In relation to this John Simmons' posting (below) this is a very
surprising question from the other side of the Atlantic:

It is interesting to not that under charity law of England and Wales
virtually all business dealings between board members and a charity
(pro bono non-profit) would be strictly illegal as a breach of the
principle of trusteeship - though the law provides for very limited
exceptions in relation to certain reasonable professional expenses,
travel costs etc.  The principle extends to the board member's family
and even "non-pecuniary" potential conflicts of interest as well.

There are even some constraints on directors of commercial companies dealing
on their personal account with their company - requiring "transparency"and
evidence of proven nett benefit to the company from the deal rather than to
the director concerned.

Scotland has a totally distinct legal system based on Roman Civil Law
and differs markedly on charity law, but the same principle of excluding
any conflict of interest between the board member and the non-profit
applies.

Patrick Boylan

=========================================

On Mon, 18 Dec 1995, John Edward Simmons wrote:

> We are about to incorporate into our board bylaws a clause dealing with
> conflicts of interest.  We don't want to prohibit board members from
> having business dealings with the museum, but we do want to make it
> explicit that board members will receive no special consideration in
> those dealings.  I am looking for suggestions about the wording of such
> a clause and would appreciate it if staff members at other museums
> would let me know how their boards' conflicts-of-interest clauses
> read.  I should point out that our board is a nongoverning volunteer
> board.
>
> Please respond to:  [log in to unmask]
>
> Brad Kemp
> Natural History Museum, University of Kansas
>