Commission calls on charities to ensure online meetings are covered in governing documents

Melanie May | 19 July 2024 | News

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• Charity Commission

The Charity Commission has issued ‘refreshed’ guidance on charities and meetings (known as CC48), calling on charities to review their governing documents to ensure they cover online meetings.

The guidance says that trustees should make sure any rules around holding meetings are up to date and practical, especially now that many charity meetings are held online.

This includes updating a charity’s governing document to set out details such as how votes will be held at virtual meetings and whether all meetings will be virtual or hybrid.

It also recommends that charities that wish to hold virtual meetings have a policy that says how people can ask questions, join in the debate, and what would happen to the meeting if there were technical problems.

The guidance covers all types of charities including membership charities, as well as different types of meetings, such as trustee meetings and Annual General Meetings.

Sam Jackson, Assistant Director, Policy and Strategy at the Charity Commission said:

u0022The ways in which people communicate has rapidly evolved since the pandemic, and it is now very common for charities to conduct their meetings online or in a hybrid form.rnrnu0026nbsp;rnrnu0022Our revised guidance reflects this development, and emphasises the importance of following a charity’s governing document and keeping it up to date to ensure good governance.rnrnu0026nbsp;rnrnu0022After seeking feedback from trustees, we’ve also made the guidance shorter and easier to understand.rnrnu0026nbsp;rnu003cp class=u0022last-childu0022u003eu0022Through these improvements, we hope to make it easier for trustees to know what is expected of them, and how they can act in the best interests of their charities.u003c/pu003e

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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.