fjm

I give presentations for my organisation. It is an organisation concerned with governance that supports accountants.
I am passionate about governance.
My relationship with accountancy, is, let us say, a little less enthusiastic.
Feedback from my presentation at The Gathering, the big Scotland charity event.

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Very good speaker and not a wasted moment in the whole hour. Their passion for independent examination as a way to help charities to good governance really stands out.

Independent examiners - could anyone other than Farah Mendlesohn have made this more engaging - I don't think so (and no, the sharing of mints before the session didn't sway me at all). Bright, direct and informative.

This was fantastic. I learnt so much. I was expecting this to be really dry but it was really fun.
The cheerful and energetic Ms. Mendlesohn did a great job making accounting appear interesting. Lots of useful information.

Speaker knew her subject backwards and it showed!
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Not bad.

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cmcmck

Being dysnumeric I don't think anyone could make accounting seem interesting to me! :o)

Edited Date: 2025-03-11 12:26 pm (UTC)

fjm

A lot of accounting isn't actually about numbers, it's about rules.

glaurung

Always good to get such glowing feedback.

heleninwales

Well done! You seem to have found the knack of making a very dry subject interesting.

redbird

Well done!

watervole

What wonderful feedback!

With you all the way on governance. I only wish all organisations supposed doing something for the public good had to make their audited accounts public.

I know one where I'm sure money is vanishing into the chair's pocket. Committee members aren't allowed to see the accounts - well, they weren't a few years ago when I resigned over the issue... and I don't think that's changed.

That is not good. Why are the Committee members tolerating it?
Even if you are not a registered charity, you can still let the Charity Commission know.

they fall into several camps.

Several of them were brought into the committee to be nothing but yes-men. By the time we realised the chair was stacking the committee with people who did no useful work apart from voting as he wished, it was too late.

Can the Charity Commission do anything?

The organisation is Wimborne Folk Festival. So it's in a bit of a grey area. It was intended to provide a free festival and hopefully raise some money for local charities. It used to be that all committee members were volunteers, but I think it very likely that some now get paid - but there's nothing that makes that illegal...

Oh yay! Because yes there is.

If the purpose of the organisation is to raise money for local charities and the money is not all going to local charities, then they may indeed have done something illegal. See the Naomi Campbell case: https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2024/sep/26/naomi-campbell-banned-from-being-charity-trustee

Do you want to take this one to email? If so, email me at admin@acie.org.uk

I don't think the charity bit was enshrined in the constitution - just regarded as a general hope. The stated aim was to run a free folk festival for the local people.