Resources for Trustees
New Toolkit - Spring 2010
This is a new trustee recruitment toolkit for trustees which is developed by Community Matters along with the NCVO, NAVCA and CSC. Click here to access the toolkit.
Does your board need new trustees?
Many boards are carrying at least one trustee vacancy, and we know that finding new ones is quite a challenge. To help, CTN has launched trusteefinder, a free online trustee vacancy service. It has thousands of vacancies, posted by trusteenet members and also drawn from the National Volunteering Database, which is populated by local Volunteer Centres and run by do-it.org.uk. Trusteefinder is available on CTN’s website www.trusteenet.org.uk or by typing in www.trusteefinder.org.uk.
Please do pass this news on to other trustees.
Publications
Below are some useful links to publications relevant to Trustees and groups looking for Trustees;
The Charities Commission publishes and distributes publications specifically for Trustees;
Charity Commission News - Summer 2009 please click here
For the publication 'CC3 - The Essential Trustee: what you need to know' then please click here
For the publication 'CC3(a) - The Essential Trustee: An introduction' then please click here
The Charities Act has issued a new publication entitled 'What Trustees Need to Know'. To view this publication then please click here
More Useful Publications
The UK Workforce Hub has published a number of publications relevant to the recruitment of Trustees. Please click here
The Governance Hub which is part of Change Up offers some good advice, resources and publications through it's website. Please click here
Get On Board offers excellent advice on becoming a Charity Trustee. Please click here
How is the new Companies Act 2006 going to affect Charitable Companies?
The new Companies Act 2006 is now in force and brings many changes to the way that charitable companies are run.
Russell-Cooke Solicitors highlight important changes for trustees. The Act aims to ease the administrative burden with which charitable companies have to comply.
If you wish to take full advantage of the new rules, you must make the necessary amendments to your memorandum and articles. What are the key changes and what should you do?
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General deregulation
The new Act aims to simplify the day to day running of charitable companies. But to take full advantage of the changes, you should consider amending your articles. Under the new law you can:
• hold general meetings on 14 days notice
• hold general meetings on short notice if 90% of the members give their written approval
• Do away with AGMs
• Send accounts relating to a financial year ending on or after 1 October 2007 to members on or before the date they are filed at Companies House rather than having to circulate them to members before the AGM. -
Rules relating to conflicts of interest
Directors now have the power to authorise conflicts of interest. You can amend your memorandum and articles so as to give the directors power to deal with these situations. It would also be helpful to have a register of interests laid before the directors. -
Directors’ duties
These duties are now statutory law and a list of factors have been produced which a director must comply with in his role. It would be a good time for you and your fellow trustees to develop trustee job descriptions that detail your role and take account of the changes in the law. -
New legal rules relating to proxies and written resolutions.
You can amend your articles so as to permit proxy voting and to enable written resolutions to be passed by 75% of the members (in the case of a special resolution) or 50% of the members (in the case of an ordinary resolution). -
What should you do next?
Russell-Cooke Solicitors advise that you should review your memorandum and articles so that you can take account of all of these changes.
For more detail on the key changes highlighted above please see Russell-Cooke’s website, and look under ‘charity articles’ (www.russell-cooke.co.uk)
Public Benefit Guidance from the Charity Commission
The Charity Commission has launched its new guidance on charities and public benefit.
The purpose of the guidance is to:
- Explain the requirement that, to be a charity in England and Wales, an organisation must have charitable aims that are for the public benefit;
- Raise awareness and understanding of that public benefit requirement amongst the public and the charitable sector;
- Explain how the public benefit requirement operates in practice; and
- Explain the new requirement for charity trustees to report on public benefit.
The guidance is available Here, and supplementary guidance about how the public benefit requirement applies specifically to different kinds of charity will be published after further consultation.