Resume of recent events:
At the public meeting of NICE on the 11th November 2011, Michael Barnett said that the directors had met with Lucas Chapman of the HIE Community Assets Team, and Rory Dutton of the Development Trusts Association Scotland (“DTAS”). Both had been very supportive of the directors’ ideas and were in a position to offer expertise and support. Rory had very generously made himself available to be present at the meeting and made a short presentation.
Rory explained the role of DTAS and how it supports communities planning to set up Development Trusts. These are independent local organisations which are community owned, led and managed. They aim to tackle a wide range of social, economic, environmental and cultural issues. As well as being actively involved in partnerships with the public, private and voluntary sectors, they aim to increase self-sufficiency by generating income through enterprise and the ownership of assets. A Development Trust is typically a company limited by guarantee (like NICE) with charitable status, and the activities that generate income are put into wholly owned subsidiary trading companies.
As a result of the above it was recognised that NICE would need to change its Company Articles and for that reason an Extra General Meeting of Members was called. This took place on the 19th Dec and the following Resolutions were passed, and for the record were:
RESOLUTION 1: The directors of the Company are authorised to seek the approval of OSCR (the Office of the Scottish Charities Register) to change the Company’s Articles such that the company qualifies as a “Community Body” as defined in the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003; and upon receipt of such approval to call a further EGM of the Company to put the proposed revised Articles and any suggested change of the Company’s name to the Members by way of Special Resolutions.
RESOLUTION 2: The directors are authorised to develop plans for the Company to deliver the broad objectives described in their briefing paper dated 2 December 2011, and to work and liaise with all relevant parties to develop proposals for consideration by Members in due course.
