The Future of Sustainable Staffordshire

Our purpose

To bring enthusiasts and experts together to take action in Staffordshire that reduces human depletion of all natural resources and its consequences, such as pollution, habitat loss and climate change, so that the needs of the present generation can be met without compromising the ability of  future generations to meet  their needs.

Our current situation

The Cabinet of Staffordshire County Council has decided to remove direct support for Sustainable Staffordshire as from the Financial Year starting April 2008.

Our weaknesses and the threats that have resulted from them

1.      Sustainable Staffordshire is not a legal entity

2.      During the first seventeen years of its existence, Staffordshire County Council has provided both its administrative support and paid the majority of its financial outlays

3.      Our members have joined on the basis that membership is apparently free

4.      Because our independent and unique local role is not legally established, the worth of our voluntary activities is, generally, not well understood by the wider public within Staffordshire and, as a result, we currently receive no financial support from this source as some other voluntary sector bodies do

5.      Sustainable Staffordshire is not currently in a position to make an independent bid for funds from external sources either governmental or charitable

6.      The removal of Staffordshire County Council’s support effectively means that we cannot continue as we have done up to this Financial Year

7.      Our lack of an independent status means that we need outside help to enact any future plans that we might propose

Our strengths and the opportunities that flow from them

1.      No other group or organisation within Staffordshire is performing an identical function

2.      Our outreach activities in the community during the last two years have established that there is both a growing awareness of the problem we are addressing and a consequent interest in taking appropriate action

3.      They have also provided evidence that the general public welcomes the help of people who have already gained experience and relevant knowledge

4.      As a result we have grown our membership (currently 830 strong) by 500 in the last two years

5.      Our current membership includes not only enthusiasts but those with expertise in all areas of our current and potential activities

6.      We have the support of the two Staffordshire based charities most appropriate to act as partners in the immediate future: Staffordshire Wildlife Trust and The Community Council of Staffordshire

7.      The Staffordshire Local Area Agreement shares our vision and aims, knows of our existence and the threats we currently face

8.      The UK Government has recently launched a national programme ‘Every Action Counts’, in conjunction with the Voluntary Sector, for which the Community Council has a contract for local delivery, to encourage some of what we are already doing in Staffordshire

Our potential courses of action

1.      Cease to exist either at the end of this financial year or sooner, depending on the reaction of our members to the current situation

2.      Become an informal ‘club’ totally organised and financed for and by its members

3.      Establish and register a new charitable body

4.      Affiliate with an existing registered charity (local or national) with similar aims and the capacity to provide our administrative support and help organise our activities in the immediate future (N.B. the Charity Commission’s current policy is to discourage new registration because of the number of bodies already listed and to suggest that potential applicants should seek partnership with existing registered charities first. Other than the two mentioned above, candidates that we might consider include Global Action Plan and Marches Energy Agency)

Recommendations from the Chair for discussion

·        We explore ways to continue and develop our activities

·        We affiliate with the Community Council of Staffordshire, as their Trustees have agreed to help us as far as they can, at least in the short-term

·        We use £20 from our own bank account to become corporate members of the Community Council and perhaps also make a similar arrangement with Staffordshire Wildlife Trust to acknowledge that our vision goes beyond humanity

·        We sign-up to both the Staffordshire and the ‘Every Action Counts’ Declarations

·        We ask Staffordshire County Council to release our database to our Hon. Secretary &Treasurer for future use

·        We write to our members to explain what is happening, as soon as the Management Team has agreed recommendations about our future, while we still have the services of the County Council to help us with preparation and postage

·        We also ask the present support team at the County Council to analyse our membership to try to establish the number of enthusiasts compared with experts and the types of expertise that might be available to call on in the future

·        We consider ways to secure longer-term and more sustainable funding, such as establishing a category of supporters who do so mainly by contributing regular payments (for example, either as a subscription or, perhaps more imaginatively, as a payment to offset the effects of their current life-style by funding voluntary action in Staffordshire, the effect of which will be measured against Staffordshire LAA and Government targets)

 

Paul Newman

7th September 2007

 

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