Changing Course

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  • Post category:IGA / News

The IGA needs a gamer friendly accountant  and solicitor to update our corporate structures.

As it currently stands, the IGA is officially constituted as an “Association unlimited by guarantee” like many other associations and clubs. However, this means that the liability of the members for any debts of the association is unlimited. In practice, while it is unlikely, if the IGA was the subject of a lawsuit which slipped past our insurance cover, the full cost could fall on the members. Understandably there are quite a few people who could and should be members who cannot sign up to that risk. It is a serious obstacle to expanding the membership and increasing our range of activities.

The limits flowing from the current structure have meant the burden of keeping the show on the road have fallen on a shrinking group whose goodwill has been worn out, while a great many people who have been active helpers aren’t members. People who weren’t formal members could be forgiven for feeling that the association was a sort of secret cabal with funny handshakes! Activities which should have been reviewed and kept fresh have become a little stale, or fell by the wayside.

The current committee are very much committed to changing this, most probably by converting to a “Company limited by guarantee”. There are many operations out there that will do this as an off the shelf setup. We have a few wrinkles which are slightly more complicated which we would like to get right. Therefore, we intend to take advice from someone who will do more than just a standard setup. We are also keen to get it done quickly.

This will not be without risk: it will certainly incur some annual fees, and we will need to find ways to meet those. We also face other challenges: convention venues are rising in cost, as is insurance. The association has a warchest, but without reviving our activities, we risk running into real problems in three or four years.

So we’d like suggestions from the community of suitable professionals who can do this. We are not looking for a freebie, but ‘mates rates’ would be nice. In any event, since we have to spend money on this, we’d prefer to spend it in our community. If you know someone, pop me an email to chair@iga.ie in confidence

Mike Cosgrave

Chair, IGA