Unwitting Bias in Selecting New Shetland Charitable Trust Trustees?

Congratulations to the new Charitable Trust trustees on being selected and I wish them luck taking it forward.

I cannot help noticing though that no less than five of the new trustees are also members of Shetland health board.

I know they are all people who will have the interests of the trust at heart, but I can’t help wondering how they all happened to get there.
Historically there has been no link between Shetland health board and the trust and it may well be in the best interests of Shetland for them to act together in future for our benefit.

However it does raise the question was this planned or was it a happy accident?

If it was planned I feel it was a bit dishonest to look for independent trustees Or was there unwitting bias in the selection process?

The independent consultant who organised the recruitment of trustees was previously involved in recruiting for public appointments for the Scottish government.

Did previous experience help those who had gone through it before?

I must say that this is not sour grapes on my part. I went through an interview and felt I could have done far better.

Shetland deserves the best trustees it can get. I feel the Shetland public need an answer.

Reform of the Shetland Charitable Trust

As a former employee of the Shetland Charitable Trust I have taken a keen interest in the proposals for its reform. The only options available are those that fit into the legal framework that OSCR is the guardian of. Returning the SCT’s assets to the SIC is impossible under present legislation. The only options are for the reformed trust to change its constitution again.

When the present reform proposals were shown to OSCR they could only comment on whether the proposals met the requirements of charity law, they could not comment on whether it was best for Shetland. They would be open to considering a revised constitution in a year’s time and again would only comment on whether it met trust law.

I consider the proposal for Shetland people to boycott the appointment process to be incredibly short sighted. What we need to do is for as many local people to apply to be trustees and for those appointed to press for a new constitution allowing for elected trustees. It is your money, you should decide how it is spent.