UKLA’S CHARITABLE STATUS
Background
The May 2019 meeting of the UKLA Executive Committee (EC), whose 20 members are also the 20 UKLA trustees, included an item about charity governance training led by Geoffrey Hand, a former solicitor, now an independent consultant. He summarised the important role that trustees play within a charity like UKLA and the responsibilities and liabilities they have. He was very complimentary about the levels of management and financial control that he had noted within UKLA.
However, he also suggested EC might wish to consider UKLA moving away from being an Unincorporated Charitable Association (UCA)to become a Charitable Incorporated Organisation(CIO). The reason for changing UKLA’s legal form in this way would be to limit trustees’ and members’ exposure to liabilities and make entering into contracts and agreements (such as employment contracts and leases) simpler.
Executive Committee meeting 28.05.20
The current Executive Committee (2019-2020) has agreed to take up this advice. We have therefore been working with Julian Lomas of Almond Tree Strategic Consulting to prepare a UKLA application which will enable the Charity Commission to make an informed decision about UKLA’s request to register as a CIO. For the names of the current UKLA trustees, see UKLA Executive Committee.
UKLA’s proposal
The UKLA application to become a CIO is based on information already available for anyone to read on the UKLA website. For instance, there is a very good summary of UKLA activity in the UKLA Impact Report 2019, but the rest of the UKLA website is a rich source of information as well.
To find the remaining relevant paperwork, you need to access the Members’ section of the website. Click on ‘Log In’ in the top right-hand corner of the home page and then use your login and password. Click here and on that page you will find three key pieces of relevant paperwork:
(i) UKLA Incorporation board paper
(ii) UKLA CIO Draft Constitution
(iii) UKLA Draft Transfer Deed
Comments
If you have anycomments you wish to make on the draft constitution before it is submitted as part of the application to the Charity Commission, please email UKLA admin@ukla.org by 12.00 noon on Friday 31 July at the latest. Thank you.
UKLA Members’ Voting on the CIO proposal
UKLA trustees agreed at the meeting of EC on 28.05.20 to put resolutions to the next Annual General Meeting of the Association by way of seeking authorisation to transfer the Association’s assets to a newly formed Charitable Incorporated Organisation.
UKLA members are entitled to vote on these resolutions. This year, due to the postponement of the 2020 International Conference, the AGM will not be held face-to-face. Instead, it will be held onlineon Tuesday 29 September at 19.30 pm.
Voting will also – for the most part – take place online. Instructions about how and when to vote will be sent to members in due course.
The resolutions
The proposed resolutions can be found on the AGM agenda which UKLA members can access in the AGM section of the UKLA website.
Gabrielle Cliff Hodges
UKLA Honorary Secretary
