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Neil Dickson is a quallified Independent Financial Examiner who provides support to EDCVS member organisations. Neil will be keeping an eye on developments within the area of Charity Finance and providing regular Blogs on issues of interest.

Scottish Charity Finance Directors Group Newsletter.  The latest SCFDG newsletter reminds charities that all their advertising, including recruitment advertising, is zero rated for VAT.  Any invoice for advertising in a newspaper or magazine that contains VAT should be queried.

Jordans Charity Law and Practice Scotland 2009 Seminar.  I attended this one day seminar in Edinburgh on 5 November 2009, with EDCVS paying my conference fee.  It provided me with a comprehensive update on charity law and OSCR’s work.  The new legal provisions relating to charity reorganisations, mergers, and constitutional changes were explained.  Risk management was also covered.  That was the part of the day of greatest relevance to my work for EDCVS because it included observations on the duties and responsibilities of charity trustees (useful for my forthcoming Training for Treasurers course), and the clearest statement I have ever seen of the rights, responsibilities and liabilities of members and committee members of unincorporated associations.

 Association of Charity Independent Examiners 2009 Scottish Conference.  I attended this one day conference in Perth on 12 November 2009, with EDCVS paying my conference fee.  I attended lectures and workshops on

• The launch of OSCR’s new guidance on Independent Examinations Qualifying
• the Independent Examiner’s Report and Management Letters
• Reporting to OSCR
• Case studies in accounting for small company charities
• The Scottish CVS Independent Examination Project

The first four of these have direct relevance to the independent examinations I carry out for EDCVS.  The final one is directly relevant to my own participation in the project as a representative of EDCVS. Also, during the course of the day I met with all the key participants in that project: Pat Trenaman (Inverclyde CVS), Anne Knox and Fiona Skilling (project workers) and Fiona Gordon (ACIE Director).  It was a very useful day.