Comments on: Young people as trustees

By: Elle Dodd

Elle Dodd — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:56:03 +0000

BYC are recruiting from age 16 for this years trustee elections, as we have recently incorporated. From what I understand incorporation reduces the liability on individuals since a company, in law, is treated like a person, and therefore the company is liable.
However, under 18s have sat on trustee boards before, Woodcraft Folk’s trustees can be any age, but the constitution requires some to be over 18 and it is those who accept liability for the collective decisions of the group. (If it comes to a vote, which given to strong preference for consensus is very rare, under 18s cannot vote) Consequently, I was a trustee at 17 and found the experience incredibly rewarding and educational.
I entirely agree with the point made towards the end of your article that young trustees need support and skills to enable them to do the job properly and not be tokenistic. I can use BYC as an example of how we try to ensure that happens.
We use an interview screening process before membership elections to ensure that all candidates have, or have the potential to develop, the required skills of a trustee. We also invest heavily in general training for new trustees as well as mentorship and specific training for key trustee roles, such as chair and treasurer, but also around risk, grievance and HR. We buddy new trustees with old and have regular buddy meetings between each board meeting for both sides of the partnership to air any concerns or ask for help. But it’s not just about the structural resources its also an open and supportive environment where trustees feel able to express confusion, lack of knowledge or uncertainty to ensure that we are able to get advice when necessary.
I would highly recommend young trustees to all organisations interested in the idea, however it is important to recognise the challenges as well as the benefits and be prepared to invest in overcoming them.

By: Olly Benson

Olly Benson — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:32:37 +0000

Hiya, Yer sorry I'm guessing you are right, but it hasn't been widely publicised and it's very difficult to find any information about it on the Charity Commission's website. Nor could I easily find anything in the actual act. I'm also confused about liability; under 18s can not legally have any financial liability (can't get credit, mortgage, buy shares etc) so what happens there? I realise there are changes around trustees liability, and that the companies act now says 16, but I'm confused by it all. I did find this on the Charity Commission's website, a thing about Funky Dragon from 2004.

By: Dale Lane

Dale Lane — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:09:32 +0000

I read that the new structure for governance of charitable bodies that was created by the Charities Act – the CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisations) – allows for trustees to be aged 16 or over. It’ll be interesting to see how many 16 year old trustees we’ll see when this is implemented.

This, of course, doesn’t answer your question of how do charities involve young people as trustees. But it shows that it’s an issue that we will need to consider carefully. You don’t even need to get into the multi-million pound scale before it starts getting complex – I’m a trustee of a charity spending something like £400k a year and it’s certainly a challenging role.

That said, I love the idea in principle – and I look forward to the not-too-distant future when we might have our first 16 or 17-yr old trustee.