The management committee is a wider group than the board of directors and trustees and include representative from statutory and voluntary bodies who may not wish to or be allowed to be on the board. In addition, staff are invited onto the management committee as are residents/ the homeless clients. But as important as their views are they cannot vote for board decisions.

Peter Kerr: Is our chairman.

Teresa Hall: Is involved especially in fund raising for our capital projects but undertakes a variety of tasks and networks extensively.

Julie Ward: Is a volunteer for the Shelter and keeps everyone abreast of issues that crop up on the equipment side. She helps with the fundraising and procurement and also recruits for the committee.

Julie Brice: Legal expertise

Paulin Hart: Local authority and housing expertise

Lynne McMorris: Local revenue expertise

Introduction for Trustees

Colchester Night Shelter is a charity and a company limited by guarantee. The board of directors and trustees are bound by law to oversee the operations of the Shelter and ensure that the financial and operational basis of the organisation is sound.

In the past 5-10 years the weight of legislation aimed to protect the public and service users, (be it through Health and Safety regulations or Protection of Vulnerable Adults initiatives or indeed human resources law) has grown phenomenally.

This has led to potential trustees being somewhat wary of taking on the responsibility of governing a charitable organisation.

This pack aims to explain what the duties and responsibilities are going to be and to reassure the new trustees that the Night Shelter is a well governed organisation that is safe to work for as well as rewarding.

We try to make sure that there is a wide range of skills, talents and experience on the board in order to provide the best possible support for the organisation, the people who work for it and the homeless people it is set up to help.

Although the new trustee will be expected to undertake tasks now and then as well as attend the quarterly meetings, the work load cannot be said to be onerous. Individuals are invited to take on work as and when they are able to do so.

If you chose to join the board, we hope that you will find this pack helpful. You can also attend a preliminary meeting to experience for yourself what our meetings are like and you can arrange to come into the Night Shelter and talk to the Co-ordinator about the work of the organisation.

Peter Kerr
Chairman of the Night Shelter board of trustees and directors.

Trustees Pack

If you are interested in learning more the following information may be useful to download.