CHE Research Trust: roles and duties of trustees

Appointment of trustees

1. The initial Board of trustees were nominated by the Transition Team of CHE, who should ensure a degree of continuity with the existing leadership.
2. Additional or replacement trustees will be appointed by the Board when necessary.
3. The constitution states that in the appointment of future trustees the Board must ‘have regard to the skills, knowledge and experience needed for the effective administration of a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO)’. This also holds good for the choice of the original trustees.
4. The Constitution requires the number or trustees to be between 3 and 9, but in practice there should be at least 5 in office at all times.
5. All trustees should have:
   1. the skills, knowledge and experience needed for effective decision-making
   2. a respect for the objects and intentions of the CIO
   3. a commitment to reasonable and prudent disbursal of funds
   4. a passion for the well-being and rights of LGBT+ people
   5. an interest and enthusiasm for LGBT+ history, in particular the history and, influence of CHE and its contribution to changes in law and social attitudes;
   6. a willingness to learn and to work to improve performance both as individual trustees and collectively as members of a decision-taking Board
   7. sufficient computer literacy to be able to manage written papers sent electronically and to participate in online meetings.
6. The Board as a whole should:
   1. represent the diversity of the LGBT+ community
   2. include a variety of relevant skills and experience, for instance academic research, publishing, social media, charity administration, and fundraising.
   3. include one or more people with previous experience as a charity trustee.

Duties of Board members

7. All trustees are expected to bring their relevant knowledge, their life experience, their experience as committee members or as trustees of other organisations, and above all their fair and objective judgment, to all issues that come before them.
8. As such words as ‘trust’ and ‘trustees’ clearly imply, trustees should understand the importance of their personal integrity and unfettered judgment undergirding all their dealings and relationships as trustees.

Board procedures

9. The Board will meet at regular intervals; probably every other month to begin with. If intervals between meetings are too long then the Board will find it more difficult to find a collective voice, agendas will become overlong, and frustration at the pace of decision-taking may build up.
10. The Board should concentrate on strategic and significant decisions and not get bogged down in small details. If detailed work is judged to be necessary on a particular issue, proposal or project, an individual Board member or a sub-committee should be appointed to go into the issue and report back to the Board.
11. Meetings will be held sometimes in person and sometimes by Zoom or comparable platform.
12. All matters except those requiring simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ decisions will be taken on the basis of written papers circulated beforehand, at least a week before the agreed date of a meeting.
13. All decisions will be recorded in draft Minutes circulated within a week of a meeting taking place. The draft Minutes will provide a sufficient record for urgent actions to be taken, subject to confirmation at the next Board meeting