Navinder Grover kicks off @GurdwaraAid’s National Gurdwara Conference 2022, reminding us this is a learning environment and that as well as some great speakers there is an opportunity to exchange know how with peers from gurdwaras and other Sikh charities across the UK.
Mandip Singh of @GurdwaraAid reminds us that the theme today is #Safeguarding and #Disputes and that there will be an opportunity to enjoy similar sessions at regional events including one in the #WestMidlands.
Mandip also speaks touchingly about Gurdeep Singh, Co-founder of @GurdwaraAid, who tragically passed away recently.
The work of Gurdwara Aid forms a valuable component of Gurdeep’s legacy - and in particular his commitment to volunteering in support of Sikh charities and the wider community and his gift for connecting people.
#Community #Volunteering #Connections
Next up Eleanor Morgan of the @ChtyCommission with some thoughts on good governance for faith charities.
#Charities #Faith #Governance
Among much else, Eleanor rightly highlights the confusion that often arises between the role of managing trustees and that of holding trustees within gurdwaras and other faith charities.
And, of course, Eleanor highlights both the need to take appropriate professional advice - and to prepare for the instances when things go wrong.
A helpful snapshot of the nature of the cases which the @ChtyCommission encounters involving gurdwara charities. Key governance issues are: object drift, internal disputes and poor decision making.
Next Eleanor reminds those present of the Commission’s expectations in relation to decision making - and the importance of recording decisions well.
Now Ian Davis addresses “problem cases” for charities - and constitutional compliance issues.
Internal disputes will be mentioned regularly today. I suspect we will share a desire to persuade people to avoid the situation where a Sangat is divided with large sums are spent in disputes involving friends and family members.
A few thoughts from me:
theasiantoday.com/index.php/2019…
It is good to explore commonly encountered issues, including:
- incorporating faith charities,
- using the Official Custodian to avoid the need for holding trustees,
- reviewing outdated or unnecessarily complex constitutional arrangements,
- maintaining membership records.
A lively Q&A session includes an interesting and important question from @SikhWomensAid on the role of the @ChtyCommission where a safeguarding complaint is made.
Eleanor does a great job of fielding this quickly and clearly bin the few minutes before a break.
Next up Sarah from the Commission’s Engagement team who is going to set out the Commission’s expectations around #safeguarding.
In considering Sarah’s comments on the Commission’s approach as a ‘risk based regulator’, it is hard to avoid thinking of the IICSA report on safeguarding in religious settings and the @SikhWomensAid report on domestic and sexual abuse.
It easy to treat safeguarding as just another aspect of legal compliance.
The reality is that most trustees who@find they must respond to a serious incident would do a great deal to avoid repeating the experience.
Our next speaker is Nick Donaldson of @SFITogether, formerly head of faith engagement at the Charity Commission. He will be outlining the implications of the IICSA report on Child Protection in Religious Organisations and Settings.
#Safeguarding #Charities #Faith
Nick uses a real life example from the report involving ‘Hema’ to illustrate the importance of safeguarding governance in a gurdwara context.
The final session before lunch is from Sahdaish Pall and Sukhvinder Kaur of @SikhWomensAid outlining their work, the report on domestic and sexual abuse in the Sikh community - and the work that remains to be done to reduce the prevalence of such abuse.
After a delicious lunch - I don’t often get a working lunch of rice, curry and roti - we are heading back in for the afternoon.
We also have a change of pace - with Rabbi Natan Levy telling us stories capturing the lessons of the day.
@GurdwaraAid @SFITogether #Governance
And to follow Jeeves Rohilla, also of @SFITogether, on the practical steps involved in improving safeguarding governance within a faith charity.
Jeeves offers the support and friendship of the specialist team at @SFITogether - and the news that gurdwara trustees or sevadars can join a gurdwara WhatsApp group run by @SFITogether to keep up to date on safeguarding and much more.
He also has a quiz for us …
I was not going to share the answers but since Ian and I got this one right, I’ll tell you that the answer is B: 250,000!
Jeeves also has some examples of the practical steps that your gurdwara can take to begin embedding a culture of safeguarding. And the first slide below provides a reminder of why this matters.
#Safeguarding #Culture #Governance
An interesting snippet, as Jeeves comes to a close: @SFITogether can help gurdwaras become eco-compliant.
Next Navinder Grover with a reminder that charities generally require dispute resolution support because they have failed to implement good practice guidance in areas such as:
- financial transparency,
- governance, or
- trustee engagement.
Navinder moves on to a reminder that the above good practice steps are both as important and as difficult to maintain as the recommendations many of us have received from our GPS to reduce cholesterol, exercise regularly and so on.
He moves on to another GP analogy: most judges charities see are GPs, general practitioners. When internal disputes arise, the input of specialist barristers and solicitors will often be required to ensure the parties see their cases well presented and managed. That is not cheap.
And of course that is not the only downside of litigation…
So … Is there a better option?
What might the Gurdwara Mediation and Arbitration Board (GMAB) offer?
The early neutral evaluation is an interesting feature of this approach to mediation.
How might that help gurdwaras where the Sangat or Management Committee is divided by an apparently intractable dispute?
Might arbitration also be worth considering - with the potential of a cost award to focus minds on resolving the dispute?
Many will welcome Navinder’s suggestion that the Arbitration process might be completed within 120 days for around £20,000 plus VAT.
Equally appealing is the prospect of limiting evidence exchanged (“refusing the fluff”) and involving charity law specialists who understand Sikhi
What does GMAB look like?
What now?
The day ended with some interesting break out sessions, an opportunity to feedback and more networking. It was a very useful day.
#ThankYou to all those involved in making this happen.
I look forward to pulling something similar together in Birmingham.
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