Page 24 - Demo

HOW DO WE FIND THE RIGHT PERSON TO BE A LAY TRUSTEE?
A lay person, with the best will in the world will not understand the institute’s way of life or its motivation and vision as well as a member of the institute. Consideration might, therefore, be given to appointing someone that has known the institute for a period of time and shares it values – possibly an associate or similar.
Before inviting someone to become a trustee, it might be useful to invite them along to a couple of trustee meetings as an observer in the rst instance or as a member of a committee such as nance & general purposes or fundraising. This could give existing trustees the opportunity to see how they behave and react in meetings and also gives the candidate an opportunity to decide on whether they want to take up the role as trustee. It often pays to be cautious in this way. People are often very different in formal meetings compared to how they seem in an informal or social setting.
HOW DO WE PREVENT THE LAY
TRUSTEE FROM FEELING LIKE AN OUTSIDER?
There is a danger that a lay trustee will always feel like an outsider. As members of the institute, the member trustees will meet informally and inevitably discuss matters that may later come up at trustee meetings. Hence the lay person will be at a disadvantage as matters may have been mulled over long before they are raised with them. Crucially there will be a need to ensure that the lay person has all the necessary information they need to enable them to carry out their responsibilities as a trustee. They are not there simply to rubber stamp decisions already taken in principle or to make decisions based on only half the facts.
There needs to be a process for keeping the lay trustee informed and knowing where to draw the line between what they are entitled to know, because they have responsibilities as a charity trustee, and what they need not know because the issues are in respect to the wider institute. Inevitably, this means that trustee meetings have to become far more formal and agendas have to be clear about what is being discussed and what decisions are being made, though that would not be a bad outcome in our view.
20 Chapter 2