A guide to third sector trading - WCVA

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It’s an idea, but is it business? A guide to third sector trading 1: Getting started 2: First steps 3: Business planning 4: Legal and governance 5: Funding and resourcing 6: Financial controls 7: Managing growth 8: Management and governance 9: Social enterprise 10: Sources of support 2.4 Forming the steering group The purpose of the steering group: An important early stage for most new organisations is the formation of a temporary steering group whose job is to plan the new trading venture and help to set up its first board. This is useful, even for established bodies and groups of people who are already firmly committed to the trading venture or who don’t intend to involve a wider community. It provides: • A flexible, open-ended forum for discussion and planning which can easily be opened up later to local residents, partner bodies and others. • A forum for discussing and consulting on your plans. • A clear separation from any existing community or charitable organisation which is promoting or supporting the new enterprise to start independently. • A dedicated task group which can manage the development of the enterprise under the control of an existing organisation. • A transitional stage before people are required to commit themselves; you can’t ask people to become directors of a trading company before they know what it will do or what their responsibilities will be, so you are simply asking supporters to help to set up the project. • Other advantages: − it gives you time to plan at a pace which suits the people involved − you can build the team gradually by identifying missing skills and recruiting other individuals before you establish the company − you can use the steering group phase to start developing the knowledge and skills of potential directors. Forming the steering group: The membership of your steering group will depend where you are starting from. New organisations and community organisations should try to make the membership as broad as possible. Depending on your starting point, you will may well want to include: • representatives of the ‘promoting’ organisation which is helping to get things started • partners in other organisations • someone running similar enterprises elsewhere • people with particular skills 32
It’s an idea, but is it business? A guide to third sector trading 1: Getting started 2: First steps 3: Business planning 4: Legal and governance 5: Funding and resourcing 6: Financial controls 7: Managing growth 8: Management and governance 9: Social enterprise 10: Sources of support • individuals and representatives from other groups with similar interests or aims or the community at large • support workers such as community development staff • potential users of your services • local councillors. Constituting the steering group: There are advantages to new organisations formally constituting their steering group as a simple unincorporated community association. (Your local county voluntary council can provide a basic off-the-peg constitution to give you a group with a committee and officers and some basic rules.) The benefits of this are: • simple rules for meetings and membership etc help meetings to run smoothly and prevent arguments • running a small community organisation is good training for inexperienced members before they take on the responsibilities of directors • a constituted group can apply for small grants for items like stationery and meeting expenses, or for consultancy work for feasibility studies and business plans. Keeping up the momentum: After the first one or two meetings you should start some serious planning work together. This helps to build a team with shared objectives and understanding. You will need to: • Hold meetings regularly and frequently to keep up the pace – every two weeks is usually best at this stage, monthly is too infrequent. • Keep meetings open to newcomers, even if you have a constituted committee. • Encourage a mix of people to take part – the best planning is done by people with a variety of different backgrounds and interests. • If key people are missing send them personal invitations or try gentle persuasion. • Set the right pace: − map out the tasks you need to get through and set yourselves targets − work at a rate which most people feel comfortable with − don’t go too fast, but don’t repeat discussions just because someone has missed a meeting 33
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