The Charity Commission is calling on charities that hold online meetings to review their governing document to ensure it is up to date.

The refreshed guidance emphasises the importance of complying with a charity’s governing document when holding meetings.

The guidance stresses that trustees should make sure any rules around holding meetings are up to date and practical. This has become particularly important now that many charity meetings are held online.

This includes updating a charity’s governing document to set out details such as how votes will be held at virtual meetings and whether all meetings will be virtual or hybrid.

It also recommends that charities that wish to hold virtual meetings have a policy that says how people can ask questions, join in the debate, and what would happen to the meeting if there were technical problems.

The guidance covers all types of charities including membership charities, as well as different types of meetings, such as trustee meetings and Annual General Meetings.

Sam Jackson, Assistant Director, Policy and Strategy at the Charity Commission said:
The ways in which people communicate has rapidly evolved since the pandemic, and it is now very common for charities to conduct their meetings online or in a hybrid form.

Our revised guidance reflects this development, and emphasises the importance of following a charity’s governing document and keeping it up to date to ensure good governance.

After seeking feedback from trustees, we’ve also made the guidance shorter and easier to understand.

Through these improvements, we hope to make it easier for trustees to know what is expected of them, and how they can act in the best interests of their charities.

The guidance is available on the Charity Commission’s gov.uk page

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