Charity Secretary & Trustee

The role of Secretary is pivotal for the charity. As an officer, you will work alongside the Chair, Vice-Chairs and Treasurer to provide leadership and direction to the charity, alongside and as part of the wider Trustee Board.

• Primarily responsible for the smooth and efficient running of the Trustee Board and any sub-committees, providing assistance and support to the Chair of trustees and other officers. This includes arranging meetings, preparing and circulating agendas, ensuring that proper notes and records of meetings are kept and circulated, preparing action lists and chasing outstanding actions between meetings.
• Primarily responsible for the Annual General Meeting in November, including preparing and circulating agendas, ensuring that proper notes and records of meetings are kept and circulated, preparing action lists and chasing outstanding actions between meetings.
• Primarily responsible for ensuring that the charity's Annual Report, Return and other statutory documents are prepared in good time for approval and submission to the Charity Commission in accordance with statutory requirements.
• Be the charity's primary contact for the Charity Commission and ensure that all necessary updates and communications are dealt with.
• With the other officers, take forward the development of BuDS from an unincorporated association to a charitable company limited by guarantee, including in due course acting as the Secretary to the charitable company.
• With the other officers, contribute to the charity's Strategic Plan and support strategic planning meetings and developments.
• As an officer, be a signatory for the charity on agreements, invoices, payments, etc.
• Strong knowledge and understanding of charity governance issues (training available), including ideally the role of charity secretary.
• Experience and knowledge of supporting meetings and decision-making, including taking notes and preparing minutes and agendas.
• Ability to use Microsoft/Office 365 applications including Teams, Outlook and Word
• Excellent communication skills and interpersonal skills and able to act as a senior representative of the charity
• Able to identify problems and provide solutions
• Ability to present information clearly, concisely, accurately and relevantly in ways that promote understanding
• The ability to commit to a minimum of 12 hours per month
• BuDS' policy is that prospective Trustees join the charity as safeguarded volunteers and shadow the Trustee Board for a period of 2-3 months before being co-opted.

• Strong knowledge and understanding of charity governance issues (training available), including ideally the role of charity secretary.
• Experience and knowledge of supporting meetings and decision-making, including taking notes and preparing minutes and agendas.
• Ability to use Microsoft/Office 365 applications including Teams, Outlook and Word (training available)
• Excellent communication skills and interpersonal skills and able to act as a senior representative of the charity
• Ability to work in a highly organised way and act with initiative where appropriate
• Able to identify problems and provide solutions
• Flexible and positive approach
• Ability to present information clearly, concisely, accurately and relevantly in ways that promote understanding
• The ability to commit to a minimum of 12 hours per month

BuDS is committed to safeguarding all those with whom it works. This post will involve unsupervised work with potentially vulnerable adults and children, and/or their records, and so this post will be subject to an enhanced DBS check on appointment. This will be arranged and paid for by BuDS. Character references and a credit check will also be carried out.

Please send across your CV and up to date email explaining why you are interested in the role, someone will be in touch to arrange an informal chat to discuss further.