Special meeting to select selection panel

FOLLOWING a backbench revolt a special meeting of Shetland Charitable Trust will be held on 15 October.

This is to allow members to choose a trustee who will serve on the small panel that will shortlist independent trustees to serve on the new re-organised trust.

In a letter to all 22 trustees, the charity’s chairman, Drew Ratter, had suggested that he should be the council trustee who sits on the panel.

The move triggered a flurry of emails among members unhappy about the prospect of being sidelined in the appointment process.

Trustee George Smith said: “The proper process is now being followed. If Drew wants to put himself forward he is perfectly entitled to do so, as is anybody else who is a trustee.”

Mr Ratter said the rules of how the new independent trustees were to be appointed had been drawn up by the previous councillors/trustees.

They stipulated that a three-strong selection panel had to consist of an independent chairman from outside the trust, plus one council trustee and one independent trustee.

“I offered to do it myself, but when trustees were consulted they said they wanted to have a meeting. There is no backbench revolt, and there is no problem,” Mr Ratter said.

A painful four-year-long reform process, which will remove council control from the £200 million trust, finally came to an end last month, when trustees approved the way ahead by 10 votes to six.

The new trust, which has to be in place by 31 March next year, will have a 15-strong board comprising seven councillors and eight independent trustees chosen by the selection panel.

Trust general manager Ann Black said on Friday that the panel’s independent chairman was in the process of being appointed, but she couldn’t release a name yet.

The panel’s independent trustee will most likely be Anderson High School head teacher Valerie Nicolson after the only other independent member on the trust, Lord Lieutenant Bobby Hunter, said he was unavailable to the job.

Once the panel has been appointed, the trust will advertise locally for candidates to come forward.

A shortlist of suitable candidates will then be drawn up by the panel, who will be assisted by consultant People Pioneers, an Inverness-based company describing itself as “specialising in organisational development activities”.

Following this process a list of candidates will be presented to trustees for approval either late this year or early next year.

At the same time, Shetland Islands Council will have to select seven of its members to serve on the reformed charitable trust.

Monday’s special meeting will be held in the Bressay Room of the Lerwick Hotel, at 10am.

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