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January 2004
A DOSSIER OF CONCERNS
ABOUT THE CHARITY ACTION for ME (AfME)
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9: :WHAT IS REQUIRED
1. AfME members/subscribers require and are entitled to a
fundamental review of this charity's strategic direction and any
other medium or long term organisational plans.
2. AfME members/subscribers require and are entitled to a
fundamental review of AfME's policy portfolio in its entirety
together with AfME's stance on policy issues.
3. AfME members/subscribers require a review of AfME's
strategic direction and any other medium or long term
organisational plans.
4. AfME members require that AfME commits itself as a
matter of principle to fully informing and involving
members/subscribers through the process of consultation with
members/subscribers before making any significant
organisational change or the creation and adoption of policy and
about policy making in general. The results of the said
consultation to be binding upon AfME.
10: CONCLUSION
AfME must be required to answer the serious concerns and
questions raised in this document. Members/subscribers have
not been given the opportunity to consult with this charity since
1996. Without doubt, many members/subscribers of AfME and
people within the ME/CFS community will have other questions.
For those who would like to pose further questions to AfME,
please write to me at
janebryant22@yahoo.co.uk
11: STATEMENT FROM
THE CHARITY COMMISSION OF ENGLAND AND WALES
Transparency and Accountability
"Transparency and accountability are important issues for the
Charity Commission. The Charity Commission's aim is to
provide the best possible regulation of charities in England and
Wales in order to increase charities' effectiveness and public
confidence and trust. That confidence rests in part on the
assurance that charities are open and honest in explaining how
they apply charitable funds. Charities have a statutory duty to
provide the Charity Commission with a copy of its Annual Report
and Accounts. We are currently running a compliance campaign
to assess the extent to which charities are fulfilling that statutory
duty. The focus of this report is on the accessibility of the
information contained in charities' Reports and Accounts. We
will be running an analysis of 200 accounts from large charities
(income >£10 million) in order to assess how comprehensive
and accessible the information they provide is. We define
accountability and transparency as the provision of relevant and
reliable information to stakeholders in a manner that is free from
bias, comparable, understandable and focused on stakeholders'
legitimate needs and will be assessing the Reports and
Accounts on this basis."
-ends -
Jane Bryant
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/THEONECLICKPROTEST/
Please note that this document has been produced after
extensive consultations with the Charity Commission of England
and Wales and with the invaluable assistance of the ME/CFS
community.
Thank you.
January 2004
Distribution:
The Rt. Hon. Tony Blair - Prime Minister
The Countess of Mar - House of Lords
Professor Sir Liam Donaldson - Chief Medical Officer of the
Department of Health
Patricia Noons - Department of Health
The Rt.Hon. Dr. John Reid MP - Secretary of State for Health
Mr. C. Clark - CEO AfME
The AfME Trustees:
Richard Evans - Company Secretary
Fiona Jean Agombar
George Armstrong
Revd. Richard Buckley
Louise Fish
Claire Francis
Tony Golding
Roma Grant
Helen O'Brien
Robert Quittenton
Ian Shaw
Patricia Shipley
Patricia Taylor
Ondine Upton
