THE first meeting of the Association of Charity Treasurers (ACT) has been hailed as a success by its founder, Rushen MHK, Juan Watterson.

The meeting, which was held last week, was the first of its type in the Isle of Man and was sponsored by Capital Treasury Services.

John Wilkinson from Companies Registry and Martin Blackburn from the General Registry spoke about the requirements of charities and charitable companies in the Island. 

There was an open discussion which opened up a number of avenues that the association may pursue. Four working groups were also set up which will look into - quality of charity accounts, information on investment returns, legislation and regulation and peer reviews on accounts, controls and corporate governance.

Mr Watterson said: "It was great to welcome such a diverse mix of people and experience representing a wide variety of charities.

"There is a real pride and enthusiasm in Manx charities not just for their own objectives but to improve the quality of what they do and help each other.

"The ACT will hopefully be a common voice for those dealing with finances in the third sector - from treasurers to auditors it will provide a real 'voice of finance' within the charitable sector.

"The mix of presentation, question and answer and networking received a lot of positive feedback so it is something we may look to do once or twice a year."
 
Anyone who would like to be kept up to date on the work of ACT should contact Juan Watterson by e-mailing juan.watterson@gov.im.

A survey conducted by the Association of Charity Treasurers has revealed the following:

- Charity incomes are between £300 and £5 million.

- Structures are reasonably evenly split between club/society constitution (27 per cent), trust deed (24 per cent), limited company (38 per cent) and other (11 per cent).

- The majority of charities underwent a formal audit (67 per cent) mostly by chartered accountants (86 per cent).

- In terms of the current thresholds for review and audit 77 per cent of charities felt that the thresholds were just right. 20 per cent felt they were too low. Those who felt it was too low tended to be smaller charities although one £100,000+ charity shared this view.

- Only 25 per cent of respondents would look to the charities registrar or www.gov.im/charities for guidance. Most would visit their auditor (57 per cent) although many had experienced committee members (46 per cent). 

- 28.6 per cent of respondents have legal or financial representation on their boards.