Trustees and the duties within a Charity

Thinking back over previous posts, it suddenly became clear that there are some serious questions to be asked and answered in respect of Christian Vision and the actions of people representing the charity in respect of the Boost.tv project and the wider engagement with Calum Brannan et al.

According to this Charity Commission document :

Compliance – Trustees must:

(2) Ensure that the charity complies with charity law, and with the requirements of the Charity Commission as regulator; in particular ensure that the charity prepares reports on what it has achieved and Annual Returns and accounts as required by law.

(3) Ensure that the charity does not breach any of the requirements or rules set out in its governing document and that it remains true to the charitable purpose and objects set out there.

(4) Comply with the requirements of other legislation and other regulators (if any) which govern the activities of the charity.

(5) Act with integrity, and avoid any personal conflicts of interest or misuse of charity funds or assets.

Duty of prudence – Trustees must:

(6) Ensure that the charity is and will remain solvent.

(7) Use charitable funds and assets reasonably, and only in furtherance of the charity’s objects.

(8) Avoid undertaking activities that might place the charity’s endowment, funds, assets or reputation at undue risk.

(9) Take special care when investing the funds of the charity, or borrowing funds for the charity to use.

Duty of care – Trustees must:

(10) Use reasonable care and skill in their work as trustees, using their personal skills and experience as needed to ensure that the charity is well-run and efficient.

(11) Consider getting external professional advice on all matters where there may be material risk to the charity, or where the trustees may be in breach of their duties.

In this context you'll remember from previous posts that one of the Objects of Christian Vision is:

4. OTHER CHARITABLE PURPOSES BENEFICIAL TO THE COMMUNITY WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE PROMOTION OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP AND MORAL VALUES WITH THE EMPHASIS ON HONESTY AND INTEGRITY IN EVERY DAY LIFE AND IN BUSINESS.

According to the Charity Commission Website, the Trustees of Christian Vision are:

Contact  !

MR TIM BOXALL
COLESHILL MANOR OFFICE CAMPUS
THE PAVILION
COLESHILL MANOR OFFICE CAMPUS
SOUTH DRIVE
COLESHILL BIRMINGHAM
B46 1DL

Tel: 01675 435500
Email: admin@christianvision.com
Website: www.christianvision.com

Trustees 

!

• MR IAN PAUL BAKER
• NICK CUTHBERT 
• MR ROBERT NORMAN EDMISTON
• MRS TRACIE JACQUELINE EDMISTON

So, in summary, it is the duty of the people named above to act in accordance with their obligations and duties as Trustees of Christian Vision.  

With me so far?

This leaves us wondering how the emails we have seen which appear to show Robert Norman Edmiston "conspiring" with Calum Brannan and James Leavesley to take not just the Boost.tv project but also a healthy pipeline of business (or words to that effect) away from Inormas and bring them into a new company set up by Brannan and Leavesley can sit comfortably with an Object which states:

4. OTHER CHARITABLE PURPOSES BENEFICIAL TO THE COMMUNITY WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE PROMOTION OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP AND MORAL VALUES WITH THE EMPHASIS ON HONESTY AND INTEGRITY IN EVERY DAY LIFE AND IN BUSINESS.

One of the emails we have seen is a discussion between Mr Edmiston and Brannan/Leavesley where they are discussing the possibility of Mr Edmiston actually funding, or part-funding this Newco (now known as "Social Helium").

Surely it cannot be right, moral, honest, ethical or anything else that Christian Vision stands for, according to its own Objects, for one of its Trustees (and major benefactors) to act in this way in connection with the purchase of products and services for the charity.......

Obviously, we may have missed something - we can't claim to know the whole story and don't pretend to, but from the evidence we have available to us, it certainly looks extremely dubious and casts some level of doubt on both the charity and individuals acting on behalf of the charity.  

It also leaves us wondering whether the other Trustees are aware that this issue exists.  However, even if Mr Edmiston hasn't actually put a penny of his own money into this new company, there's no escaping the fact that he knew precisely what was going on and specifically asked for Brannan and Leavesley to indemnify him against any possible come back from their previous associates, which speaks volumes doesn't it?


Should new evidence come to light, or we receive the "other side of the story", we'll gladly update this article to reflect the fuller picture, as we have no desire to be accused of bias or, God forbid, libel.

We do feel slightly sorry for Mr Edmiston in one respect:- If he wasn't working with such incompetent fools, then these emails would never have come to light and his judgement and actions would not be in question or, at least no more questionable (that we're aware of), than since the whole "Cash for Peerages" fiasco was forgotten about.

However, we're told that there's "absolutely stacks" more to come when the time is right and we have to say that we're quite excited about the prospect! 

Social Helium - Hot air or just pure "bulls**t"? Part 2

We heard this week that Michelle Stott-Leavesley (i.e. James Leavesley's wife) had an accident around Christmas and that it was "allegedly" the fault of this blog!

Apparently, she'd had sleepless nights worrying about all this information being in the public domain and the fatigue and stress caused the accident.  We were very sorry to hear this until we learned that the accident in question was actually whilst away skiing for Christmas(!!).

Now, I don't know about you, but sleepless nights aren't the most common cause of accidents whilst skiing.  They are usually caused by a conspiracy between gravity and slippery stuff under-foot.  Michelle is no virgin when it comes to skiing accidents, as their blog demonstrates.

We're glad you're OK, Michelle, and had such a great time skiing!  Perhaps you'll have returned in a frame of mind to authorise payment of the Birmingham County Sports Partnership invoice that is apparently hugely overdue.  You remember the one?  We previously highlighted it in the Conflict of Interest post a while back.

Now, when it comes to hot air, spin, waffle and downright bulls**t (to quote Calum Brannan) then this has to be a prime example.  Let's face it, when you're hurtling down a frozen mountain on two planks of wood, a bad night's sleep doesn't have much impact on your concentration.

If you're worried about embarrassing information being in the public domain, Michelle, then it's usually best not to do things you don't want people to know about, or to associate yourself with people who are likely to impact your reputation in a bad way!

Sleep well.

Calum Brannan's view of leadership

This latest article on Calum's personal website/blog calumbrannan.com  was worth republishing for its sheer irony and humour value:

Running a business at any point in anyone’s life can prove a challenge. There’s the race to breaking even [something he never actually achieved except with other peoples' money!], not breaking your team, smashing your competition and ensuring throughout the whole process you stay enthusiastic, optimistic and honest! [OMG - did he actually say that?]

Personally I’ve had no formal education in running a team (nor running a business) [and it seems to shine through as brightly as a lighthouse beacon!] but I sure have observed and seen many great leaders in action, and those not so great!

I’d like to share some of the do’s and don’ts which I try to live and work by.

• Celebrate success whenever it happens in a way people appreciate.
• Don’t do public humiliation when people mess up, it’s the easiest way to piss off your rockstar team and make them feel small and stupid.
• Clear processes and expectations . Make sure everyone buys into the company vision. Remember, a company vision isn’t ‘All the directors on their private islands with a glass of red wine’. A company visision is a shared vision of where the organisation wants to be. [Yeah, right - just read this!]
• In the start-up world, make sure your team doesn’t include bullies or ‘bastard bosses’. Whilst TV programs like the apprentice show great bosses who have blunt tactics, the start-up work place is too small for this kind of attitude. [Except when you have a prima-donna as your team leader who has, by his own admission, "no formal education in running a team (nor running a business)" and you need to keep them under control while they fritter away the cash........ maybe?!]
  
• Always hire your rockstars on the salaries that you can afford and they deserve. Obviously in start-up companies this is much harder to do, but show them you care!
• This final point is one that I have found to do at all times. Recently I’d like to be able to say I’ve really tried to live by this each day: Lead by example!

 You can read the original post here http://calumbrannan.com/2009/09/leading-a-team-from-the-front/

Enjoy!

James Leavesley - Conflicts of interest?

James Leavesley was apparently discussing the possibility of creating a Social Media solution for Birmingham County Sport Partnership "CSP" .  His contact at Birmingham CSP is/was a consultant called Michelle Stott.

This is a commercial solution designed to meet the needs of the CSP and James seemed to "win" the deal without too much trouble, which is always interesting when dealing with Government departments and the civil servant types, don't you agree?

The fact of the matter is that Michelle Stott's full name is Michelle Clare Stott-Leavesley  and she is (apparently) married to James Leavesley - check out their blog!..... Hmmmm.  Now, I wonder how James was apparently awarded the deal so easily.

Then we get to the fun bit - apart from the potential for a huge conflict of interest when a wife, acting on behalf of her client, can influence the awarding of a contract to her husband's company, as a supplier!!  

The other interesting angle is that James did this whilst acting for Inormas, but seems to have transferred the deal across to his new company CBJL Ltd Registered 07055592 at MILTON PLACE 30 TENBY STREET, BIRMINGHAM, B1 3EE, which is (coincidentally?) the same address that Michelle's company is registered at - I wonder if that's their home address!

So, James was going to get paid for bringing in the Social Media solution and Michelle was being paid, as a consultant, to select his company as the supplier - surely there's a conflict of interest there......?  What do you think?  In this period, he was presumably claiming salary from Inormas for the business generation activities and expenses for going to see his wife and he did so with (apparently) no intention of allowing Inormas to benefit financially from a deal they funded.  That sounds like it's verging on fraud.

Michelle is a Director of Sportoptima and here she is on the IOD Website and she also sits on the Board of IOD Young Directors Forum with her husband, James.  She also runs a company called NXO Strategic Marketing, although she doesn't seem to be a key member of the senior team.

Calum Brannan re-writes his CV

According to Calum Brannan's LinkedIn Profile, which he's obviously updated in the last few days (!!), he's never worked for Inormas!  Instead, he now seems to have used the time between the Spring and Autumn of 2009 working for SalonToolkit and Youmeo.


I'm sure that this will come as a huge shock to the people who've been paying his salary for the last 6+ months, as they don't seem to get any credit at all for the time and money they spent on him!


Moreover, Youmeo has been in the hands of the Receivers for the last few months, since his Red Brick labs/Youmeo venture, which he operated with James Leavesley, ran out of money and went down the pan!!  Which is why the original www.youmeo.com URL doesn't work!!


According to Calum's version of events, on LinkedIn, his employment history looks like this:

Experience

Social Media & Digital Consultant

CalumBrannan.com

Information Technology and Services industry

September 2009 – Present ( 4 months)

Helping businesses understand the everchanging world of social media and digital marketing.

Non-Exec

SalonToolkit Ltd

Internet industry

May 2009 – Present ( 8 months)

A new startup using SAAS to provide low cost, quality diary management and SMS reminder solutions.

Ambassador

Enterprise UK

Government Relations industry

September 2007 – Present (2 years 4 months)

We were founded in 2004 by the British Chamber of Commerce, the Confederation of British Industry, the Institute of Directors and the Federation of Small Businesses, funded mostly by what is now called the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills.

Founder/CTO

youmeo.com

Privately Held; Internet industry

April 2008 – August 2009 (1 year 5 months)

Youmeo.com was founded by young entrepreneur Calum Brannan in 2008, after being re-branded from PPLparty.com


It is a social networking aggregator. This technology allows its users to manage and update all their social networks from one location.


Youmeo is based from a converted Electric Factory in Coventry and it's team includes people from Bebo, Yahoo, BBC, KPMG, Media Corp and Trutap.

Calum has 6 recommendations (2 reports, 1 co-worker, 3 partners) including:

Founding Director

Redbrick Labs

Information Technology and Services industry

September 2008 – June 2009 ( 10 months)

Founding Director

PPLparty ltd

Internet industry

April 2005 – March 2008 (3 years)

PPLparty was created in 2005 for the clubbing community, it was sold into Youmeo.com in early 2008, where a new board and team transformed it into the cutting edge social media aggregator.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


So, there you have it - Calum Brannan has re-written his CV and ex-sponged Inormas from it.  This begs an interesting question - if Calum was working on the development of Salon Toolkit for this period of time, why was he asking for a salary from Inormas, when he wasn't actually doing the job they were paying him for........?


Perhaps more importantly, was he fulfilling his duties to clients like Christian Vision during this time?  And, even more importantly, what has happened to all the code written for Christian Vision, by his team, whilst he was off developing Salon Toolkit at Inormas's expense....?


We've also heard a rumour, unconfirmed as yet, that there may have been some extremely unsavoury and possibly illegal shenanigans going on between Bob Edmiston, the multi-millionaire chief of IM Group, Founder of Christian Vision and major benefactor to Grace Academies in Coventry and Solihull and the Calum Brannan / James Leavesley duo, now operating as CBJL Ltd.


You'll recall from the earlier blog, entitled

A bit more background about Calum Brannan

That the 4th Charitable objective of Christian Vision is, quote:

4. OTHER CHARITABLE PURPOSES BENEFICIAL TO THE COMMUNITY WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE PROMOTION OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP AND MORAL VALUES WITH THE EMPHASIS ON HONESTY AND INTEGRITY IN EVERY DAY LIFE AND IN BUSINESS.

Now, we're pretty certain from the information shown to us, that this simply isn't the case where Robert Norman Edmiston's conduct in this matter is concerned...... and, if it's true, there are going to be some pretty heated exchanges on the subject when the Trustees of CV find out about this!!

Not to mention the few words that "Benevolent Uncle Bob" is going to want to have with James and Calum about the mess they've made of things!!

On the other hand, where Calum's concerned, it's not even clear that he knows when he's lying and when he's telling the truth, as we have reports of him doing it without even taking a breath!

Watch this space - the juicy stuff is coming!!