Constitution

On achieving charitable status in March 2021 the Society adopted the Charitable Incorporated Organisation (Association) model constitution with a few minor adaptations to allow that members’ voting rights were respected and that the elections for trustees and the Committee would occur on an annual basis. The full document is available below. 7 March 2021. GC

Policies:

Most of the Society’s policy matters are addressed in its CIO Association model constitution. Here we have extracted two items for ease of reference, our policy on conflicts of interest and on complaints handling.

Conflicts of Interest are addressed in section 7 of our constitution. In addition to the policy outlined below a register of interests is maintained and referenced at every meeting of the trustees:

  1. Conflicts of interest and conflicts of loyalty
    A charity trustee must:
    (1) declare the nature and extent of any interest, direct or indirect, which he or she
    has in a proposed transaction or arrangement with the Irish Literary Society or in
    any transaction or arrangement entered into by the Irish Literary Society which
    has not previously been declared; and
    (2) absent himself or herself from any discussions of the charity trustees in which it is
    possible that a conflict of interest will arise between his or her duty to act solely in
    the interests of the Irish Literary Society and any personal interest (including but
    not limited to any financial interest). Any charity trustee absenting himself or
    herself from any discussions in accordance with this clause must not vote or be
    counted as part of the quorum in any decision of the charity trustees on the
    matter.

Complaints Handling:

The fundraising code, overseen by the Fundraising Regulator, directs that charities must investigate complaints fairly, proportionately and without undue delay. To this end we are making available a complaints procedure which covers all manner of complaints including matters related to fundraising.