voluntary organisation; Community interest Company (CIC); Company Ltd by Guarantee; Charity; or constituted group, you have to have a committee/board of trustees/directors. We have had the same problem for years - so hard to get committee members these days.

[GFCCCC]

I was faced with the same problem and very nearly hit inadequate as the Chair performed really badly at our inspection - I decided I could not risk it again and I have now bought the business off the committee - who were more than happy to relinquish their responsibility (I don't think they really knew how much they were responsible for). We were a charity and the process wasn't too painful once I actually found a solicitor who understood what I wanted to do.

 

 

How did you do that Hopeytg ?

[hopeytg]

The committee had a meeting and agreed to sell the business to me for the market value (there had already been an AGM asking parents for objections - there were non) then the solicitor drew up a contract which basically (although about 20 pages long) transferred the assets to me. The value was calculated after an independent valuation of the assets and we have a building so the value of the building and that was offset against the costs of making staff redundant if the business closed - there were 6 staff and 4 of us had over 9 yrs service so the redundancy costs would have been fairly high. I have now taken on that 'debt' as all staff were TUPE'd across. We were a charity and I simply emailed charities commission to say the charity had closed down and they confirmed that was ok - must admit thought there would and should have been a bit more to that one although our setting was just about breaking even so there were no funds in the bank.

The hardest part was re-registering with Ofsted as I have had to set up as a new setting - Suitability Interview with Ofsted was worse than a full inspection - made worse by the fact that I was already running the setting and had already been cleared as suitable so seemed slightly unnecessary.

[Guest]

I wonder if that would work where the setting is in a village hall and not it's own building?

[hopeytg]

I don't see why not - you would just need to take on the lease of the hall with the new business - I had a few issues as I lost my charity status but with a little research there are other ways of reducing electricity bills etc so I can't see why the village hall wouldn't accommodate you - after all they will want the revenue whoever it is from.