Regular readers will have noted a flurry of activity recently from the Trust committee – the publishing some partial information on their web site to the ‘holding’ of an Annual General Meeting (by mail) in order to meet the legal requirements of a limited company. As with much of the information released by the trust it appears to raise more questions than answers…
Resolution 1: To confirm the minutes of the previous AGM (9th May 2019)
[ As I wasn’t present I have no idea whether this is an accurate minute of the events or not and I suspect that even if I had been present I would struggle to accurately recall a meeting 18 months previously ]
Resolution 2: To Accept the Chairman’s Report (below)
Resolution 3: To accept the Annual Accounts to 31 July 2019 –
Questions & Comments…
on Note 1 (No remuneration paid) – Note 2 (Income from Grants)
Resolution 4: To elect nominated directors – see Vetting (below) Although it’s not immediately apparent when they were nominated or by whom.
Chairman’s Report
The report states that a total of £48,000 was distributed as 33 individual grants and lists the grant awards and the recipient group with a coded reference, but no indication of the actual amounts. We also have some queries regarding the validity of historical trust grants…
Q) For clarity would it not be an improvement to indicate the amount of grant actually allocated against each entry? This would this have the effect of making it easier to ascertain who the actual beneficiaries are.
Q) Who are the members of the “Kirkcowan Community Project Group” and “Friends of Kirkcowan School” –
Q) Is there really a need to form 3rd party ‘pressure groups’ ?
Trust Minutes – Vetting
We have repeatedly been informed that access to the minutes of the Trust’s meetings have to be kept secret due to the ‘sensitive’ nature of the contents.
Given the implied ‘sensitivity’ of the information contained –
- Q) What are the vetting procedures that trust directors have to pass / meet before being deemed capable of viewing such sensitive material?
- Q) Do prospective trust directors have to sign a Confidentiality or Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA*) before they are deemed acceptable to the board?
( *swear an oath of secrecy or perhaps perform a clandestine ritual? )
I would also observe that approximately 50% of the population of Kirkcowan (i.e. women) are no longer represented on the Trust Board.
Q) Is this, perhaps, a deliberate policy by certain members of the board?