At Perseus Star 1900hrs, Contemperaneus minuits by Terry Wilburn.
Opened by Chairperson Bob, shortly handing over to Rob who gave a brief synopsis of the various corporate entities a Chamber of Commerce could adopt as its formal standing.
The question of the nature of Alford Chamber is not a simple one. To operate without legal title would hinder the effectivness of the Chamber. It is apparant that the ideal current format would be a Social Enterprise, this can take various formats. A Social Enterprise can be a Charity, Limited Company or a recent inovation by the Government, a Community Interest Company (CIC), which is a Limited Company with special conditions attached. More links regarding CIC’s at the bottom of this text.
If a Chamber of Commerce applies to Companies House to become a CIC, a referece check is made to the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) regarding the standing of the applicant Chamber. It has been established that Alford’s Chamber of Commerce will be too small a Chamber to be directly acredited by the BCC and should probably affiliate or associate with a larger acredited Chamber, Simon Beardsly, Chief Executive of Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce has kindly agreed to talk with the Committee on this subject.

The meeting moved to the agenda for the next open meeting at the Manor House Monday 22nd Sept 1900hrs.

From http://www.cicregulator.gov.uk/

Community Interest Companies (CICS) are limited companies, with special additional features, created for the use of people who want to conduct a business or other activity for community benefit, and not purely for private advantage. This is achieved by a “community interest test” and “asset lock”, which ensure that the CIC is established for community purposes and the assets and profits are dedicated to these purposes. Registration of a company as a CIC has to be approved by the Regulator who also has a continuing monitoring and enforcement role

A downloadable guidance is at http://www.cicregulator.gov.uk/Leaflets/OverviewLeafletMarch2008.pdf

THE BENEFITS OF A COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY (CIC)
is outlined here http://www.cicregulator.gov.uk/Leaflets/CICBenefits.pdf

notes for funders downloadable here
http://www.cicregulator.gov.uk/Leaflets/FundersLeafletMarch2008.pdf

FAQ’s on CIC here
http://www.cicregulator.gov.uk/faq.shtml#one

What is involved when creating a CIC
http://www.cicregulator.gov.uk/CIC%20guidance/Chapter%204%20-%20creating%20a%20CIC/Chapter%204%20-%20August%202008%20(version%203).pdf