So that’s the end of Trustees' Week for another year, how was it for you? Did your charity speak to new potential trustees, or did you as an individual consider becoming a trustee for a Charity?
If not, there is a chance that it’s because of one of these reasons:
I’m not really sure what a trustee does?
A Trustee is an essential part of a charity, if you’re thinking that you might want to become a Trustee there is free training available from Salford CVS to help you understand what is expected of the role. We also have contact with member organisations interested in appointing new trustees.
If you are Salford charity looking for Trustees, we can help you too. We have lots of tools and support around Trustee recruitment and retention, whether it’s role descriptions, board development or a full recruitment strategy come and talk to us.
It’s a bit scary!
Many things are when you do them the first time but as Trustee Boards you could put in place some really helpful practices for your new trustees. Including but not only, informally meeting with them before they start, getting them a designated buddy on your board who will keep contact with them and help them through the first six months to a year, pre-meeting with them for the first couple of meetings to ensure that there really clear what all of your processes and paperwork mean and what you will be discussing.
It’s going to take up a lot of my time
Honestly, most Board meetings are around one to two hours and most Boards meet six times or less a year. Additionally, many boards will now allow you to be part of the meeting virtually. (Although its not recommended this is how you meet all the time). So even if your charity Board meets monthly, you are likely to spend a maximum of 24 hours in a year volunteering your time to help a charity make a big difference. On top of that some employers will actually allow you to do some of this volunteering in their time! This is called employer supported volunteering.
If I’m legally responsible does that mean I could get sued?
Almost all modern charities are protected by guarantee, either by being in the new format charitable incorporated organisation, or by being a charitable company. It’s definitely worth checking when you consider becoming a trustee. The guarantee protects trustees as long as they are making efforts to do a good job, by which I mean turning up to meetings and making decisions that are in the best interests of the charity and its beneficiaries. Almost all charities also have additional insurance protecting their trustees.
So… If you weren’t thinking of becoming a Trustee, or hoping to attract new Trustees are you considering it now?
There’s a lot more information behind trusteeship and as a member of Salford CVS, or a person who wants to become involved in a Salford based charity we are very happy to give you free advice and support and training.