Briefing Document – AGM 15th May 2007

Last year saw us still as a band of committed volunteers trying to achieve the breakthrough from endless consultation and discussion to actually getting things done. Much has changed in the world in the last twelve months. Those things that have impacted most on us and our aspirations are:

• funding from all quarters has become increasingly difficult to secure [particularly from the Big Lottery as this is now the mainstay of funding for the 2012 Olympics];
• changes have been made to the Charities Act;
• increased emphasis has been placed on the guidelines issued by the Audit Commission;
• financial pressures on local government are now at a critical level.

Above all we have become much more aware of the commercial realities of delivering services to you and the general public.

We have had to respond to all these, and have undertaken a great deal of work over the last twelve months with first-rate professional help and guidance.

This has presented us with some difficult decisions and we are proposing some significant changes that will create a strong and dynamic team, able to bring our ambitious programme of community regeneration to fruition and manage commercially sustainable facilities and amenities on your behalf.

To reflect these transitions, at the AGM we will be asking you to approve:

• the Special Resolution below which addresses the necessary changes to our Memorandum and Articles of Association (the document which sets out how we function as an organisation). You can compare this with our existing Memorandum and Articles of Association [1];
• a reduction of the number of Trustees from 15 to 7;
• the establishment of two new subsidiary Boards to deal specifically with delivering and implementing our projects.

A fuller explanation will be given at the AGM and we will be asking you to approve these changes and the composition of the new main Board.

We would very much appreciate your support in making these changes and look forward to seeing you at the AGM

To read the document below you need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader [2] which is free to download.