NUS is the voice of students in the UK, and a voluntary member organisation representing the interests of more than 7 million students and 600 students unions. In addition to its work in campaigning for students’ rights and strengthening students unions, it has grown into a large and complex organisation dealing with a range of organisational and legal issues.
Objective
NUS commissioned Counterculture to undertake a review of company secretarial practice across the seven NUS group legal entities. This followed, and built on, a major governance review carried out by NUS, continuing in its development a more efficient administration.
Actions
Chartered company secretary Tom Wilcox worked with fellow governance expert Stephen Escritt, and solicitor Keith Arrowsmith – an expert in intellectual property, charity and company law – to produce a detailed report recommending the most effective and efficient company secretarial arrangements for NUS. Counterculture reviewed and made recommendations on areas including: schedule of matters, risk management, legal compliance, timings for boards, sub-committees and papers, paper formats, minutes formats, nomenclature, duplication, current and proposed group structures, share transfer managements, statutory registers, matters of board support, and charity reporting requirements.
Results
The detailed report made recommendations on: compliance and best practice; how to organise company secretarial functions efficiently alongside NUS’s existing management arrangements; and how to set priorities for managing essential change and optional improvements. These recommendations are now being put into place across NUS.
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Image © NUS, used with permission.