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Asian Voice | 25th November 2017
AsianVoiceNewsweekly
Pratik Dattani
Good governance is not just about rules, or ticking boxes. It is about attitudes and culture, and whether a charity puts its values into practice. More than that, it is about minimising bad practice, about realising an organisation’s potential and helping it reach that in a sustainable manner. This article helps you understand how charities can improve their effectiveness and the role of a trustee in doing so. Trustees hold responsibility and power for the strategic vision and management of charities. It is a position with legal responsibilities. A trustee must ensure they are committed to the charity’s cause, recognise that meeting a charity’s stated public benefit is an ongoing requirement, and are committed to good governance. They should read the Charity Commission’s The Essential Trustee document and well understand their charity’s governing document. Trustees may be wellmeaning, but may lack sufficient knowledge about their responsibilities. Often, they may not have read these documents or, if they have been trustees for a long time, ensured they refresh their memories on a regular basis. One of the biggest responsibilities of a trustee is the legal responsibility for the charity’s management and administration. Trustees are expected to identify and assess risks, determine funding and resource requirements, and fundraise legally and responsibly. Trustees should ensure the charity has clearly articulated Investment and Reserves
policies. A charity cannot take undue risk with funds, but equally, if they have substantial Unrestricted Funds, should avoid holding them just as Cash At Bank (which yields a poor return at the bank). If they deal with cash on a regular basis (such as template donations) good governance dictates having a robust process in place to handle such funds. A good charity anticipates and resolves potential disputes before they happen. The Charity Governance Code specifically says a board’s culture, behaviours and processes must help it to be effective. This includes accepting and resolving challenges or different views. There must be a culture where different views can be shared and disputes can be resolved. One trustee must not be able to unilaterally take decisions without consulting others.
The Code says that small charities should have a good mix in its trustee appointments – in other words, people of different backgrounds, but also ages. It says that a Board of five to 12 trustees is considered good practice; but more could be too big. New appointments should be made on merit, and with a formal, rigorous procedure. Many Hindu charities fail in this regard – trustees tend to be family members or friends, and often of an older age group. By contrast, South Asian arts charity Akademi has ten trustees from across a range of backgrounds, and a defined process for identifying and onboarding additions. The public’s trust that a charity is delivering public benefit is fundamental to its reputation and success, and by extension, the success of the wider sector. Therefore, a charity must be clear and coherent in giving out information to other stakeholders.
Trustees must ensure the charity collaborates with stakeholders to promote ethical conduct. The board should make sure it speaks to stakeholders about significant changes to the charity’s services or policies. Financial scandals related to mismanagement and misappropriation of funds by charities can shake public confidence in charities. Any breach of financial reporting obligations can compel the Charity Commission to take drastic steps. The Tamil charity Sivayogam was ordered by the Charity Commission to suspend its founder-trustee for not being able to account for the proper use of all grants and donations, and for other regulatory issues. Kid’s Company was closed last year due to mismanagement of funds. All trustees collectively need to decide, plan and review how the charity will carry out its activities and keep themselves updated about the legal and regulatory requirements that need to be followed. For a membership organisation, if there are insufficient members attending the AGM, nonmembers should not be provided voting rights by default. Every trustee should be clear about the charity’s aims and ensure these are being delivered effectively and sustainably. It is necessary that a trustee devotes enough time and energy to prepare and participate actively in all the trustee meetings. For example, a leading Hindu community charity has over £2m as their fund balances, but provide only unaudited accounts, and two of their three trustees rarely come to the UK, making best practice governance a challenge. Many of the tips in this article should how good governance could be done. It may differ for larger and smaller charities. But the overall principles should be universal. If you want to find out more, or want to be a part of our upcoming charity trustee training sessions, then email us at contact@charityclarity.org.uk.
2:1 graduate sues Oxford University for £1 million 39-year-old Oxford University graduate, Faiz Siddiqui, who acquired a 2:1 in June 2000, is suing the university, allegedly claiming his degree cost him a prosperous legal career. Siddiqui, who studied at Brasenose College is suing
the university for £1 million, alleging that the “inadequate” teaching on his modern history course resulted in him getting an upper second class degree. It is said that he has criticised the teaching on the Indian special subject that
was part of his course. He also goes on to allege that his tutor had failed to submit medical information about him. However, Oxford University denies the allegation and says the case is “massively” outside the legal time limit.
To celebrate 70 momentous years of India’s Independence, the foremost Indian violinist/composer L. Subramaniam and the multi-platinum iconic singer Kavita Krishnamurti Subramaniam along with the London Symphony Orchestra and London Voices conducted by Maestro Josep Vicent will premiere the Bharat Symphony and Fantasy on Vedic Chants (violin concerto) in UK at the Barbican Concert Hall on the 28th of November. Bharat Symphony was commissioned by The City of Chicago to celebrate the 70th year of India’s Independence, and was premiered at the Chicago World Music Festival on 9th of September 2017 at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion with Kavita Krishnamurti Subramaniam as the soloist. The piece is an elegant tapestry of Indian culture in four movements, symbolizing the four major periods of Indian heritage: the prehistoric Vedic period; the Mughal period; the British period and finally, the post-Independence modern period. The first movement incorporates melodic chants from Rigveda, a sacred text in the Sanskrit language, believed to be 5,000 years old. In the second movement, the Islamic and Mughal influences which were prevalent after the 11th century are interwoven into the structure of the composition, by introducing Hindustani instruments like tabla. The third movement focuses on the interplay of various modes of orchestral music, with an emphasis on the violin which was reintroduced
photo courtesy: Jatin Kampani
Good governance in Hindu Bharat Symphony to mark charities: A trustee’s guide UK India Year of Culture
Dr. L. Subramaniam and Kavita Krishnamurti Subramaniam
during the British Raj period. The fourth movement symbolises the post Indian Independence period, and traces its global influence over the last seventy years. Fantasy on Vedic Chants was written at the request of Maestro Zubin Mehta for the India Festival and was premiered on September 12 1985 performed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Maestro Zubin Mehta at the Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Centre. Selected works by Dr. L. Subramaniam including Fantasy on Vedic Chants are available through Schott Publishing. In the first part of the concert Dr. L. Subramaniam, together with the Indian musicians Dhulipala Srirama Murthy (mridangam) and Tanmoy Bose (tabla) perform an Indian classical music set. The second part of the concert sees the prestigious London Symphony Orchestra and the London Voices conducted by Maestro Josep Vicent join Kavita Krishnamurti Subramaniam for the UK premieres of Bharat Symphony and the violin concerto Fantasy on Vedic Chants with Dr. L. Subramaniam as the
soloist. The late world celebrated violinist and conductor Yehudi Menuhin said, “I find nothing more inspiring than the music making of my very great colleague Subramaniam. Each time I listen to him, I am carried away in wonderment.” Kathryn McDowell, Managing Director of the London Symphony Orchestra, said, “The London Symphony Orchestra is delighted to bring to a close this wonderful year of cultural exchange and celebration marking 70 years since India's independence. The Orchestra first visited India in 1964 and returned in 2010 & 2014, and looks forward to returning in future years. It is hugely exciting to work again with Dr. L. Subramaniam, and so many leading Indian musicians working together with musicians from different cultures enriches all of our musicmaking enormously.” This concert is the final event in the UK-India Year of Culture (India@UK2017), a bilateral initiative to mark the deep cultural ties between India and the UK and the 70th anniversary of India’s Independence.
ing talents of thousands of children through creative writing workshops and the annual competition. Forty-five young writers whose poetry, short stories and articles were the standout entries this year have now been shortlisted. Their submissions have been assessed by an internationally renowned panel of judges including awardwinning children’s author of Orangeboy, Patrice Lawrence, Director of The Royal Society of Literature, Tim Robertson and awardwinning author and comic writer G Willow Wilson. Chairman of Muslim Hands, Syed Lakhte Hassanain, comments: “This year’s entries are once again remarkable! Young people of all ages from dif-
ferent corners of the country have taken part in the competition. The pieces written for the competition have been truly inspiring. It is amazing to see young people write so skillfully and with such creativity. As the work of young people continuously improves in its quality, it becomes more challenging for our judges to select the best pieces of work. Young people and children are incredibly talented individuals and we must support them in their development of learning, as it will help them achieve more and also thrive. At Muslim Hands, this is what we are motivated by – in both our international development work and in our UK community projects.”
Winners to be announced at 7th annual ‘Young Muslim Writers Awards’ ceremony After receiving hundreds of entries, winners of the Young Muslim Writers Awards 2017, a Muslim Hands project presented in association with the Yusuf Islam Foundation, will be announced on the 9th December at Muslim Hands’ annual ceremony celebrating young literary talent. Award-winning author Patrice Lawrence will be amongst those presenting trophies to the winners alongside an exciting lineup of performers. The Young Muslim Writers Awards, initially set up as a standalone competition for 5 – 16 year olds in 2010, following its success as part of Muslim Hands’ Muslim Writers Awards. Since then, it has encouraged and nurtured the writ-