Read what I quoted more carefully, please. It specifically says that
leaving the board before taking up the position isn't enough.
On 10 April 2013 14:23, Ilario Valdelli <valdelli(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Personal answer...
You are giving examples and references not compatible with this case.
For instance you give a link of paragraph entitled "payment of a trustee",
but I have not received any payment and I am still a volunteer.
You refer to this specific case: "In the case of a trustee *also being
employed* in a separate post within the charity, or *a trustee being paid
for a service provided* to the charity, the conflict of interest may result
in a liability to repay salary or other related benefits", but *I am not
employed yet and I received no payments for my service.
*It has been unclear that Wikimedia CH will have the General Assembly the
27th April and in that date the board will change. I will start to work
from 1st May.
As per Swiss bylaws I have been a board member and I did it as volunteer.
I suppose that you have misunderstood
Please be careful of speaking about COI and please do it using the right
examples.
Regards
On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 1:13 PM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton(a)gmail.com>wrote;wrote:
On 10 April 2013 08:10, Charles Andrès
<charles.andres.wmch(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Hello Thomas,
Thanks for asking!
In fact, it was as easy as said :-) Ilario has just never been involved
in the
recruitment process. In WMCH we believe that the conflict of
interest is not solved with the resignation, but giving the whole process
in the hands of a committee.
Thank you for clarifying, but it really isn't that easy... Did you
seek professional advice from either a charity lawyer or a charity
governance expert?
I don't know how these things work in Switzerland, but the relevant
guidance from the UK Charity Commission can be found here:
http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/Charity_requirements_guidance/Charity_g…
"In the case of a trustee also being employed in a separate post
within the charity, or a trustee being paid for a service provided to
the charity, the conflict of interest may result in a liability to
repay salary or other related benefits. It should not be assumed that
such conflict can be overcome merely by the person concerned resigning
as a trustee, either before or after taking up the post. The only
instance where authority may not be needed is where, practically, the
trustees can show that there is no conflict of interest. In our view,
this is confined to the fairly narrow circumstance where the trustee
concerned:
* has had no significant involvement with the trustees’ decision to
create or retain the post, or with any material aspect of the
recruitment process
* where that person resigns as a trustee in order to apply for the
employed post in advance of a fair and open competition for it
All other circumstances require an express authority. "
"Authority" in this context means either an express authority in the
governing documents of the charity, a court order or permission from
the Charity Commission.
Under UK guidance, the approach you took would not be at all acceptable.
This is a very serious matter. A charity paying a trustee (other than
to reimburse actual expenses incurred) is probably the biggest
conflict of interest you can get. It needs to be handled extremely
carefully.
Can you elaborate on how the decision to create the post was carried
out (presumably it was part of your annual planning process)? Was
Ilario involved in that?
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--
Ilario Valdelli
Wikimedia CH
Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens
Association pour l’avancement des connaissances libre
Associazione per il sostegno alla conoscenza libera
Switzerland - 8008 Zürich
Tel: +41764821371
http://www.wikimedia.ch
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