Agenda of 47th AGM 12th July 2018
AGENDA
- Welcome and apologies
- To approve the minutes of the 46th Annual General Meeting held on 13th July 2017.
- To receive the annual report from the Chairman
- To receive a report from the Treasurer and presentation of the audited accounts for the year ended 31st March 2018
- To reappoint the auditors, Bracken Rothwell
- Election of Officers:
Andrew Pinel is stepping down from the Committee and the position of Deputy Chairman
To elect the following Officers
6.1 Chairman
6.2 Deputy Chairman
6.3 Treasurer
6.4 Secretary
6.5 Publicity Officer
6.6 Additional Officer as ordinary Committee Member
6.7 Additional Officer as ordinary Committee Member
The Committee is nominating the following persons for the following posts:
a) Liz Le Poidevin, for the position of Chairman
b) Ivo Le Maistre Smith for the position of Deputy Chairman
c) Marie du Feu for the position of Treasurer
d) Simon Larbalestier for the position of Honorary Secretary
e) Lynsey Mallinson for the position of Publicity Officer
f) Harry McRandle as an additional officer on the committee (back ground note attached)
g) Allana Binnie as an additional officer on the committee (back ground note attached)
In addition Tim Rogers has been nominated for election to the committee (back ground note attached)
We welcome any other nominations for any office, which must be made by written notice executed by two Members entitled to vote in general meetings as an intention to propose and second the nominee for the named office. That notice should be countersigned by the nominee so as to show his or her willingness to be appointed to such office and must be delivered to the Honorary Secretary by 5 p.m on the 28th June 2018.
- To consider the attached paper setting out the Committee’s proposals on utilisation of accumulated reserves and vote on the following proposals:
To amend the policy on grants to allow members to make a single application for a grant of up to £30,000 p.a. for three consecutive years
To create a ‘small grants’ fund which would be financed from reserves and only accessible to small charities through a simplified applications process.
8. Proposal
To consider the benefit of advertising member events in the JEP and vote;
whether to retain the weekly JEP advertising slot or cancel it as at 31st
December 2018.
- To expel three members for non-payment of subscription
9.1.1 Jersey Greyhound Supporters – 2 years non-payment of subscription
9.2 Le Tournoi Sports - 2 years non-payment of Subscription
9.3 Jersey Aquatic Discovery – 2 years non-payment of Subscription
- Any Other Business
- Your committee’s stewardship of the AJC - comments
To be followed at 7.30pm with:
an update from Richard Jouault, Assistant Director of Social Policy, Community and Consititutional Affairs, on the chrity registration process
a presentation by Katie Griffiths, AJC Development Officer, on the results of the recent member consultation
A buffet to be served at 8.15pm
Dated this 15th day of June 2018
Utilisation of accumulated reserves
The Association has an informal reserves policy which requires it to maintain around one year’s grant expenditure in reserves so that if its primary source of funding (the lottery profits) were to be terminated or reduced, it could continue its grant making functions for a time while seeking alternative sources of finance.
The policy was established some years ago when the amount of lottery profits fluctuated significantly and there was considerable doubt as to whether the AJC would receive future profits. Lottery profits are now comfortably in excess of £1million p.a. and the Association has approved £1million in grants this year – with the reserve level required by the reserves policy increasing accordingly.
The Association also has a number of conditions relating to grant applications, one of which is that it will not commit to providing funding for more than one year at a time. While this is a prudent measure to ensure that member charities do not become financially dependent on Association funding and protects future applicants against a shortfall of available income in future years, it has negative consequences. For example, members apply for funding for the same (or very similar) projects in consecutive years. Members seeking grants for staff costs cannot guarantee that funds will be available to cover their salaries for more than one year. This is inefficient for applicants and their fund raising development plans and related employment initiatives. It is also inefficient for the Committee members who are required to carry out a detailed review of each application, whether or not it relates to a similar, or the same, project applied for in previous years. Further, many projects are not completed within one year and so the degree to which the impact of the Association’s funding can be measured is substantially limited.
Finally, the Association has received criticism from both members and third parties with regard to the level of its reserves. Some of this is unjustified as a result of misunderstanding the extent to which our reserves are actually distributable. However, the Committee has reconsidered its reserves levels and concluded that they are more than adequate and steps should be taken to reduce them.
Accordingly, you are being asked to vote on two proposals:
1. To amend the policy on grants to allow members to make a single application for a grant of up to £30,000 p.a. for three consecutive years.
If approved, this would allow members to apply for funding of £90,000 in total of which the year 1 grant would be funded from the current year’s income and the commitment for years 2 and 3 from reserves.
2. To create a “small grants” fund which would be financed from reserves and only accessible to small charities through a simplified application process.
Outlines of how these programmes would work are below. A clear explanation of current reserve levels and the split between the distributable element and non-distributable element will be provided at the meeting. For the avoidance of doubt, only charities which are currently members of the Association will have access to the reserves which will be ring-fenced as part of the restructuring process.
Two and three year funding applications
These will be limited to clearly definable projects, roles or services.
Applicants will have to demonstrate both financial need and financial sustainability in the absence of AJC funding (i.e. AJC funding could not form the main element of the applicant’s annual income).
Applicants will have to demonstrate a track record of successful delivery of their existing services.
The application process will focus on the purpose of the grant with regard to the applicant’s strategy and on defining and measuring its impact.
A condition of any application will be that representatives of the applicant have attended specific briefing sessions on these applications and associated impact reporting prior to submitting an application. These are new initiatives from the Association and will be fully funded by it.
The continuing and final reporting requirement will be significant however the Association will, as far as possible, align its requirements with those of any co-funders and any internal or external reporting which is in place.
2. Small grants fund
We receive very few applications for small grants from small charities. The explanation generally given is that the application process is too “difficult” and that the small charities don’t have the time or resource to fill in the forms or collate all the documentation in the format we require.
We therefore propose that “small” charities be permitted to make one application each year for up to £3,000. The application process would be simple – essentially the completion of a template letter or email setting out relevant information and attaching appropriate statements and quotes.
We will define “small” as those charities which have no employees and who's: net assets, income, expenditure or number of volunteers is below a specified threshold (as yet undecided).
We will actively promote the new scheme directly to members in the “small” category and encourage their interaction with the Association.
Back ground notes on nominees:
Harry McRandle has had long time involvement in the charitable sector in the Island as a volunteer fundraiser and in recent times has worked as the Fundraising and Marketing Manager for Jersey Cheshire Home.
A former journalist and professional communicator, he had a long career at the Jersey Evening Post and held a number of senior roles within the publishing business. He has a wide network of contacts gained from covering a variety of sectors over the years. He was twice business and finance editor and other roles he held include sports editor and managing editor of the magazine publishing division, which included titles such as Business Brief.
He is currently the deputy chairman of the Jersey Crimestoppers charity and is a Barker of the Children’s Charity Variety Club of Jersey. In addition he has voluntarily assisted other charities with communications strategy.
He has undertaken a number of physical challenges to raise money for Island charities, including cycling coast-to-coast across Mexico for Jersey Hospice Care, cycling from London to Paris for the Stroke Association and completing challenging treks in Iceland, India and Patagonia to raise funds for Jersey Cheshire Home. He is also a co-founder of Network Jersey, a business networking body where Harryconducts interviews with well-known Islanders that people pay to attend. All of the funds go to a charity chosen by the subject of the interview. Among those he has interviewed include Lee Durrell, former Lieutenant-Governor Sir John Cheshire, Kevin Keen and Martin Bralsford.
Harry hopes to use both his experience in the charitable and communications arena to assist the Association of Jersey Charities deliver enhanced services to its members in the years ahead.
Allana Binnie
Legal Assistant - Final year of Jersey Advocacy Exams, Non-Practising Barrister of England and Wales.
Specialising in family law, criminal law, wills, estates and probate. My expertise in personal law provides me with a good overview of the daily life and challenges of people from all walks of life.
Through my own voluntary work and fundraising work on the Island, particularly for the Women’s Refuge and Jersey Hospice Care, I understand the importance of the Committee’s work and ability to help charities and I wanted to be involved in ensuring that all charities have a voice and a chance to prosper.
Tim Rogers
Confirmed as being nominated for election to the Committee of the newly restructured Association of Jersey Charities.
Jersey Charities are facing a period of significant challenge and change. Over the past 6 months I have helped over 160 Charities with GDPR and supported training sessions on Cyber Essentials and Email Encryption. But there are more challenges ahead, see my blog here
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-future-like-charities-should-government-helping-tim-hj-rogers/
You can see from my blog above, that I am very interested in helping charities, particularly around governance and coping with technology, compliance, service level agreements and the increasingly complex funding and relationship with government.
You can find out about me from Linked-in https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhjrogers/