FORK Seeks Trustees

FORK's purpose is protect and enhance the river Kelvin and it's natural surroundings. We do this with and for our community of Members who live, work or study in Glasgow City, East Dunbartonshire or North Lanarkshire, the local authority areas through which the river Kelvin flows. We do this via activity, community engagement, advocacy and lobbying with the support of, and in partnership with others in a wider network / ecology caring for our rivers.

FORK currently seek Trustees. If you are interested in the opportunity please email FORK - hello@fork.org.uk - so we can arrange an informal chat with a current Trustee(s). 

You can read more about FORK, including our history here. Since 1991, in different legal forms, FORK has been protecting and enhancing the river Kelvin and its natural surroundings by:

• Volunteer activity, advocacy and lobbying
• Promoting and facilitating access for local residents and communities to the natural environment along the course of the River Kelvin, working with and supporting partners who operate on other stretches of the river
• Helping local communities to develop greater knowledge, understanding and care for the local natural environment
• Protecting and enhancing natural habitats for the benefit of wildlife and local communities

Our values are:

• Welcoming to our community
• Providing access for our community
• Innovative thinking and action to support and conserve our environment
• Open-Minded
• Reliable, trustworthy and effective collaboration with partners

Our aims are:

• Protect Precarious Habitats for Wildlife and People
  Protect and improve the river Kelvin and its environs for the benefit of the public now and in the future.
• Environmental Learning
  Educate about the history, geology, geography, biodiversity and other riparian features of the river Kelvin.
• Sustain a Community Asset
  Enable citizenship or community development and stewardship of the River Kelvin.
• Enable Access to the Outdoors
  Provide recreational and leisure facilities and activities for people and communities that are appropriate to the environment and protection of the river Kelvin.

Our Trustees’ collective experience includes community development, fundraising, community and education outreach, project management, arts practice, communications, building management, financial services, and marketing.

FORK has fabulous and in many instances longstanding, volunteers who make much of our activity, events, projects, and initiatives possible via their provision of time, energy, connectivity, and passion. This includes our monthly river clean-ups.

FORK is responsible for property assets, including a lease on Ha’Penny Bridge House, currently under negotiation with Glasgow City Council, and land and bridges on the river.

Trustees’ Legal Duties

• Carry out FORK’s charitable aims for the benefit of our community of Members, and beyond where appropriate.
• Uphold FORK’s Constitution in accordance and compliance with the law.
• Act in the best interests of FORK and its community of Members - plus current, potential or future beneficiaries - making collective decisions accordingly and as per the Constitution.
• Manage FORK’s resources and assets responsibly (duty of prudence) in carrying out its charitable aims.
• Act with reasonable care and skill at all times, drawing on our skills and experience and knowing when it is appropriate to take advice.
• Ensure FORK is accountable to Members and complies with statutory accounting and reporting requirements, and in particular with any direction, requirement, notice or duty imposed under or by virtue of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005.
• Where there is the possibility of a conflict of interest between FORK and any other party, put the interests of FORK before that of the other party; where any other duty prevents them from doing so, the Trustee should disclose the conflicting interest to FORK and refrain from participating in any deliberation or decision of the other Trustees with regard to the matter in question.
• Ensure that any breach of these duties by a fellow Trustee is corrected and not repeated and, in the event of persistent breaches, remove them as a Trustee.
• Trustees must declare any arrangement with FORK in which they have a personal interest, although such interest will not in itself debar them from voting on the matter or benefitting from it.

Trustees’ Role

• Safeguard FORK’s good name and reputation at all times.
• Regularly review FORK’s aims, objectives, values, charitable objectives, and Constitution.
• Develop and implement strategies and plans.
• Manage the charity’s finances, with external input where necessary.
• Write and regularly review policies and procedures.
• Attend, prepare for, and actively contribute to regular (minimum of 75% a year) Trustee meetings currently held online and offline.
• If possible, take a role on the Board of Trustees (e.g. Treasurer, Deputy Chair).
• Act in accordance with the FORK Trustee Code of Conduct.
• Represent FORK at meetings – e.g. with communities, funders, local authority
• Communicate clearly and effectively with our community of Members, partners, stakeholders, funders, etc.
• Support the planning and delivery of activities, events, projects, initiatives, campaigns, etc.
• Be active in the recruitment of Members, and in turn Trustees.
• Attend activities and events.

New Trustees

Those interested in becoming a Trustee:

• Will be invited to an informal meeting with one or two Trustees to get to know more about the organisation’s purpose, operations, culture, and financial status (as published on oscr.org.uk) and operations, and to ask questions about FORK.
• Are welcome to observe a Trustee meeting.

New Trustees appointed to the Board will:

• Be required to provide copies of approved legal documentation (e.g. passport, driving license) as part of FORK’s due diligence process in appointing Trustees and to satisfy requests from external bodies, e.g. banks, Auditors.
• Be given access to necessary documents, e.g. FORK’s Constitution, key policies, etc.
  If possible, be invited to attend one of our monthly river clean-ups to meet our community, volunteers, etc.