New legal status
The Trust has simplified its legal status. It used to be both a registered charity
and a non-profit-distributing company limited by guarantee. This meant it had
reporting obligations to both the Charity Commission and Companies House.
The Charity Commission instituted a new type of registration for small charities
such as ours and we resolved to adopt that at the AGM last September (2020). With
effect from 7 April 2021 the Trust is now designated as a Charitable Incorporated
Organisation and we only have to report to the Charity Commission.
As far as members are concerned there will be no discernible difference, but it
does simplify considerably our reporting obligations and removes the costs
involved in preparing accounts for Companies House. The process of
converting our status was quite bureaucratic and I am particularly indebted to
our Treasurer, Malcolm Reed, and Trustee Michael Hurlow for the technical
assistance they provided to ensure a successful conversion.
Trustees had hoped that this would be the opportunity to update some of the
language in our governing document that dates from 1942 and is based on the
Companies Act of 1929. Unfortunately this was not permitted at the same time
as changing our status, so we shall seek to carry out the updating at a later
date, probably through a resolution at the next AGM that we hope can be held
in September.
Good news