You don’t necessarily need any formal paperwork when you start the first of our 10 Steps to being Incredible when you will be doing your planning, holding your first meetings and planting in your first growing space.
You might be able to continue without any paperwork, for example if the place where you grow is covered by another organisation’s insurance, or your work falls under the umbrella of another organisation who can provide insurance for your group.
PDF | 203.7 KB
However, you will still need to think about making sure everything you do is safe for everyone involved – which you will probably do anyway, through using your common sense, but you might need to plan a bit more in advance.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation have a good guide on how to get on and do things in your community without getting hung-up on red tape – some of the links in the document are incorrect, but the information in the PDF is really useful and you can search on Google to find the new links.
Zurich Insurance also have an excellent online resource with guidance on health and safety, insurance and managing risk for small community groups.
There are a number of benefits to developing a governing document for your group:
- You’ll be able to open a bank account in the group’s name – together with your governing document, this will mean you can apply to a wider range of funders.
- It will be clear to anyone inside or outside the group what the group’s purpose is, how the group organises itself, who can be a member of the group and how it manages any money – increasing transparency and helping resolve any potential misunderstandings.
- Landowners are clear on who they are giving permission to use their land, plus you can purchase insurance for the group.
- You move any legal liability away from one person (whoever organises an activity) to a group of people (if you are unincorporated) or a separate legal entity (if you are incorporated) where no individual is liable for the group’s actions.
