No:

Item:

Initials:

Present:

Committee:

Liz Le Poidevin - Chairperson

Simon Larbalestier - Honorary Secretary

Marie du Feu - Treasurer

Lynsey Mallinson - Publicity Officer

In Attendance:

Lyn Wilton - Administrative Officer

Ivo Le Maistre Smith

Andrew Pinel

Andrew Hind (Visiting speaker)

The membership

Apologies:

Hugh Munro - Committee Officer

ELP

SL

MdF

LM

LW

IlMS

AP

HM

1.

Welcome and apologies

The Chairman welcomed the members to the meeting.

2.

To approve the minutes of the 45^th Annual General Meeting held on 7^th July 2016.

Approval proposed by Edward Trevor and seconded by Nick Winsor.

3.

To receive the annual report from the Chairman

The Chairperson read the report to Members (see this link: /site/userfiles/Chairman presentation AGM 13.07.17.pptx)

4.

To receive the annual report from the Treasurer and presentation of the audited accounts for the year ended 31^st March 2017

A copy of the audited financial statements had been made available to members via the website prior to the meeting.  The Treasurer presented the  financial highlights report, a copy of which is attached to and forms part of these minutes (see links below).

/site/userfiles/Treasurer's Report AGM 2017.pptx

/site/userfiles/Treasurer's Report AGM 2017.pptx

The Treasurer then explained the background to the proposal to increase the maximum grant available to members by explaining how the current reserves balance had arisen.  She then outlined some of the controls which the Committee envisaged applying if the proposal was approved.  The full text of her presentation is attached and forms part of the minutes.

Adoption of the financial statements was proposed by Chris Clark and seconded by Sue May and approved unanimously.

5.

To reappoint the auditors, Bracken Rothwell

The re-appointment of the present auditors was proposed by Chris Clark and seconded by Sue May.

6.

Election of Officers:

Stephanie Duke and Hugh Munro stood down as committee members. The Committee nominated the following persons for the posts below:

a) Liz Le Poidevin, for the position of Chairman

b) Advocate Andrew Pinel 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) Ivo Le Maistre Smith as an additional officer

The above were proposed by Edward Trevor and seconded by Julian Clyde-Smith and approved by the members present.

7.

In accordance with 10.9 of the Constitution of the Association to consider the following proposal:

“That the maximum grant be increased to GBP50,000 p.a. for eligible applicants with the proviso that any application in excess of GBP30,000 be subject to such additional conditions as the Committee shall determine from time to time in its absolute discretion.”

ELP opened discussion of the proposal to the members present.  A number of points were raised including:

Whether the Officers would be benefiting larger charities at the expense of smaller charities by increasing the threshold;

The purposes for which large grants could be used; and

Whether increasing the threshold was appropriate if the Association was turning down applications due to lack of funds.

A number of members also spoke in favour of the Committee’s current grant application process and their confidence in the way the grant criteria were assessed and implemented.

On behalf of the Committee, MdF reiterated that the intended purpose of “large grants” was to fund projects and other one-off expenditure where the need exceeded the current limit of £30,000.  She also confirmed that the Committee is not declining applications due to lack of funds and that very few applications for small grants are received and these are rarely refused.

The committee assured the membership that there would be a robust analysis of any larger grants, however the raison d’être was to allow the members to consider larger projects currently outside of the scope of the grant system.

ELP asked for a vote for the resolution and there was a clear majority in favour of increasing the grant level to GBP50K.  The proposal was therefore approved.

8.

To Expel one member for non-payment of subscription

Tumaini Fund was expelled for non-payment for two years. There were no comments from the floor.

9.

AOB

Committee stewardship.

The Chairman invited comments and suggestions from the floor as to the Committee’s stewardship of the Association in the past, and thoughts for the future.

ELP re-iterated that the main aim of the Committee over the coming months is to ensure that the AJC is fit for purpose for the charity sector in the new, regulated environment in Jersey’s near term future, whilst recognising the overriding responsibility of protecting the interests of members. Accordingly members are encouraged to attend and engage, if at all possible, in forthcoming consultations regarding the future of the AJC, its form and its activities.

The Jersey Charities (Jersey) Law 2014 is very likely to be in place prior to the next AGM and that this will have far reaching implications as our membership requirement is very different to being accepted as a registered charity under the law, which will apply to a wider group of charitable organisations.

10.

Date of next AGM

The next AGM is scheduled for Thursday 12 July 2018.

The AGM itself closed by 7:30 and was followed by a talk by Andrew Le Seelleur MBE about his involvement in Wetwheels.

This was followed by a talk by Andrew Hind, CB, ex-chief executive of the England and Wales charity commission and consultant engaged to advise the Executive Committee and members on implications for the AJC on the introduction of the Charities (Jersey) Law 2014. In the course of his research into the specific situation of the AJC, Andrew Hind had interviewed a selection of stakeholders.

/site/userfiles/Andrew Hind AGM 13.07.17.pptx

A number of questions were put to Andrew Hind:

Harry McRandle questioned the small size of the sample of interested parties selected and that 14 did not truly represent the membership.  Andrew Hind stated that this was indeed a small set but a small cross section of members of varying size had been interviewed as had other stakeholders; but most importantly  that there would be further membership involvement as we neared the introduction of the law.

The presentation covered many issues that have been experienced in the UK and Beth Gallichan emphasised the need for professionalism and transparency in the future. She also questioned the timescale of the introduction of the Law and ELP stated that she was optimistic for a 31^st March 2018 deadline but accepted that it would be more likely to be later in 2018.

These presentations were followed by networking and a buffet from about 8:15pm.

Signed Elizabeth Le Poidevin…………………………………………

Dated………………………………………………………………..