Further to Saturday's posting on the Year 2000 risk to computer systems:

The government's legal regulator of all charities ("non-profit"
corporations and trusts in US terminology) in England and Wales, the
Charity Commission, has just issued guidance on possible Year 2000 problems
to all charitable organisations and their trustees.

The essence of this is that trustees are both jointly and individually
obliged to ensure that the charity is taking all necessary and reasonable
measures to ensure the maintenance of all critical and legally required
systems - such as accounting records and inventories of the charity's
property (which would include museum collections) - in the face of possible
Year 2000 problems or failures.

The advice specifically points out that each trustee could be financially
liable  individually for making good any losses suffered by the organisation
because of inadequate preparation for the (seriously mis-named) "Millennium
Bug".

In practice it is hard to envisage circumstances in which previously
entered original registration and other catalogue data could not be
recovered in some way from back-up files or paper copies whatever happens,
even if the actual programs seize up.  On the other hand in the light of
the Charity Commission's surprisingly strong advice (it is usually
difficult to get a very firm answer on almost anything!) I think that this
confirms what I advised on Saturday about - above all - ensuring that the
accounting systems are 100% guaranteed or else completely replaced within
the next few months.


Patrick Boylan