Ditch the current crew

Jonathan Wills predicted last week the Office of the Scottish Charities Regulator would reject elections for all Shetland Charitable Trust trustees.

He stated “the reality is that neither the wholly undemocratic nor the wholly democratic approach is likely to gain favour with OSCR.”
(Reasons for trust compromise; SN, 30/05/16).

Having now talked the matter through with OSCR, I have no reason to believe they would reject a directly elected trust, separate from the council, which retained the ability to co-opt a small number of additional trustees on board should the need arise.

The trusts current proposal strengthens the hands of the trust’s existing antidemocratic appointee trustees. It strengthens vested interest and reduces the likelihood of future improvement.

This crew had their chance to prove their worth on 12 May when they could have spoken against SCT’s purposefully botched consultation on the new governance plan which deliberately excluded the “key” voices of the voluntary sector, community councils and the people of Shetland.

The existing appointee trustees now share in the blame for the trust bringing itself into disrepute by treating the trust’s beneficiaries (the inhabitants of Shetland) with disrespect.

The question now, Jonathan, is not “how many of the old crew should remain on board?” but “why would we want to start off with any of them?”

Let them offer themselves for elections and we can see if they pass muster.

Let’s find out how a freshly elected trust views the issue of compromise.

On behalf of Democracy for Shetland’s Charitable Trust
Peter Hamilton