Dear CIC Association members
It is with a certain degree of trepidation that I write this email on behalf of John Mulkerrin and myself.
Since we met in May 2008 John and I have committed ourselves to the furtherance of the CIC legislation and community. We are both believers in what CIC stands for and have been spurred on at every juncture by the amazing people we have met along the way who have shared our passion.
But.
CICs and the legislation we are beholden too is not getting the attention required to move it on. Despite our best and repeated endeavours there is no urgency whatsoever being shown by any power that be in allocating resource to this growing movement. We remain without funding and without satisfactory recognition.
Every month there are over 150 CICs forming - there are just under 4000 now in existence. Since the official launch of the CIC Association on the 9th September 2009 we have had over 450 registrations on the site. This is the fastest growing social enterprise movement in the country. There is no doubt in our minds that CIC will come to represent the vehicle of choice for social and community enterprise in this country in time. But we are going to have to make a noise.
Why is this legislation being ignored? Where is the funding to develop CICs? Given the pace of growth in this sector do you not think it yet another disgrace that something so positive is being almost completely ignored?
The Social Enterprise Coalition are currently allocating considerable resource to the development of yet another "identifier". Why has this resource not been allocated to nurturing this rapidly emerging movement?
Addressing this is not the job of the Regulator - although without their support we could not have achieved what we have so far.
Neither myself nor John can continue to fight against this on our own. Our intention has always been to make the Association the property of all CICs and that time has come. We have to stand up for the vehicles we have chosen to ride in. We are not resigning our positions as Directors, but we are asking for the CIC community to work with us now to put this matter on the national agenda.
We need to get a story in the Daily Mail, the Guardian, the Telegraph, on social networks, wherever - we need someone with power to acknowledge our existence and start to help us address the things we know we need. WE DO NOT NEED ANOTHER ORGANISATION TO CHARGE US AN ANNUAL FEE!!!! We need to take CIC as a brand and as a legislation a national reality and put it on the tip of every politician, investor and funder's tongue. We need the public to know just how positive the growth in this emerging market actually is.
John and I will not be able to co-ordinate this - it has gone beyond that - but we will do everything we can in line with any every effort made. We are asking you to self organise and make this happen.
Yours incredibly sincerely
Tom Barnett and John Mulkerrin
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