Bulletin Contents - 23 January 2007

BBC Radio Derby’s Money Mountain

Important Legal Updates for Voluntary Sector Companies

Annual Return for Charities

Public Spaces Licensed for Events

Funding Volunteer Centres

Vacancy - The Grapevine Cafe/Project

Vacancy - Volunteering Derbyshire Co-ordinator

Threat to National Lottery Funding – an Appeal from NAVCA

Need To Advertise Your Event?

Community Ownership of Local Buildings

Your Contribution Wanted!

Desks and Rooms for Hire

BBC Radio Derby’s Money Mountain

Do you know a fund raising project that needs an injection of cash? BBC Radio Derby’s Money Mountain is now looking for this year’s appeal beneficiaries. It annually raises tens of thousands of pounds to support charities and groups across Derbyshire and East Staffordshire.

The simple application process for this year’s appeal is starting now and closes at the end of March. If you would like more details email derby@bbc.co.uk or ring 01332 361111. You can also find out more about past Money Mountain appeals at bbc.co.uk/derby

Since its launch in 1983, the station’s listeners and supporters have helped dozens of local charities and organisations - with over one million pounds pumped into local initiatives. .

Important Legal Updates for Voluntary Sector Companies

Sector legal adviser Sandy Adirondack has produced her summary of the provisions of the Companies Act 2006 (passed in November) that will affect voluntary sector companies (charitable companies and companies limited by guarantee, community interest companies). As she points, other summaries of the Act may well not give adequate consideration to the differences between the various types of companies and therefore could be misleading. The Act is the longest-ever piece of legislation in the UK and this important summary, about as short as it can be, will still take a bit of digesting. www.sandy-a.co.uk/managing.htm#companiesact.

Much of the Companies Act won't come into effect for a while, but some start from 20th January, including enabling company information to be sent electronically. www.sandy-a.co.uk/managing.htm#companycommunications.

From 1st January 2007, the Companies Act 1985 rules relating to the information that must be on company documents are amended and explicitly extended to include order forms, electronic documents and web sites. As ever, Sandy gives a practical interpretation, at www.sandy-a.co.uk/managing.htm#e-disclosure. NB the regulations were only laid before Parliament on 21st December, so don't feel bad about having missed the start date!

In the next issue of the CVS newsletter, CommuniCation, which will be published in February, will contain an update of the changes.

Annual Return for Charities

The Charity Commission is proposing to make a number of changes to the Annual Return required from all registered charities for 2007. Larger charities, with a turnover above £500,000, would need to estimate the number of UK volunteers "available for part or full time use by the charity at its financial year end date". There has already been some concern expressed about the amount of work this might involve, but the consultation does say "we recognise that this information may not be readily available to all".

Along with a new serious incident reporting section, there will be a new Part B to the return which contains links to advice on key topics tailored to each charity’s individual circumstances, fitting in with their move to encourage online submission. There are some reductions in reporting elsewhere. 'Annual Returns: the way forward - a consultation on plans for AR07' at www.charitycommission.gov.uk/enhancingcharities/consultar2007.asp. Responses by 19th March..

Public Spaces Licensed for Events

A 'Register of Local Authority Licensed Public Spaces in England and Wales' has been put together by the Department of Culture Media and Sport. The idea is make it easier to stage live performances and events in public spaces, particularly to help traveling performers locate venues. While event organisers won't need to apply for a new premises licence or give a temporary event notice themselves, they will still need to get the permission of the relevant local authority. The Register is at  www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/Alcohol_entertainment/licensed_public_spaces2.htm. Not all local authorities have provided information yet, although High Peak has..

Funding Volunteer Centres

A report on 'A Sustainable Funding Framework for Volunteer Centres', produced by Northampton Volunteering Centre for the Volunteering Hub, has been published. This is part of developing a modernised high-quality network across England.

The funding formula it comes up with is:
Funding amount = (£56,000 + (POPULATION – 9.2) x 85.25 + (AREA – 290) x 0.193 + (IMD – 5.09) x 1711.8 + (AUTHORITIES – 1) x 5094.4) x ACA.

For an explanation etc. download summary in pdf (139kb), or full the report (1.05MB) from www.volunteering.org.uk/campaignsandpolicies/whatwearesaying/..

Vacancy - The Grapevine Cafe/Project

A Buxton charity which supports people who experience mental health difficulties is looking for a Cafe Supervisor, responsible for supervising the day to day running of the cafe and to support the volunteers in their cafe roles.

Initially for a 6-month fixed term contract, 20 hours per week (times to be negotiated) Salary £5.50 per hour

For an application form and further details contact:
Grapevine Cafe, 15 Scarsdale Place, Buxton, Derbyshire. SK17 6EF
Tel: 01298 72283 or e-mail: julie@grapevine15.wanadoo.co.uk

Closing date - Monday 29th January 2007
Interviews - Tuesday 6th February 2007 .

Vacancy: Volunteering Derbyshire Co-ordinator

30 hours per week (funding until March 2008)
NJC Scale PO pt 35 £27,492 pro rata + pension
Secondments will be considered.

Derby CVS are looking for an individual who is enthusiastic and committed to developing volunteering.   You will be taking the lead on the development of the Volunteering Derbyshire Network of eight Volunteer Centres.  Your aim is to develop the Network into a strategic platform, within a quality framework, to promote and develop volunteering across Derbyshire.

Derby CVS is one of the first Volunteer Centres in the region to achieve quality accreditation and from this position you will be working to ensure the same services are available across the county.

Application deadline:
12 noon on Friday 2nd February 2007
Interviews week beginning 12th February 2007

For an application pack write to Recruitment, Derby CVS, 4 Charnwood Street, Derby, DE1 2GT, enclosing a large (A4) 50p SAE or visit the jobs section at
www.derbycvs.co.uk

Threat to National Lottery Funding – an Appeal from NAVCA

Kevin Curley, Chief Executive of NAVCA (National Association for Voluntary and Community Action – our national body), has written to all CVS Chief Officers about  the threat that the London Olympics poses to lottery funding for local voluntary and community groups.

He writes “The Government is short of a least £900m for the Olympics. Ministers are fighting over how to fund the Olympics. The Chancellor wants the National Lottery to provide the money. If this happens the Big Lottery Fund, Sport England, the Arts Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund will all lose large amounts of money, much of which would otherwise go to the local voluntary and community sector.

He asks that all voluntary and community groups act:

1. Write a letter to Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer, at the following address telling him that the Government should fund the Olympics without depriving the National Lottery distributors of the funds needed to support local voluntary and community sector activities.
   
   Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP
   Chancellor of the Exchequer
   HM Treasury
   1 Horse Guards Road
   LONDON    
   SW1A 2HQ
   
   
2. Please write also to Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport at the following address asking her not to take money away from the National Lottery distributors in order the support the Olympics.
   
   Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP
   Secretary of State
   Department for Culture, Media and Sport
   2-4 Cockspur Street
   LONDON   
   SW1Y 5DH
   
   
3. Please copy any letters you write to Ed Miliband the Third Sector Minister in the Office of the Third Sector and to Dawn Primarolo the Paymaster General at the Treasury who leads on the VCS for the Treasury.
   
   Rt Hon Ed Miliband  MP                                  Rt Hon Dawn Primarolo MP
   Minister for the Third Sector                           Paymaster General
   Cabinet Office                                                 HM Treasury
   70 Whitehall                                                    1 Horse Guards Road
   LONDON                                                         LONDON
   SW1A 2AS                                                      SW1A 2HQ
   
   
4. Perhaps most importantly, write to your own local MP or MPs telling them why National Lottery funds are so important for the people served by voluntary organisations and community groups in your area. Please put the emphasis on the services, opportunities and activities which local people will lose as a result of a dramatic reduction in National Lottery funding.
   

Please take some time to write and help protect the Lottery for the benefit of local voluntary and community groups.

Need To Advertise Your Event?

Community groups trying to advertise their events will know how difficult is to find shops that will display posters to help spread the word. Well, help is at hand.

The management of Spring Gardens Shopping Centre in Buxton are in the process of producing a large information board for visitors with details about shops and jobs in the Centre.

They are also offering to make space for a community notice board so local groups may freely advertise their events. This will probably be placed at the car park entrance by Marks & Spencer, but may take a month or two before it is actually sited.

However, in the meantime, the management have kindly offered the use of a smaller notice board- already in place, in the same area. Anyone wanting to put a poster up should leave it at Spring Gardens Centre management suite which can be found adjacent to the notice board.  

If possible, keep the size of posters and notices to A4 or preferably smaller- to allow maximum use of the space.

Spring gardens Shopping Centre is a member of Vision Buxton – a business organisation representing over 5000 people locally that provides practical support and advice to businesses and the local community.

Community Ownership of Local Buildings

The DCLG is looking at the barriers which prevent local authorities from transferring the ownership of buildings and other assets to the local voluntary and community sector. The Review is led by Barry Quirk (Chief Executive of Lewisham Council) and reports to Ruth Kelly, Secretary of State in DCLG, in March. If you have experience (successful or unsuccessful) of persuading local authorities to transfer buildings to the community for social or economic purposes, please feed into the review. For a short background paper and a list of the key issues the review is examining please contact: Robin.Lee@communities.gsi.gov.uk

Your Contribution Wanted!

A reminder that each issue of CommuniCation, the CVS newsletter, includes a section called “Community Space” This is an opportunity to feature news from local voluntary and community sector groups and organisations, and tell 800 others what you’ve been up to.

The next edition is out in February. If you would like to submit an article, please email it to me (tony@highpeakcvs.org.uk) by next Monday (29th January).

Some guidelines about what to include, size of articles etc can be found at www.highpeakcvs.org/newsletter/index.asp

Desks and Rooms for Hire

New Mills Volunteer Centre have desk space for rent and a  number of rooms for hire.

Desk Space - suitable for one worker. Terms and conditions open to negotiation.

Room Hire

1. Large Meeting Room - will hold up to 40 people theatre style and can be divided into two smaller rooms
   
   
2. Board Room- suitable for meetings of up to ten people
   
   
3. Small Interview Room - for one to one interviews or counseling

Charges are currently £10 per hour for the large room and £6 per hour for any of the smaller ones.

For more information or to make arrangements to view ring Dorothy Scapens on 01663 744196.