Charitable trust poised to webcast its meetings

All the drama and the dullness of meetings of Shetland Charitable Trust could soon be available to watch from your computer or mobile phone after trustees agreed to webcasting.

The only snag is it depends on Shetland Islands Council installing and operating the required filming and recording equipment for webcasting, which it intends looking into doing for itself later this year anyway – funding permitting. 

The council has been coming under pressure from Lerwick Community Council to introduce webcasting, which is now established practice in some local authorities, such as Moray Council.

At its recent meeting the charitable trust also agreed to allow trustees to take part and vote in meetings by video link when they are unable or unwilling to be there in person, such as during holidays or business trips out of Shetland.

The call to be able to attend meetings remotely was highlighted in December when several trustees were unable to be present. But fellow trustees stopped their absent colleagues taking part.

After that it was decided to review the rules and consider the effect on a meeting if the “virtual” trustees were suddenly lost in transmission, potentially leading to a meeting having insufficient people to continue. It has now been decided that the minimum number required to be quorate – 12 trustees – must be physically present for any meeting to go ahead.

Backing the move, trustee Frank Robertson said: “I think this is us moving into the electronic age.”