Governance, representation and sunset clause

Nine Hawker Council members, elected by cluster from every stallholder enrolled in the programme, and a tenth named by FMAS with a full vote, hold the vetoes, all of them internal to the Seed Bank: over its own compensation policy, its documentation consent rules, its own placement of its graduates and Fellows, and any privately owned coffeeshop or food court the board recommends as a pilot centre. They can recall the hawker directors and are heard on the annual plan. The board has three hawker directors, each chosen from two candidates the Council puts forward, four independents (chair, finance and audit, culinary historian, hospitality education) and one Government director nominated by NEA or MSE, with NHB and the Taste Council attending without a vote; it owns the budget, the endowment, programming and the plan. Givers get a seat in the room, not a vote: two observers attend every board meeting, receive its papers and may speak, but do not vote or count towards a quorum. Each is proposed by the givers (one by the Founding Plate Partners and one by the endowment's community donors, through an open call each year to anyone who has given in the past two years); the board vets each nominee and approves the appointment. Observers step out of any item touching their own premises, rent rebates, licences or stall placement, and sign the board's confidentiality terms. Giving buys a voice on how the money is used, never a say over the hawker vetoes. The Government director holds a casting vote and nothing more: it decides any tied board decision, and the reserved matters that touch public assets (which centres host the pilots, the placement of graduates and Fellows at public stalls, anything that needs NEA's or a Town Council's consent) always go to the full board so that it reaches them. It cannot override a Hawker Council veto, and every use is published within 30 days, with the reasons, in the minutes and the annual report. Nothing in the plan binds NEA, a Town Council or an operator; what needs their consent is an ask in §7.7. Directors receive no pay: at most, nominal Makan Vouchers of about $50 a month from the programme's own budget, so they can eat at the stalls they visit as ambassadors, only if the constitution permits it and in line with the Commissioner of Charities' guidance; the chair's role carries no retainer. Members appoint directors after a fit-and-proper check and approve constitutional change. If fewer than 20 hawkers are actively engaged by the end of Year 3, or the trust index sits below 40% for two consecutive years, the entity winds up and returns remaining funds to donors.

Who pays

SELF-FINANCING

What it costs

$200/meeting SGD · per Hawker Council meeting

Members are paid $200/meeting for time away from the stall.

What it builds on

FMAS and an association at each of the more than 110 hawker centres: wide reach and Government's ear, but no funds or decision rights of its own; the Council works with them, not around them, and FMAS holds a voting seat on it (§1.2, the Record, A.1.2, §3.8).

Who gains

Hawkers

An elected Hawker Council, with a voting seat for FMAS and vetoes over the Seed Bank's own pay, consent and placement decisions, which puts forward two candidates for each of the board's three hawker seats (§1.2, §3.8).

Government

A director on the board with the casting vote, every use of it published, in a programme it anchors but need not operate (§1.4, §3.8).

Donors

A seat in the room, not a vote: one board observer proposed by the Founding Plate Partners and one by community donors, each vetted and approved by the board (§3.8).