The Shadow Board members are:-
- Margaret Mercer, Trustee CASS & Treasurer for the Shadow Board
- Lyn Goodfellow, Chair CAS
- Jo Humble, Trustee CASS
- Peter Hunter, Trustee CASS
- John Harrison, Trustee CAT
- David Incoll, Chair CAT
- Claire Hudson, Chair CAM
- Kerri Wheeler, Trustee CAS
- Kate Smedley, Trustee CAM
- Lin Cousins, Chair CASS & Interim Chair of Shadow Board
- Catherine Lewin, CAM as substitute for Claire Hudson
The Shadow Board met on March 22nd and the following was discussed :-
- Work has started on identifying IT & telephony currently in each office with a view to gradually moving to common platforms as leases and contracts expire.
- The Shadow Board continues to work with the external agency and other advertising methods to look for an external Chair for the Board and for expressions of interest from Trustees of the 4 LCA boards.
- Project Initiation document has been produced, showing route map of all that needs doing to bring merger about. New CEO will work on the timetable.
- Tim Clark, external consultant, will be tasked with pulling information together relevant to the Due Diligence process for the 4 boards to consider.
- The merger budget was reviewed and each of the 4 LCAs will contribute to it to meet costs involved in merger process.
- A sub group will be established to work with new CEO on how best to deliver external communications to our funders, clients, interested parties etc. Kerri Wheeler will champion this.
- Internal communications have been via these Updates, this to be reviewed with new CEO.
The board decision is that the individual LCAs dissolve into the South Somerset organisation and on so doing the new Chairty changes its name and the new merged organisation exists. South Somerset does not ‘take over’ the other three LCAs, rather it’s Articles of Association, Accreditations, Accounts, size etc make it a viable ‘host’ organisation. All 4 LCAs were objectively assessed to determine the LCA that would provide the ‘history’ that funders would be looking for. There had been discussion about creating a new charity from scratch to prevent any perception of takeover, but funders like a track record and a history of sound accounts, recognised accreditations etc and a brand new organisation could not provide that, even though the information would be available. This move of 4 into one is subject to Due Diligence, that is a comprehensive check of all the governance and financial arrangements etc to confirm the most suitable ‘host’ that will become the new charity.
The new organisation doesn’t have a fixed name at present, but is being called Citizens Advice in Somerset (CAiS) as it’s working title. With West Somerset not joining the merged group, it is difficult to use the name Citizens Advice Somerset as it is not a countywide organisation.
On appointment as CEO Designate to see the merger process through, Angela Kerr stated
“I am really looking forward to working with you all. Right now I am reading lots of the documents from the Shadow Board and hope that once we are all back from our Easter break, I will have the beginnings of a work plan that I can share.
Amy, Ian, Jon and I will be meeting as a priority to discuss aspects of the tasks ahead and one of my priorities is getting to know each of our teams and systems.”
