October update from the ELCAN Board: the network’s next steps

We were delighted to see members at the Gathering on the 1st at The Fraser Centre and share our recommendations to constitute ELCAN. We welcomed our new Board Member, Peter Quinn, who joins us after a career in the business and conservation sectors having recently retired from Perth & Kinross Countryside Trust and moved to East Lothian. We are delighted to have him join us and share his diverse skills and experience. It was also an opportunity to welcome Tom & Eric who have joined the Hub Team as Communications Officer and Operations Officer respectively. Since the first seed of the idea for the East Lothian Climate Action Network was sown in 2019 we’ve grown to include almost 100 organisations, secured funding for our amazing hub team and formed a Board BUT we still can’t write our own policies, raise our own funds, or direct our activity without reference to another organisation because we are not a legally recognised body. Lil CIC has supported us from the outset to grow, to secure & hold our funding, to employ our staff and oversee the day-to-day management of the Hub which has worked really well but is not sustainable in the long term. As a Board, we believe ELCAN should become its own legal entity to:

• develop our own clear identity and build on the influence we already have
• have a clear governance structure that gives members full control of ELCANs running and development (including the Hub team)
• open up wider options for funding – as partners in collaborative initiatives and via opportunities only available to registered charities.

So, we propose to form a 2-tier Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO), and we asked 3 questions to help guide us in doing this.

1. Do you agree ELCAN should constitute as a 2-Tier SCIO?
2. Do you have any objection to the purposes proposed? yes or no and comment if you wish. Don’t worry too much about the exact wording – does it cover what you expect ELCAN to be for?
3. Do you agree that members should include both individuals and organisations?

To quickly summarise the responses to date:

1. Unanimously, yes
2. No but should perhaps include our role in policy influence and be clear that ELCAN is an umbrella organisation
3. Yes, but how would voting work / what’s the weighting between individual and organisation votes

If you weren’t able to make the event, but would like to share your views on these questions (or you were there and have thought of something you’d like to add) you can do so here: https://forms.gle/abZKTRozq21wP1iK8 The Form will be open until the end of October.

The ELCAN Board