Access to the Minutes of Trustee meetings

Question

Hello,

Our community has a group of Trustees entrusted with the running of the local institute, which has been designated a charity, "for the benefit of the  community".  Do I, as a member of the community, have a right to see the Minutes of their meetings.

Answer 1

No they don’t have to show you their minutes and also don’t have to submit to FOI either. Some publish their minutes but there is no law compelling them to.

Comments

The Institute in question was gifted to the community for their use. The Trustees at their last meeting made a decision regarding the use of the Institute but are not sharing that decision with the locals concerned.  What recourse do we have other than write to the Charity Commission to complain that they are not fulfilling their purpose of administering the building for the benefit of the community?

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You would need to see all of the official documentation relating to the gifting of the premises and the formation of the charity in order to determine whether the Trustees are operating outside their remit. It is likely that the Trustees have wide-ranging powers to operate the facility and to use it to generate funds for other charitable purposes.

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It would be good to get some more context on this issue.  What has the charity done which means they are now not administering the the building for the benefit (as laid out in the their objects) of the community?

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Members of the community (volunteers) have been running a Community Cafe out of the Institute, which has a kitchen and seating for customers, for more than a decade.  The cafe provided the Institute with a small but regular income and offered low-cost drinks and food to the locals and visitors.  The volunteers decided to close the Cafe when Covid arrived.  Volunteers, myself included, have been trying to re-open the Community Cafe this year.  Initially there was support from the Trustees, but just as we were ready to open to the public again, we were told  that another Trustee meeting was necessary to approve the re-opening.  This meeting was held in July and there has been no feedback.  Individual Trustees, when asked, refuse to engage on the topic.
I have written a letter and email to the Trustees seeking a response.  So far no replies, just an indication that I might be able to attend the next Trustee meeting, but no information of when this might be.
In my view, by delaying or even preventing the re-opening of a long-established community cafe, the Trustees are not working in the best interest of the Institute and community,  and a rare community resources such as the cafe portion of the Institute is beginning to look shabby and neglected.

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It seems odd that the Trustees are preventing the reopening without communicating with you. Perhaps they have another plan for the space? The harsh reality is that they can do whatever they want, within the confines of the Charities Act and there is little you can do about it. Public opinion may sway them, but unlike local councillors, the community has no right to unseat them.

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If there is no satisfactory progress over the next couple of months, and assumng that there are no other plans for the communal cafe space, it  seems that the only path then open to us would be to obtain a copy of the governing document and try to argue that the Trustees are failing to administer the building for the benefit of the community.