Where property is held on the terms of a trust deed or Charity Commission Scheme there will be defined arrangements for the appointment of managing trustees. In other cases it is advisable for the area meeting to have a procedure for appointing and maintaining an adequate number of managing trustees, in order to ensure the proper day-to-day conduct of all the property matters for which the meeting is responsible.
The managing trustees should be provided with rules or terms of reference which define their duties, the duration of their appointments and the extent to which they may take decisions without reference back to their appointing body.
The meeting may make individual appointments or, preferably, appoint the members for the time being of its finance and property committee (or of a similar committee) to serve as its managing trustees ex officio. Appointments as managing trustees should not be confined to those with long experience of property and financial matters but should be widely representative of the meeting. It is a criminal offence for a person to act as a trustee if he or she has an unspent conviction for any offence involving dishonesty or deception or is an undischarged bankrupt or has been disqualified from being a company director or trustee. Under certain circumstances it is possible for such disqualifications to be waived by the Charity Commissioners.
Among managing trustees, moreover, there should at all times be a sufficient spread of membership to ensure that there is at least one managing trustee belonging to each local meeting, to bring local knowledge to managing trustees' deliberations and to facilitate liaison with local meetings and their premises committees. Managing trustees may on occasion be invited to make representations on behalf of their local meetings, and on other occasions have to interpret to their local meetings decisions taken in the best interests of the area meeting as a whole. Theirs is not an easy task; but it is a vital one, and plays an important part in our church government by maintaining good relations between area meetings and their local meetings.
Next: 15.05
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