Meeting the challenge: All Friends in an Area Meeting need to consider its future, says Mary Aiston

‘I hope we will not just leave these issues to our trustees – we should all be taking an interest.’

Is your Area Meeting (AM) a vibrant and thriving spiritual community? What will your AM look like in five years’ time? Ten years’, twenty? What proportion of your AM’s energy, money and capacity is spent running the AM itself? Is it easy to find Friends to serve as trustees?

If you were already thinking about these questions then read on. If you were not, now would be a good time to start. Why not begin by asking to see your AM’s most recent trustees’ annual report and accounts, or speak to one of your AM trustees?

Our trustees do an important job, ensuring: that our resources are properly stewarded; that risks are identified and managed; that we understand our financial position; and that we plan for the future. We are lucky to have so many Friends willing to take on this role. As a member of Quaker Stewardship Committee, which reports to Yearly Meeting and provides support and advice to trustees, I have met some fantastic Friends who give their time in these roles, but I hope we will not just leave these issues to our trustees – we should all be taking an interest.

What follows is primarily of interest to Friends in England and Wales because the rules are different in Scotland. Nineteen AMs have been excepted from having to register with the Charity Commission. That is because the government has extended the deadline for excepted charities to register, and we have a choice about how we use that breathing space. 

In England and Wales, an Area Meeting is an excepted charity if its income is £100,000 or less. It must comply with charity law but does not need to register with the Charity Commission or submit annual returns there. Its trustees have the same responsibilities as trustees of any other charity. The exception from registration was due to run out on 31 March 2021, but this deadline has been extended to 31 March 2031. This extension is intended to give excepted charities time to prepare for registration and to allow the Charity Commission time to register all excepted organisations in a coordinated way.

It would be understandable if trustees of excepted AMs breathed a sigh of relief at this point, and prioritised other work. But I hope they won’t do that, or at least not just yet. Instead, I hope all Friends in excepted Area Meetings will take the opportunity for prayerful consideration of how they operate, because if Friends want to make any changes to their structures it is easier to do that before the AM has to register. 

It is important to remember that, while thinking about how AMs work raises lots of practical issues, for Friends this is always a spiritual exercise requiring prayer and discernment.

It can be difficult to know where to start but these may be useful prompts:

• Is your AM a vibrant and thriving spiritual community? 

• What will your AM look like in five years’ time, in ten years, in twenty years? 

• What proportion of your AM’s energy, money and capacity is spent on running the AM itself? 

• Is it easy to find Friends willing to serve as trustees for your AM?

Once you have considered those questions you may be ready to focus on how your AM is organised;

• Are there other options for organising your AM that would make it easier to run?

• Are there other options that would make it easier to find Friends to serve as trustees?

If you are not sure what options might be available to you, the good news is that other Friends are already thinking about these issues and identifying different ways forward.

Meetings have much more permission to do things differently than people sometimes think. For example, the centrally-run Simpler Meetings Project aims to find ways to reduce the burden on key role holders and its webpage (www.quaker.org.uk/simplermeetings) is a great place to look for ideas.

Friends in Wales are exploring the scope for a single trustee body and single charity for Meeting of Friends in Wales.

Friends in London recognise that their structure of nine charities involves a lot of work. It means that, out of around 1,300 London Friends, they have to find sixty-seven trustees and forty-seven treasurers.

One option is a single charity with one set of trustees for the whole of London while keeping the seven Area Meetings. But that is not the only option, others are being considered too. In other parts of the country neighbouring AMs are exploring different ways to collaborate, or merging altogether.

Another big question to think about is whether your AM wants to become a Charitable Incorporated Organisation or CIO (SCIOs in Scotland). Some AMs have already gone down this route and others are thinking about it. Briefly, the benefits include limiting the legal liability on individual trustees, which might make it easier to find Friends willing to serve as trustees.

The drawbacks are the work involved in becoming incorporated, which is likely to require legal advice and changes to bank accounts. AMs that have converted to CIOs have found that it has made little difference to their ongoing administration or governance.

Of course, not all excepted AMs will decide they want to change their structures. But if you do then it is easier to do that before registering with the Charity Commission, so now is a good time to be thinking about this.

And if your excepted AM decides not to make any changes then I would still recommend that you keep a focus on the work needed to register with the Charity Commission.

Most of what is needed is good practice for all charities – in particular, agreeing a schedule of the property your AM owns, and documenting your relationship with any linked charities. Your successors will be very grateful you kept this work moving!

If this all sounds rather daunting then the good news is that there is help available. The Quakers in Britain website has lots of information (including more on CIOs). Go to www.quaker.org.uk/trustees. The model documents referred to are available from Neil Jarvis at qsc@quaker.org.uk.

You can also get help from your Quaker Stewardship Committee Link Friend. Clerks to AM trustees should know who this is, and Neil Jarvis can help put you in touch. Members of Quaker Stewardship Committee look forward to hearing from you.

Mary is from Quaker Stewardship Committee.

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