It's Father's Day. I visited my father today. We got talking about unincorporated associations. Clearly my chat needs to improve. It gave me an opportunity to rehearse my regular speech on unincorporated associations being, as a rule of thumb, bad legal structures to be part of. And that is the case whether we are looking at a charity or club or anything else.
In general, unincorporated associations are to be avoided when thinking about the legal vehicle for your organisation at its inception. Again, in general, all existing unincorporated organisations will wish to consider if they should escape the world of the unincorporateds and become a corporate entity – usually either a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organsiation or a company limited by guarantee. A Community Interest Company might be suitable for some organisations.
As I have gone through the reasons unincorporated associations are 'bad' and risky to be a member of once today, I will not go over it all again now. If you are involved with an unincorporated association (either maybe setting one up or an existing organisation) get in touch to hear the potential dangers of them, and more positively the ways to get a better legal structure to help your organisation flourish and protect and attract its members and others. This applies to various things including charities, clubs, sports organisations, school clubs, membership groups......
Thanks dad for lots of things... including inspiring this blog!
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
