Holiday season tips for small volunteer-run non profit organisations

Ah, December... that most wonderful time of year, when everyone slips into Christmas & holiday mode...and unfortunately this means pretty much everyone, including founding members, office bearers, volunteers and even secretariat staff (if your small non-profit organisation happens to be able to afford any paid staff, that is :-)).

And of course, the problem of everyone being "away" during the holiday season becomes all the more pressing if your small non-profit organisation is run only by volunteers.

So here are some quick and hopefully, useful tips on how to manage things during the December - January holiday period.

1. Make a list of everything that needs doing during that period.
Keep this list down to the most critical and "must-do" items only, but make sure that you've covered all bases in compiling the list. Don't forget background administrative things like checking the mailbox to collect mail and paying utilities bills if they are likely to fall due during that time.

2.  Put together a  "Holiday Season Team" :-)
Hopefully, you can cobble together a few kind and helpful souls who are willing to take on some added responsibilities even during the holiday season. Assign each person a role or a few roles, depending on the needs of the organisation. Be prepared to guide them through the specifics of the role, especially if they have never taken on that particular task before.

3. Come up with a message to be communicated to stakeholders. 
Communication is key at this time of year. Prepare a document detailing opening and closing times, closure dates, plus other important information. Stakeholders should be informed that the organisation will be running on skeleton staff during the holiday season. You'll probably find lots of requests for participation coming in right smack in the middle of the holidays (as many people start going on leave from work, and feel inspired to do something different :-) don't be afraid to tell them that your premises are closed and the usual activities are not going on until the new year. After all, if your organisation doesn't have paid secretariat staff whose leave can be planned, your stakeholders will need to understand that the volunteers who run the organisation will also be taking time off at the end of the year.

4. Keep a list of backup reminders - just in case.
The Holiday Season Team will be just as busy juggling multiple obligations and events as everyone else, so in spite of their best intentions, someone might inadvertantly forget something. To be safe, keep a backup reminder list on hand so that you can keep on top of things and make sure that nothing really critical falls through the cracks.

5. Keep a "To Do After the Holidays" list.
Use this list to record anything that needs doing, but doesn't need doing just yet. By writing these things down or capturing it somewhere, you can then forget all about those items, safe in the knowledge that nothing has been forgotten and the list will be ready for you when you get back to work in January.

And lastly, don't forget to take some time off yourself :-) Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all Secretariat Managers out there! :-) I'll be back with more posts in 2017! :-)

Creating a simple and easy-to-manage filing system for your non-profit organisation

Paperwork. Forms. Documents. Receipts. Vouchers. Accounts. Minutes of meetings.

 "Nooo!" I hear you scream. "Get it away from me!" :-)

Well, the thing is, paperwork is very much a part of effectively managing a charitable or non-profit organisation.While the regulations governing the activities of non-profit organisations are not as extensive or as stringent as those governing companies and other for-profit organisations, there is still plenty of paperwork to be sorted through, organised and properly stored. Records still need to be properly kept for audit and other regulatory purposes, even though the organisation is not a revenue-generating business.

A large, established non-profit organisation with sufficient funding would probably have full time or part time administrative staff to help manage its secretariat, but a small organisation that's just starting out, would have to rely on its founding members and volunteers to help.

The sooner a system is set up to handle this aspect of managing a small secretariat, the better. Just in case new volunteers come in to take on some of the roles, or an existing founder member needs to step down, a proper handover can be conducted to ensure that the person taking over the job, can easily find the documents he or she requires. Also, if at some point in the future, the organisation needs to apply for non-profit status, all documents will need to be in order before the submission of the application can be made.

So, here are some quick tips to create a simple and easy-to-manage system.

a) List your categories
First, make a list of the categories of documents that you have. These could be, for example (i) accounting, tax and finance - this would include bank statements, resolutions to open bank accounts, bank-related documentation, accounting documentation, utility and other bills, etc (ii) regulatory - certificate of incorporation, the Constitution of the registered society, documents from the Registry of Societies, notices of exco meetings and AGM's, minutes of exco meetings and AGM's, circular resolutions, etc  (iii) correspondence - letters and other communications.

b) Get your supplies
Once you have a list of categories, you'll know roughly how many files you need. To start off, pop over to the stationery store and pick up a bunch of paper files. These are inexpensive and very convenient as no holes need to be punched on documents - everything just goes straight into the paper file. Also pick up as many plastic clear folders as you can, as these are absolutely invaluable for organising materials in a hurry. Finally, get a stapler and a felt tipped black pen.

c) Organise your documents
Label each paper folder clearly with its corresponding category with the black felt-tipped pen. Inside each paper folder, create sub-categories by filing documents inside the clear plastic folders that can then be slipped into the paper folder. You could label these with post-its.

d) Create a system for sorting and filing
The secret to any successful system is consistency. Develop a standard operating procedure whereby incoming documents, mail, receipts, bills and other items, are sorted immediately upon receipt. On a daily basis, label each document with a post it and place it in a box.

Once every 2 weeks, sort through that box and file all the documents it contains, into the paper folders. If 2 weeks is not doable, then at least once a month. Do NOT let the documents pile up, or you'll never be motivated to go through the mountainous pile! :-)

Once every 6 months or once a year, go through all the paper folders, either throw away documents that are no longer of any use, and archive documents that are more than 6 months old and will not be used again, into box files or ring folders. These can be stored in a storage area. Note that accounting and tax documentation should be kept for a minimum of 7 years, so don't throw them away just yet:)

Hope the above was helpful :-)! Comments, questions or requests to cover particular topics, email me at spiralcraft1701@gmail.com.

Tips on preparing for events

As those running non-profit organisations know, events are an important part of the lifecycle of a non-profit organisation.

Events need to be held for a variety of reasons… to raise funds, to raise awareness, as a volunteer recruitment drive, or alternatively, such events could be something that the organisation must do, by virtue of the objects set out in its Constitution.

Either way, when it comes to organising the event, things can get a little chaotic, to put it mildly, haha! :-)

Especially when your organisation is small and volunteer-run, without any full-time staff.  The founders, office bearers and volunteers will find themselves running around to sort everything out to prepare for the event, from A to Z.

So when you’re relying on volunteers to help get stuff done, co-ordination is key. It really does help to spend some time thinking about and planning for the event in advance, and to do up some checklists.

Now the really good thing about checklists is they can be watsapped (yes, you can watsapp PDF documents J), emailed  or printed out for all the volunteers and persons in charge of the various jobs and tasks, thus keeping everyone in the loop as to what needs to be done before, during and after the event.

Here are some tips to help you plan your next event using some checklists that I have found helpful.

A.Sample Pre-Event Checklist 

NO.	ITEM	DESCRIPTION	TASK LEADER	DEADLINE
1	Pre event publicity	Send out invitations or info via email to members and volunteers, upload info to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.	[Insert volunteer’s name]	To be completed by [insert date]
		Invite press	[Insert volunteer’s name]	To be completed by [insert date]
2	RSVP’s	Follow up with invited guests, press, etc	[Insert volunteer’s name]	To be completed by [insert date]
3	[Item]	[description]	[Insert volunteer’s name]	To be completed by [insert date]

B.Sample Event Itinerary for the day itself

 It’s best if the checklist for the day of the event itself, replaces “Deadline” with “Time”.

NO.	ITEM	DESCRIPTION	TASK LEADER	TIME
1	Pre event set-up	Prep the location, put up all buntings, publicity materials, prepare refreshments, get things ready for kick off	[Insert volunteer’s name]	Set up to be completed by [Insert time] am/pm
2	Welcoming guests	Ensure that guests and visitors are taken care of, shown where to go, as given copies of promotional material, etc.	[Insert volunteer’s name]	Volunteers to be at their post by [Insert time] am/pm
3	[Item]	[description]	[Insert volunteer’s name]	[  ]  to be completed by [Insert time] am/pm

C.Post Event Checklist

NO.	ITEM	DESCRIPTION	TASK LEADER	DEADLINE
1	Post event publicity	Upload photos of the event, commentaries etc to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.	[Insert volunteer’s name]	To be completed by [insert date]
2	Thank you’s, acknowledgements, etc.	Send thank you notes or acknowledgements to donors, visitors etc	[Insert volunteer’s name]	To be completed by [insert date]
3	[Item]	[description]	[Insert volunteer’s name]	To be completed by [insert date]

Hopefully, the above templates will be helpful to you in planning your non-profit organisation’s next event J.

Comments, questions or requests to cover particular topics, email me at spiralcraft1701@gmail.com.

Tips on managing a shared email account for volunteer-run non profit organisations

Non profit organisations rely on email to manage lots of things - communications with existing and potential members and volunteers, CSR partners, sponsors, donors and other stakeholders, and also regulatory agencies or local authorities.

And generally, one non-profit organisation has 1 email account. It could be a gmail, yahoo or other web-based mail account, and one of the founders or volunteers usually sets it up, creating a shared password and User ID. 

That part is simple enough, but if your organisation is a small and largely volunteer-run, it's also worth putting some thought into how best to manage the emails that come into it. 

The first point to consider is that there's likely to be more than 1 person accessing it. For example, different office bearers and volunteers might be working on different projects, yet all using the same email address. This could be tricky, as you might miss an email that you were meant to respond to, as it got lost amongst all the emails meant for other persons in that same inbox.

To pre-empt or overcome problems like these, here are some simple tips that hopefully get you on top of your inbox in no time! :-)

First, assign categories of emails. It's probably easiest to do this by "Sender", ie. Category 1 : Donors, Category 2 : Stakeholders, Category 3 : Volunteers & Members,  Category 4 : Regulatory Authorities, etc.

Next, decide which of the volunteers/office bearers will handle what, and ensure that each person knows their assigned category. For example, if you will be managing online donations and membership subscriptions, then you know that all emails on that topic are for your action only.

Once you've done the above, a few more simple rules will round off the process. First, make sure all persons in charge know that if an email is not for them, they must leave it "unread" or if they do wish to read it, they should take the additional step of marking it "unread" so that its intended recipient, will see it as unread until he/she opens it and takes action on it.

Finally, develop the practice of checking through the "Send" box before responding to any email. This is just in case, someone else has mistakenly assumed that the contents of that email fell under their assigned category, and has answered it already. Nothing would be more confusing to a recipient than to receive two different emails appearing to have been written by two different people, both covering the same subject matter, from the same email account! :-)

Hope the above tips are helpful :-) Comments, questions or requests to cover particular topics, email me at spiralcraft1701@gmail.com.

Setting up branches - To Do or Not To Do?

So, let's say your small non-profit organisation is doing well, and attracting a lot of interest from volunteers and others. Given the reach of social media, you could well have a large following of friends and supporters on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Many of them turn up for events and drop by to volunteer regularly.

But what about those who are not based in the same state? For example, if your organisation is based in the Klang Valley, and your activities are carried out here, what about friends and supporters from other states?

Inevitably, you'll receive questions like "I want to join your organisation but I live in [         ]. How can I still participate? Do you have a presence in my city that I can get involved in?". In fact, die-hard enthusiasts might even say "If you don't have a presence in my city, a few friends and I would be happy to set one up. We will use your logo and name, and we will run it in our city".

Now, this may sound like an excellent idea as of course, nothing makes the founders of a non-profit organisation happier than having our non-profit organisation grow and our concept replicated across different geographical regions, allowing us to reach an even larger target audience.

It's all good, right? :-)

Well.. er..not quite so fast.:-) It depends on how your organisation (the parent organisation) is set up. If, (as is mostly the case) your non-profit organisation is a registered society under the Societies Act, 1966, setting up a branch is a rather complicated process.

Firstly, as a matter of policy, if your society is a registered society, you should NOT allow any other organisation to use your logo. This is because any organisation using your logo, is "deemed" by the Registry of Socieites, to be a branch of your organisation. In fact, any other organisation that is "in any way subordinate" to yours, could be deemed to be a branch.

Section 12 (5) of the Societies Act 1966 states : For the purpose of this section, a branch of a registered society includes any society which is in any way subordinate to another society.
And, a registered society cannot set up a branch as of right. There is a list of regulations to be complied with first and, the Registry of Societies must give its approval for the setting up of a branch. A registered society that tries to open a branch without permission contravenes the Societies Act is deemed to be an unlawful society and could face a range of penalties, including cancellation of the registration of the society.

In summary, the registered society has to first amend its constitution to include a provision enabling the setting up of branches. The constitution can only be amended at an Emergency General Meeting (EGM), so one needs to be convened. More information on how to amend a Constitution is available here, though the procedure has been simplified via the use of the online portal, eROSes. And even if the members vote in favour of the amendment during the EGM with a view to setting up branches, the Registry of Societies has the final say in deciding whether or not a registered society may open a branch.

Go to : http://www.ros.gov.my/index.php/my/perkhidmatan

1.	PENDAHULUAN
	Pertubuhan yang berdaftar di bawah Akta Pertubuhan 1966 boleh menubuhkan cawangan hanya jika: (a)Undang-undang berdaftarnya mengandungi peruntukan penubuhan cawangan; dan (b)Kebenaran bagi menubuhkan cawangan telah diperolehi terlebih dahulu daripada Pendaftar Pertubuhan.

3.	CAWANGAN PERTUBUHAN
		Pertubuhan yang berdaftar di bawah Seksyen 7(1), Akta Pertubuhan 1966 yang mana undang-undangnya termaktub peruntukan penubuhan cawangan boleh menubuhkan cawangannya dengan terlebih dahulu memohon kebenaran daripada Pendaftar Pertubuhan di bawah Seksyen 12(1), Akta Pertubuhan 1966.
4.		CARA MEMOHON MENUBUHKAN CAWANGAN
		4.1 Tiap-tiap permohonan untuk kebenaran menubuhkan cawangan hendaklah dibuat oleh Pertubuhan Induk. 4.2 Borang permohonan untuk kebenaran penubuhan cawangan (Borang 5) boleh dimuat turun secara percuma di sini atau diperolehi daripada Ibu Pejabat dan mana-mana Jabatan Negeri. 4.3 Tiap-tiap permohonan hendaklah mengandungi perkara-perkara berikut:
	(a) salinan borang permohonan Borang 5 – Kebenaran Menubuhkan Cawangan yang disahkan dan ditandatangani oleh 2 orang pemegang jawatan utama Pertubuhan Induk. Pemegang jawatan utama bermaksud Presiden/Yang DiPertua/Pengerusi, Timbalan Presiden/Timbalan Yang DiPertua/Timbalan Pengerusi, Naib Presiden/Naib Yang DiPertua/Naib Pengerusi, Setiausaha dan Bendahari. (b)surat kebenaran menggunakan alamat daripada tuan punya alamat, jika berkenaan. (Jika menggunakan alamat pejabat, sekolah, hospital, ladang, syarikat atau kilang, surat kebenaran majikan/tuan punya alamat hendaklah disertakan); dan   (c) Fi pemprosesan berjumlah RM10.00 dalam bentuk wang tunai/bank draf/kiriman wang atas nama Pendaftar sekiranya permohonan dihantar ke Ibu Pejabat Jabatan Pendaftaran Pertubuhan Malaysia atau Penolong Pendaftar sekiranya permohonan dihantar ke Jabatan Pendaftaran Pertubuhan Negeri

Assuming your organisation did opt to go through the process of setting up branches and obtained the relevant approvals from the Registry of Societies, bear in mind that in accordance with various other provisions of the Societies Act, 1966, the audited accounts of all the branches need to be consolidated, and reporting in terms of annual returns and other filings with ROS need to be done on a consolidated basis.

This immediately throws up practical hurdles, as it means that the "branch" is not separate from the main organisation. As far as the regulators are concerned, both organisations are linked and are viewed as a single entity at the macro level. As such, the main organisation and its "branches" should have centralised financial processing and operational systems.

Which brings us to the next point - assuming that your organisation is small, volunteer-run and does not have a full-time secretariat or any paid staff for that matter, how will your organisation monitor and oversee the day-to-day activities of the branches? This is especially critical in the area of financial management, as both the main organisation and the branches are dealing with donated public funds. As the main organisation is ultimately responsible for the consolidated financial reporting of the Group, your organisation needs to exercise at least some supervision, over the finances and other activities of the branches.

So for a small, volunteer-run non-profit organisation therefore, I would not recommend the setting up of branches just yet. Perhaps a little later on, once you've been able to build up your organisation in terms of funding and manpower. In the meantime, do encourage people to set up their own societies in other states and cities (just under a different name, and not using your logo or one that resembles yours). You could always provide them with guidance in how to do it in fact, since you've already been through the process of setting up yours. There could be opportunities for co-branding or using a tagline such as "Friends of Society X" to show that there is an informal affiliation between the 2 organisations. Just do not enter into any arrangement that might cause the 2nd organisation, to be a deemed a branch of yours.

Comments, questions or requests to cover particular topics, email me at spiralcraft1701@gmail.com.

A simple system to help small non-profit organisations manage membership renewals

If your non-profit organisation is a registered society, most of your members are likely to be ordinary members -which means that their subscriptions will need to be renewed on an annual basis. And if your organisation does not have any paid staff to help out with secretariat matters, the job of managing membership renewals is likely to fall to the office bearers.

Without a proper reminder and management system in place, things could get quite chaotic. Members are likely to have forgotten when they joined, and/or when they should renew their subscriptions. The office bearers are not likely to remember either, so when the Annual General Meeting rolls around, they might be unpleasantly surprised to find that almost all of the members are no longer members.. as their memberships have already lapsed!:-)

The above scenario can be avoided by creating and implementing 3 easy-to-implement standard operating procedures (SOPs):

1) An SOP to admit and record new members
I've outlined a SOP for this part in more detail, in an earlier post. To recap, firstly, a membership form should be designed for new members to fill in and submit to the secretariat along with their payment. This could be a printed form, or an online PDF which members can fill in by hand, sign, scan and email back to the secretariat. The form should contain key information fields such as name, NRIC number, residential address and contact details - email address & cellphone number. The member could either make payment in cash to one of the office bearers or, make an online or ATM transfer to the registered society's bank account. If this is the preferred payment method, the member should also email a scanned copy of the bank in slip, or the online transfer reference number, to the office bearer in charge. You could then create a simple spreadsheet in which to key in the details of the new member, populating it with the same fields as the membership form. Make sure to include a column to indicate when the new member's membership will lapse. This document can be referred to as the Register of Members.

2) An SOP to prompt members whose memberships are expiring, to renew
Set up a reminder on an online calendar service to prompt you to check the Register of Members once at the end of every month. If you see that a membership is about to lapse in the coming month, send a reminder email, watsapp message or SMS to the member, inviting them to renew their membership. The communication should include brief instructions on how to renew, ie. the bank in slip or online payment reference number needs to be communicated to the secretariat as well as date of payment and details of the member (unless the member wishes to make a cash payment).

3) An SOP to record renewed members
Once the member has confirmed that he or she wishes to renew for another year, and the society's bank statement reflects that the online/ATM transfer came through, or once the cash received has been banked in, you can now update the Register of Members to reflect that the member has renewed his/her membership and also record the next renewal date (which should be 1 year from the date of earlier renewal).

Hopefully, the above simple tips will help your non-profit organisation manage its membership renewal process more easily. Questions or suggestions for future topics, email me at spiral1701@gmail.com.

Tips on how to process claims efficiently

OK, so claims processing is one of those day-to-day operational things that the founders of a new non-profit organisation were not really thinking about when the organisation was formed and it was all about the long term vision and mission of the non-profit organisation! :-)

And yet, setting up and managing an efficient and accurate system to process claims is super-important. Why? Because firstly, when volunteers spend their own money on behalf of the organisation, they definitely want to be reimbursed as soon as possible :-) They will not be too happy if their claims take too long to process, and may hesitate to advance funds in future knowing that there is going to be a long wait ahead until they get reimbursed. 

Also, from a regulatory and governance point of view, all non-profit organisations have a duty to manage the funds of the organisation properly. Efficient and effective systems need to be in place in order to track and account for every cent that has been donated to your organisation, or supplied in the form of grants.Tracking and recording the movement of cash going in and out of the organisation is therefore of fundamental importance. However small your non-profit organisation may be, if it is a registered society as most of them are, the accounts will be audited after the close of each financial year. In addition,  if your organisation has tax exempt status,, there could be further audits or requests for records and documentation from the Inland Revenue Board. So it's really important to focus on what (some may consider to be) the rather tedious details :-)/ 

Large and well-funded non profit organisations would probably have part-time or full-time administrative staff to handle the nitty-gritty aspects of running a secretariat like claims processing, but small, new non-profit organisations may find that it just costs too much to pay regular salaries. In such cases, one of the founders themselves, or an office bearer like the Treasurer, is likely to end up with the role (in addition to their day jobs) :-)  

So to help juggle it all, here are some simple tips on setting up a workable system to manage claims which a volunteer, founder or executive committee member/office bearer could try out:

i) Create a set of general headings, under which all claims will be categorised.

If your organisation is a registered society, you may wish to follow the general headings set out in the Registry of Society's financial reporting template on its e-ROSes portal. General headings under the "Expenditure" section are "Operating Expenses", "Activity-related/Fundraising Expenses" and "Administrative Costs".

ii) Create a template claim form and email it to the members and volunteers in PDF. The format of the claim form is pretty much up to you but you'd probably want to include a space for the name of the person making the claim, plus a table with columns for a description of the item, category of claim and RM amount. You should also add a space for a signature (of the person making the claim) and a counter-signature (of the Treasurer of the society, or other authorised office bearer such as the President). Also, print out copies of the form and leave them at the office or registered address, in case members/volunteers drop by in person to make claims. Another helpful hint is to keep a supply of paper clips next to the forms, so that claimants can clip their receipts to the form. 

iii) Create a process flow for getting the claim form to you for processing. The members/volunteers need to know what they need to do once they have filled up the form and clipped their receipts to it. Should they scan the completed form as well as all the receipts, and email them all to you? Or, should they drop off the documents somewhere? Or will you need to meet them in person to collect the documents? This info should be clearly stated on the claim form, so that the person making the claim knows what to do with the form and the receipts. You may also wish to give the member/volunteer an idea of how long processing will take, just to manage their expectations in terms of timing. 

iv) Create a set of internal SOPs to process the claim. For example, you might want to create a series of steps such as these to be followed.

1. Review the claim form and ensure that the claims are made under the right category.

2. Check the receipts to ensure that the RM amounts are correctly reflected.

3. Ensure that the form is properly signed and counter-signed.

4. Record the claim in your accounting system and prepare the cash reimbursement and voucher to be signed for the member/volunteer once payment is received.

5. Arrange for the member/volunteer to collect the cash and sign the voucher. 

Hopefully the above tips have been helpful! :-) If you have comments or requests for info on particular topics, do email me at spiral1701@gmail.com.

Tips for small non-profit organisations on managing multiple projects

Most non-profit organisations have some form of paid support. Such support could range from a part-time administrative assistant or two, to a fully-fledged secretariat with dozens of employees.

Small non-profit organisations which are just starting out however, rarely have the resources to channel towards staff salaries. So, projects are largely volunteer-driven.

Some small organisations might be lucky enough to have a few "full-time volunteers" ie people who do not work full time elsewhere and really have some spare time to contribute. But for the most part, our volunteers are likely to be ordinary working folk like ourselves, who have to juggle their volunteer work along with their full-time jobs and family obligations.

Given the time constraints that such volunteers inevitably face, what are some tips and strategies we can share with our fellow volunteers to help ourselves keep multiple projects moving forward and on track?

The most important step seems to be to create a system that allows for regular tracking of activities related to a project, as well as other project-related information.

Open a word document, spreadsheet, a mobile phone app, a paper notebook or a physical file for all the different projects. Identify project outcomes and break the project into mini-steps or milestones. Note down the stakeholders involved in the achievement of project outcomes, as well as any relevant target or actual deadlines.

Each time you work on a given project, keep a record of what you did on that date, which milestones were completed, and what the next steps are moving forward (as well as who is responsible to get them completed).

While recording all this may sound extremely tedious, it is actually a failsafe way to ensure that you don’t lose track of where things are on any given project and (most importantly) what still needs to be done. The human memory is only so efficient… without a proper tracking and recording system, more and more to-do’s will inevitably fall by the wayside :-)

Having a structured system to record project progress also allows for easy and quick updating of another volunteer who might become involved in the project halfway, or who might need to take over the project from you. This allows you to build in some element of scalability into your internal processes, in preparation for your organisation expands and you take on more projects.

If you have any questions or suggestions for future topics, do email me at spiral1701@gmail.com.

How often should a registered society hold Executive Committee Meetings?

If your non-profit organisation is a registered society, meaning, a society registered with the Registry of Societies (“ROS”) under the Societies Act, 1966 (“Act”), then a specific set of rules and regulations governs some  aspects of its day-to-day operations.

One of these rules, is the obligation to hold regular executive committee (“Exco”) meetings.

Ok to start off, who exactly is the Exco? The Exco, is another way of describing the office bearers (pegawai pertubuhan) of your registered society. They are sometimes referred to as AJK, or Ahli Jawatankuasa. Essentially,these would be the President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and ordinary executive committee members, that were elected at an Annual General Meeting.

So now, let’s first find out where the information as to how often the Exco should meet, can be found.

While there are general provisions applicable to the office bearers of a registered society under the Act, specific information on when the exco should meet, is actually set out in the Constitution of the registered society and not in the Act itself. 

As mentioned in an earlier post, every registered society needs to have a Constitution. You (or the Secretary of your non-profit organisation) would have had to submit the draft constitution, to ROS for approval prior to receiving your society’s Certificate of Registration.

A sample Constitution is available for download on ROS’ website. 

Assuming your Constitution roughly follows the ROS sample, you should find the following Article or its equivalent (note that a Constitution can also be in English, it does not have to be in Bahasa Malaysia) in it:

Jawatankuasa hendaklah bermesyuarat sekurang-kurangnya sekali dalam 3 bulan.  Notis bagi tiap-tiap mesyuarat hendaklah diberikan kepada ahli jawatankuasa 7 hari terlebih dahulu. Pengerusi dengan bersendirian atau tidak kurang daripada .....orang ahli Jawatankuasa bersama-sama boleh memanggil supaya diadakan mesyuarat Jawatankuasa pada bila-bila masa.  Sekurang-kurangnya setengah (½) daripada bilangan ahli Jawatankuasa hendaklah hadir bagi mengesahkan perjalanan dan mencukupkan korum mesyuarat.

A rough translation of the above:

The Exco must meet at least once in 3 months. Notice of the meeting should be given to the Exco members 7 days prior. The President alone or not fewer than [         ] exco members together can requisition an Exco meeting at any time. At least half of the number of Exco members must be present to verify the proceedings and fulfill quorum requirements.

OK, so you now know that the exco meeting should be held at least once every 3 months. Which means you could convene a more frequently if you’d like to. In our non-profit organisation, I try to convene exco meetings at least once a month. This does not always happen due to the busy schedules of all the committee members, but we try to follow this best practice.

What should you before an exco meeting? Best to prepare a notice of meeting and circulate it to all committee members 7 days prior. The notice would contain a brief agenda for the meeting.  Usually it goes along these lines…Presidents Report, Treasurer’s Report, Secretary’s Report, Special Business, Any Other Business, etc. The exact format is up to you – if your organisation is small, things don’t really have to be super-formal at the early stages.

If there are papers and documents that the exco members need to review, these could be PDF’d and emailed to all in advance to minimise time spent going through them during the meeting (a guaranteed time-waster! J)

It’s a good idea to prepare an attendance list, and get the signatures of the meeting attendees. This is just in case at a later date, a question arises as to how many people actually attended the meeting.

If you are the Secretary, then will have to pay attention right through and take minutes of the meeting ( so yes, it’s definitely not the time to be playing Pokemon GO! J). There are a couple of ways to take minutes. At the most basic level, you could just jot down notes on a sheet of paper and type them up later. This is probably the most effective, especially if people are talking very quickly and it’s difficult to keep up.

If however, you are a very fast typist and are more comfortable on a keyboard, you might want to prepare a standard template for minutes in soft copy by creating a set of standard headings corresponding to the agenda items set out in the notice of meeting, and add columns to fill in the notes of what was actually discussed during the meeting itself. This allows you to easily organise the notes you are taking during the meeting, into what will become the actual minutes of the meeting. It also skips the rather tedious part of having to type up your notes.

Yet another option is to record the whole meeting and then transcribe it line by line. Be warned though this is an extremely tedious taks… especially if you are just a volunteer, and have a full time job elsewhere! The likelihood that you’ll actually have the timeto sit down and transcribe an hours’ worth of recorded conversation, is pretty low.. and if the meeting drags on, you might just never finish transcribing the minutes J.

OK so once the minutes are typed up, we’re done right? Ooops, not so fast J. There’s still a couple of things left to do. First, the final minutes should be printed out, signed by the Secretary, PDF’d and emailed to all members. The printed copy should also be filed.

And last but definitely not least, make a list of post-meeting action items which need to be followed up on, circulate it to the task leaders and follow up on their progress before the next meeting. Otherwise,  action items discussed at the meeting are likely to remain in the minutes, never to be implemented J.

Comments, questions or suggestions, email me at spiral1701@gmail.com.

Tips on Creating SOP's for your Non-Profit Organisation

Processes? Procedures? Rules & Regulations? Errgh, how boring… volunteering is meant to be fun J! I hear you say. Now, while I do understand that pretty much only lawyers and accountants find procedures, rules and regulations fun,  putting into place some simple processes really does help with the running of any organisation – not just a non-profit organisation. Especially when your organisation is small, has no paid or full time staff, and is run entirely by volunteers.

More often than not, a small, newly-set up non-profit organisation or social enterprise is self-run a few individual volunteers (who are usually working full time elsewhere!:-)) and who are tasked with running the organisation.  What usually happens is that this small group ends up doing everything and kind of just “knows” what needs to be done. Half the time, they’re just rushing to stay on top of the deluge of communications, things to do and activities to run – and have no time to record exactly what they do or how they do it.

This system probably works pretty well most of the time as long as everyone does what they’re meant to, but sooner or later, you’re going to hit a snag when the people who normally do the job, can’t do it for some reason. Maybe they are going to be away overseas, or are not well, or are busy over the festive season, or something has just come up that’s going to prevent them from being able to do the job for a period of time or permanently. Another volunteer needs to take over - and then…the questions start. “What do I do?”, “How do I do it”, “What are the steps involved?”

Which brings me back to the importance of creating standard operating procedure or processes or SOPs.

Question 1 – when should our non-profit organisation start creating SOPs?

The answer is, right NOW J Don’t wait until they’re needed. SOPs need to be created in advance, and not at the last minute. Last-minute SOPs tend to miss out important steps and details, so plan ahead.

Question 2 – what sort of stuff requires SOP’s?

OK so for the super-organised productivity nerds among us, there is no limit to SOPs. Every single activity could be improved and done quicker and more efficiently, therefore, every single activity could benefit from a SOP. But, that would be simply be overkill in a small non-profit organisation or social enterprise. Bear in mind, most people dislike structure, rules and regulations. You don’t want to scare off volunteers by handing them a ISO-certification level manual crammed full of complex SOPs. You probably won’t see them again after that J!

 Just stick to the most important key processes. Stuff that needs to be done daily, weekly, monthly, yearly. How to put an event or activity together. How regular communications like emails, newsletters, social media posts etc, get created and sent out. Practical stuff like that.

Question 3 – How do we create the actual SOP?

Talk to all the volunteers who normally do the job. Ask them questions about what they do, step by step. Ask them to share tips and shortcuts around the process. Ask about pre-preparation ie. what needs to get done behind the scenes before the event/activity. What happens during the event/activity. What happens after or rather, are there any follow-up aspects that need to be taken care of after the event. Next, type it all up and there’s your SOP!

Don’t forget to let the folks that normally do the job, review your SOP before you finalise it though. They may have stuff to add or have suggestions on reorganising the steps. All this input helps create a comprehensive SOP.

Question 4 – Do I need to have an MBA before I am qualified to create an SOP?

Absolutely not. The only skill you need is the ability to type, probably (unless you’re really old school and prefer to write things down, on pieces of parchment…:-). Seriously, an SOP can be nothing more than a series of steps described in simple English, typed up in a plain old MS Word document . That’s it. No fancy software programmes or killer apps are needed. (Though if you or someone on your team just happens to be a wizard at creating detailed flowcharts, colourful graphs and pie charts and whatnot, then knock yourselves out! J Just make sure the rest of us mere mortals can understand them easily…J

Question 5 – Should I use my laptop or my phone to create the SOP?

It doesn’t really matter, as long as somehow, the text can get onto your phone. Now if you have a Samsung phone, and better still, a external Samsung phone keyboard like I do, you could even create the SOP on your phone’s memo or note-taking app. I’m sure this is possible on other Android devices as well as IPhones too. Why do you need the text on your phone? So that you can easily copy and paste it into watsapp or even an email, when you need to. Having the data on your phone makes it super-easy to communicate. Let’s say a volunteer sends you a watsapp message asking “I’d like to volunteer tomorrow, what do I do?” you could just copy the whole SOP from your note-taking app and paste it straight into Watsapp.

Having said that, the text should also go in a word document or excel spreadsheet and be stored on your laptop, preferably in a folder marked “SOPs” (OK, so it’s not the most creative name around, feel free to come up with your own! J). The SOPs may evolve with time as you might need to edit them to delete irrelevant stuff and include other details as time goes by, so always mark each version of the document that you save, with the date. Don’t delete old versions as you may need to refer to them later.

Hope the above helps! Questions or suggestions, email me at spiralcom1701@gmail.com.

A simple system for tracking events and activities organised by your non-profit organisation.

If you help manage a small non-profit organisation as a volunteer with a full time day job, you’ll definitely have learnt a few shortcuts to systemise operations so that you can get as much done in as little time as possible.

I’d like to share with you a super-simple and easy-to-update system for recording and updating events and activities.

Firstly, let’s connect with the “why” behind this exercise. Why it is a good idea to maintain an easy-to-get-to running list to track all the activities and events your non-profit organisation runs?

Well, for one thing, it can easily help you keep track of key dates for later reference, which, in the absence of a system, you’ll most likely forget.  And, this list could be the foundation document for the President’s Report or other report that you might need to prepare before your registered society’s AGM, or for a proposal to raise funds, or to do a write-up for an impromptu presentation if you need to put something together quickly at short notice. 

It’s really simple, and you won’t need any fancy tools or apps. In fact it's really up to you to work out what suits you best. You can use a simple notebook, or a plain old word document, or a simple spreadsheet.

First, create a list/tracker. Step 1, note down your events – dates, venues and other important details you want to capture. Step 2, create a table with 3 columns (left to right) captioned “DATE”. “EVENT” and “DESCRIPTION”. Step 3,  populate the table with the events your organisation has held to date. If you can’t trace the information back far enough, just start from where you can. Better late than never! :-)

In order to maintain the system, you just need to create a reminder that will remind you to update the tracker at a regular interval. The key word here is "regular". You could link this reminder to the event itself, or to time.  A suggestion would be to make it a standard operating practice to either update the list every time your organisation has an event, or, if this is too tedious, make it a standard practice to update the list once a month.  I wouldn’t recommend going beyond 1 month, as by then there may be too many events and you may end up putting it off . One way of doing this is to put in a calendar reminder on a monthly basis. Every month, you'll get a reminder to do your updates. And when that happens, you must do it (or else the system won't work :-). 

Questions or suggestions, do feel free to email me at spiralcraft1701@gmail.com.

An Overview of Trademarks for Social Enterprises and Non-Profit Organisations

Social enterprises and non-profit organisations would of course be very familiar with the word “trademark”. 

You would probably have heard how “valuable” some trademarks, slogans and brands are as well....for example, everyone knows that the“Apple” brand and its corresponding apple-shaped trademark, is worth millions. Same goes for Nike’s “swoosh” and its trademarked slogan “Just Do It”. 

As your small social enterprise or non-profit organisation begins its journey, you might feel as though you need to know more about trademarks. The resources and links below will hopefully give you a better idea of what trademarks are and how they are protected in Malaysia (and internationally).

1. What qualifies for registration as a trademark?

Section 3 of the Trade Marks Act 1976 provides a list of stuff that could qualify for trademark registration. The list includes words, logos, slogans, heading, brands, names, signatures...basically, just about anything linked to sales and marketing of any product or service under the sun, could be a trademark. The "legalese" definition of a trademark, for those who are interested, is as below:

"… the mark is an indication of a connection in the course of trade between the goods/services, and, the owner of the trademark" (FYI, the “owner” is usually referred to as the “registered proprietor”).  

2. How is a trademark created and which statute contains the law governing trademarks?

The Malaysian Intellectual Property Office (MyIPO) provides a lot of useful, free information on trademarks as well as other forms of intellectual property. Some basic info on trademarks is here.

In short, trademarks are regulated by the Trade Marks Act 1976 (including all subsequent amendments thereto) and the corresponding regulations. 

3.Who can apply to register a trade mark?

Any person, whether a Malaysian citizen or not, who is the owner of the trade mark used or proposed to be used, by him in Malaysia, may apply for the registration of a trademark in Malaysia. The owner may be an individual, partnership, company or organization.

4.When can you apply for a trademark?

An application for trade mark may be filed at any time, whether it has been used, or has yet to be used. 

5.What can be registered as a trademark? 

Section 10 of the Act provides a list of what kinds of marks do and don't qualify for registration. Essentially, a trademark should be distinctive. This is a complicated way of saying that a trademark should be "different from other trademarks". For a more detailed list of the do's and don't, go to Section 10 of the Act.

6.What cannot be registered as a trade mark?

Some logos or words are statutorily prohibited from registration. See Section 14 of the Act and also, 

Also, Item 7 of the MyIPO Trademark FAQs.

7.What are “Classes” and why do I need to know about them?

Basically, trademarks (for products) and service marks (for services) are registered under different classes, which are arranged according to descriptions of the products and services. You can review all the trade and service mark classes here. As a general rule, service marks are always registered under Class 42. 

8.How do I do an online search and how do I file my application?

Before opting to file a trademark application, you should do a search first. This basically means that before 

filing your application, you should first check what other similar or even identical marks have already been grated registered trademark status, in your category of goods or services. This will help save you the time and costs involved in applying to register a trademark which is identical or 

similar to trademarks registered earlier on by other parties. 

All searches can be done at the Public Search Room, at the MyIPO. A fee of RM 20 per hour will be charged.Alternatively there is an online search option here. However, it is better to do a manual search just in case the online records have not been updated. A manual search can be done by completing and submitting Form TM4A and annexing a representation of the mark. Form TM4A and other forms can be downloaded from MyIPO's web portal, here.

As for the actual filing, there’s a list of forms and documents forming part of the application and a list of filing fees, here.. 

According to MyIPO’s website, each applicant must file form TM5 (5 copies) and submit a Statutory 

Declaration declaring ownership of the mark and pay the prescribed fee. If payment is by cheque/money 

order/postal order, it should be in the name of Perbadanan Harta Intelek Malaysia. 

One also needs to submit other supporting documents such as Form 49 for a company (sole proprietor and partnership), documents for Priority Date Claim (PDC) and others.

MyIPO’s website goes on to state that an application can be filed at, and inquiries can be made at, the 

following address :

    Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO)
    Unit 1-7, Ground Floor, Menara UOA Bangsar
    No. 5 Jalan Bangsar Utama 1
    59000 Kuala Lumpur
    Tel: +603-22998400
    Fax: +603-22998989

9.Is it necessary for an applicant to appoint a registered trade mark agent for purposes of filing an application?
 A local applicant may file a trade mark application directly himself. A foreign application can only be filed 

through a registered trade mark agent.

10.Who is a registered trade mark agent?
 A registered trade mark agent may be an individual, firm or company who has been registered in the 

Register of Trade Marks Agents. 

They are appointed by the applicants to act on their behalf, in obtaining trade mark registration.

While small social enterprises and non-profit organisations would of course need to economise and manage resources wisely, when it comes to intellectual property matters, I would suggest that you get the assistance of a registered trade mark agent right from the start. 

While a lot of information is available online, navigating the morass of rules, regulations and procedures is not at all a simple process. 

 You could make mistakes or waste time trying to work out what you need to do. Besides, online resources, including this article, cannot be taken to amount to proper legal advice. 

It is best to use a qualified trademark agent or intellectual property lawyer as such professionals are well-versed in the rules and regulations. Such agents are usually located in legal firms or in intellectual property consulting companies.

For a list of registered trademark agents in Malaysia go to MyIPO's List of Registered TM Agents.

11. How does one secure protection abroad?Does a Malaysian filing give you automatic protection in all countries in the world? 

No,so if you plan to expand your business to penetrate new markets in other countries, you’ll need to apply 

for registration separately in each of those countries. However, a Malaysian application can be used as a 

basis for claiming priority in countries which are parties to the Paris Convention and are members of the 

World Trade Organization (WTO).

In terms of costs, this is certainly an issue - as the more jurisdictions you need to protect your trademark in, the higher your application, prosecution, enforcement and renewal costs. Be sure to ask your trademark 

agent about these costs.

12.How long is a registered trademark valid? 

 In Malaysia, trade mark registration is valid for ten years from the date of application. The trademark may either be renewed every ten years, or allowed to lapse upon the expiration of the validity period. 

13.How long does it take to register in Malaysia and what is the process? 

A flowchart showing the end to end process is available on MyIPO's website. Flowchart and Expedited Examination Flowchart.

It should be noted that the exact timeframe will depend on whether there are any objections (from the Registrar) or oppositions (from third parties) to your application. If there are, you’ll need to overcome them before proceeding to the next step. If not, you’ll sail through the stages right up to registration. Given that the outcome depends on whether there are objections/oppositions or not, it’s not possible to 

predict exactly how long the process will take. 

14.Why register a trademark? What rights does the registered owner get? 

 Again, the MyIPO gives you a brief but clear explanation here under "Importance of Trademark Registration. In summary, registered proprietors (owners) get exclusive rights over the use of the mark in the course of trade. They also have the right to commence legal action for infringement against others who use their marks on products or in relation to services, without permission or a license.

15.Is trade mark registration compulsory?

 The purpose of trademark registration as discussed earlier, is really to obtain exclusive rights for purposes of exploitation and commencing infringement actions. However, registration is not compulsory.

16.What happens if the trade mark is not registered in an action for infringement?

So what happens if you didn’t register, and you find someone using your trademark? The reality is, the use of a registered trademark or service mark or even an unregistered one, without the permission of the owner, still amounts to an infringement and you as the owner of the mark would potentially still have a case.

However, there is a key difference. Registration of the mark is conclusive evidence of ownership of the mark and the exclusive right to deal with the trademark. It is therefore easier to win your case if you are the 

registered proprietor. 

If your mark is not registered however, it doesn’t mean you can’t commence legal action, but you won’t be able to so under the Act - instead, you’ll be in for a much harder time trying to establish the elements of what is known as the common law tort of passing-off. This case outlines a trademark dispute with the element of passing-off thrown in as well. 

17.What actions are prohibited under the Act? 

a) Unauthorized use of a similar or identical mark in respect of the same goods or services in a way that confuses or deceives the public;

b) Unauthorised use of a mark which is identical/highly similar to the registered mark, such that it imports a reference to the registered proprietor. 

18.Other than civil remedies involving the owner funding his own litigation in court, what other 

enforcement actions and criminal sanctions are available under the Act? 

As long as you are the registered proprietor of the trademark under the Act, you may avail yourself of the 

enforcement strategies under the Trade Descriptions Act 2011. Under this piece of legislation, you can apply to court for a declaratory order declaring that the particular trademark or get-up is is a false trade description. 

Under the Trade Description Act 2011, the enforcement division of the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism can act on the complaint.

 This is especially useful when the trademark owner does not know who the infringer is - only that there are products in the market bearing a mark similar of identical to his registered trademark, and yet they were not manufactured or distributed by him. 

This article provides an overview of the Trade Descriptions Act.