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I was wondering what to say this week as the weather seems to have settled down a bit, spring may even be on the way with the snowdrops bursting out from under the snow, the covid vaccination scheme is going well, footballers are beginning to realise that they have to follow the same rules as the rest of us! Then this following text arrived in an email a few minutes ago throwing yet another spanner in our works of trying to keep the shed going by fair means or foul! I must confess I did not even realise that we had a temporary dispensation which allowed us to conduct virtual meetings. As we are unlikely to have anything better before the end of the new extension I think we need to revise our constitution along the lines of below and then we need approval of this for the charity commissioners. I’m guessing that the three Trustees will have to sign again to the new constitution to make it legal and we will do this if the membership agrees. More discussion on zoom tomorrow! Please read and make comment, we have used the Men’s Shed generic constitution so currently DO NOT have provision for virtual meetings in it.
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Does your Shed's constitution allow for virtual meetings/new Scottish law?
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'GRACE' PERIOD COMING TO AN END: 3OTH MARCH 2021
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During the course of the pandemic, many Men's Sheds adopted new ways of conducting meetings by carrying these out virtually. The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) is advising that the governing documents of some charities do not allow for this online approach and therefore must be updated.
On the 30th September 2020, the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (Meetings of Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisations) (Coronavirus) (No. 2) Regulations 2020 made legal provision to enable ‘virtual’ methods whether or not governing documents permit this. These temporary provisions were extended until the 30th March 2021.
OSCR is advising charities that this is likely to be the last extension to these provisions. Therefore, it is vital that Sheds make sure they are ‘future-proofed’ in terms of being able to conduct meetings virtually by allowing for them in governance documentation.
SMSA's Shed-specific Constitution template
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SMSA has worked with OSCR to revise its Shed-specific Constitution templates available to Sheds across Scotland:
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The changes advised by OSCR were to include the wording ‘in person and virtual’ into four different places. The above templates have been updated to reflect these recommendations and can also be found in our online Resource Library under Open Sheds and Shed Development.
These documents are in an editable format for your benefit and are not to be changed in any other way than adding your personal Shed charity criteria for OSCR submission. If you have adopted our SMSA/OSCR approved Shed constitution you MUST update it to this format to remain operational and legal after the March grace period. Sheds then need to notify OSCR, send the Regulator a copy of the revised constitution and ideally, the Resolution (e.g. Minute of the Board passing of the change).
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Apart from that I’ve not had time to look at the website to see if there are any advancements on the wee library idea, Stewart has got himself a pallet splitter that looks pretty heavy duty and I’ve just got three pallets from the work on my driveway to try it out! I also got the scaffolding boards for my bench delivered and got them cut and installed so the lathe is now sitting proudly on top but I have some issues with the fixed arm for the large bowl turning as it only affixes to the left side of the lathe which is going to be close to my entrance door and sticks out a bit. However it that’s the only issue I can get round it. I’ve had an idea to make the pit with a hydraulic floor so that I could put my big saw and drillstand on tables down there and raise them up to working level when I need them but that’s one for the future when I fully realise I’ve run out of space and have plenty of time to engineer that solution!
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Mary has been getting medical MOT’s this week so I’ve had to take her to the hearing aid clinic, optician and St John’s for an x-ray for her back. The eye visit was not a good one so it looks as though our move and trying to get things on to a more level footing so to speak is well timed.
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Hopefully I’ll see some of you on zoom tomorrow so I’ll close hoping that you are all still keeping safe and well and not being too frustrated with the lockdown which looks like continuing for a wee while yet.
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