United Kingdom: ME Association news

yes, very helpful! To clarify, which document allows for payments to trustees, and which does not??

 

I had thought that the one the chairman claims is the ‘real’ articles (see https://meassociation.org.uk/2024/12/mea-statement-regarding-articles-of-association/ ), linked to as the 2014 articles, but with the date 5/12/2013 in the pdf file name, allowed such payments. However I was corrected, see above, and it is not clear that even this one allows such payment.

My head is spinning.

 

Hear hear.

And one that listens to the wider community a bit better. Their charitable objects are about providing services to people with ME, not only to their own membership.

 

But did they do that with permission of the Charity Commission?

It would go so against the basic guidance and principles of the Charity Commission as well. And I've seen a lot of procedural sloppyness from the ME Association. Also, updating your complete AoA in a new format/law adherence is a big project. This is pure speculation, but I would not be surprised if in the whole bustle of getting the project done, they forgot/neglected to ask CC permission in 2013 for the two Articles.

Which might explain why it was dropped for its amendment.

 

This is the 2014 Articles.

Using Wayback Machine, the MEA did not appear to post a copy on their site straight after the resolutions were adopted. For some time the 2013 Articles remained on the site. There are very few captures for the Policies and Documents pages on Wayback for the period 2014 to 2016. Unclear why, though it may be due to the MEA changing their platform.

Anyhoo, the earliest I could find the 2014 Articles on Wayback is from around March 2019 and they remained on the site until Riley whipped them off in December and replaced them with another document.

Possibly the file for the 2014 Articles was being prepared in 2018 for posting online but I don't know.

 

Apologies for not following the whole saga; just dropping in to help with this. The version with the 2014 creation time and 2018 modification time is this one:

https://web.archive.org/web/2020092...ion-of-Myalgic-Encephalopathy-Association.pdf

I've just compared it to the "Articles-of-Association-of-ME-Association-11.03.2014.pdf" version using the Compare tool in Adobe Creative Suite and there are no differences between those two versions.

To see PDF creation/modification dates in popular PDF reading software:

MacOS X, Preview.app: Tools -> Show Inspector (left-most tab)
Windows, Adobe Reader: Menu button -> Document Properties
Chrome PDF reader: Options menu (three dots) -> Document Properties
Adobe Creative Suite: File -> Document Properties

 

In Dx Revision Watch's post :

• Left, the AoA registered at Companies House in 2013 - allows payment to trustees for services
• Middle, the AoA registered at Companies House in 2014 -does NOT allow payment to trustees for services, unless section (c) exceptional case with CC permission
• Right, the mystery doc dated 5 Dec 2013, which was put online by the trustees with the claim that this was the AoA registered at Companies House in 2014 - allows payment to trustees for services

See the red titles in the upper right corners.


Also: Article 4 is connected to 28, link

 

Merci!

(I had that one in front of my nose this morning, missed the file name and latere wondered about this doc, ha!)

 

I thought they appeared online in June/July 2018? For Jan-June 2018 (and earlier?) I thought there was no AoA at all posted in the policy section of the ME Association website, but I'd have to check again, I might have been mistaken.

 

Here are the three versions side by side: 2013 Articles on Companies House; 2014 Articles on Companies House (which Riley says is the wrong document); and the document that Riley has replaced the file of the 2014 Articles with on their own website:

 

I thought he was implying that the CH's "full version" was because it included 2013's section (a) or something.
The statement also says, still up and in big, bolded letters, that "The current version of the Articles, as registered with Companies House in 2014, does not forbid such payments." So it's not exactly compiled carefully....

 

The last time I looked, I could not find a copy captured on the Policies and Documents page before March 2019, but I'll check again for 2018. If it was posted somewhere else on the site, I was only looking at the P & D pages.

I find that PDFs on Wayback won't always load.

 

I don't know what he was implying.

 

Good question. My understanding is that such a change would have required authorisation from the CC.

From: https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...com#changing-your-charitys-governing-document:

As I said above, the CC has been contacted to request all the relevant information, so hopefully answers will be forthcoming.

 

Although I read through the model ones and those are in there - so I guess associations/companies that don’t can amend/remove

 

Which becomes a vicious circle of course (only serving membership —> membership only those who match their values etc)

 

I've just checked again and July 2 2018 looks to be the earliest on the P & D page.

 

One has to ask why they left the 2013 Articles up for so long and when they eventually took down the 2013 Articles, why they did not upload a copy of the 2014 Articles seemingly, until July 2018?

Between 2015 and 2016 I see only one capture for the P & D page.

 

Depends which type of lawyer he was .

 

And none on 4 June 2018. This matches with the modification date for the PDF, 28 June 2018.

(Thanks for checking!)