Arran COAST members © COAST
When it comes to setting up and developing your community group, you and your group members will know what suits your particular needs and local context best, however the following guidance may be useful to consider.
Group Governance
Having a constitution agreed upon and in holding is something a lot of groups seek to adopt as good practice, as well as its usefulness in providing a base for any future formalisation – e.g. should you seek to obtain funds sometime in the future. A constitution is recommended for good governance however your group members will know when the time is right to work towards producing one.
The first step is usually to establish your group’s mission statement, core aims, and core leadership roles. See below for a basic draft constitution template, which you may want to adapt for your group, as an unincorporated/unregistered community association.
SCVO draft constitution template for Unincorporated Groups.doc
SCVO draft constitution template Unincorporated_Guidance notes.pdf
The unincorporated model is sometimes attractive to groups starting off as it is not labour intensive, it is a very simple form of structure but provides a basic starting point for building your mandate. It doesn’t offer any liability for its members.
This template is just one example of course, there are many different ways in which you can write your constitution. You may also want to consider the different forms that your group could take – if you are interested in providing limited liability for members perhaps you want to be incorporated from the beginning, and if that is the case, then establishing your group as a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) can be a good model to consider.
Group Governance Assessment
This tool can be used to analyse the quality of decision making and management practices within community (or other) groups and organisations by assessing them against good governance principles.