The Charity Commission has updated its Coronavirus guidance for charities with amended guidance in relation to charity trustee meetings and AGMs. Here is a summary of the updates:

• If your governing document does not permit meetings to be held online, by telephone or on a hybrid basis, or to be cancelled or postponed, then charities are now advised to update their governing document and to approve any previous decisions held contrary to their rules as soon as possible.
• However, where this is not possible, charity trustees should regularly consider the wider risks and implications of holding meetings remotely or postponing or cancelling meetings where this is not allowed by the charity’s rules.
• In the short term as Coronavirus restrictions are lifted, the Charity Commission will continue to take a proportionate approach.
• In reaching their decision, charity trustees are expected to be able to show that they considered all relevant facts and possible alternatives, could not reasonably have made prior changes to their governing document, and followed all other rules governing their charity’s meetings.
• The Commission has stressed to charity trustees the importance of recording their decisions, and the reasons for them, should they be called into question in the future.

You can read the full guidance here (see the section ‘Meetings’)

Further support:

If you wish to amend your governing document, contact Herjeet at herjeet.randhawa@rva.org.uk for advice and support.