After completing our Board 360 evaluation, part of the feedback we received was that we need to be more transparent about the work we do. So in that spirit, this is the first Newsletter update on the board’s work! Our most recent meeting was on December 1, our last meeting of the calendar year. It’s also a special meeting as it’s paired with our AGM. The purpose of our AGM is a very formal one but it’s also a privilege to welcome some of our lifetime members year we were joined by Anja Balfour, who co-founded VS nearly 25 years ago and has been an active supporter in various capacities since. We also welcomed Margaret and John Seymour, whose late son Bryan was another VS co-founder.
At the AGM, the Trustees and members approved the annual accounts for the year ended March 2021 and elected our new Trustees; Charles Ross-Stewart, who joins us as Company Secretary, Karen Shaw, who will also join the Finance and Fundraising sub-committee and Jennifer Peebles.
VS Board meetings always have a full agenda, and this was no exception. Information on issues to be discussed at each board meeting is circulated in the week before so Trustees have time to read and consider information about the topics to be considered. There are items that the Board regularly discusses. David’s CEO report brings the Board up to date on everything that has happened between meetings and also lets us know how VS is performing on achieving our strategic aims. Anda provides financial reports that let us see how we are performing financially versus the budget for the year and how our funding looks into the future. Tricia provides a fundraising report that shows us what funding applications have been successful and which haven’t and evaluates what has been achieved versus our fundraising goals. Following the approval of our new risk policy and risk register, we also discuss three risks at each meeting, updating progress on actions and evaluating any new issues we need to consider. At this meeting, we discussed Governance (how the board works), Compliance (making sure we are doing things in accordance with legal and regulatory obligations) and Finance (making sure we have enough money and spend it responsibly). Finally, we discussed some of the legal and compliance issues we may have to address if we are successful in winning funding for some opportunities in which we are collaborating with other charities.
Unusually, and to the delight of all of our Trustees, we actually finished our meeting early! I hope this give you some insight into what we do at the Board of Trustees and you’ll be hearing from me and other board members regularly from now on.
Evelyn Simpson, Chair of Venture Scotland’s Board of Trustees.
