Governance Weekly for 10th November
The weekly roundup from VANEL on good governance, charity trusteeship and non-profit leadership. News, information, resources and ideas. Complemented by our monthly “View from the Top” e-newsletter (Trustee Network members only), our “aboutgovernance” online discussion space for leaders and trustees and our @aboutgovernance Twitter feed.
We’ve got a bumper edition this week because we’re in the middle of national Trustees’ Week and, unsurprisingly, there’s a lot of news and activities.
As you read this we’re nearing the end of Trustees’ Week 2016 (7-13 Nov). It’s been a week of events and activities across the country celebrating trusteeship and good governance and revitalising support for those valuable volunteers who serve on boards and committees. VANEL has been tweeting during the week via @aboutgovernance and you can keep following that as the week comes to an end.
On Monday, to kick off Trustees’ Week, it was the NCVO Trustees Conference down in London. The conference is all over for another year (and looks to have been a great success) but you can still look back through what was happening during the event on Twitter via trusteeconf. NCVO have also now published all of the slides to most of the keynotes, talks and workshops. Worth a good look through these as there is always something we can be learning.
The slides include:
Keynote speech from Paula Sussex
AM1: Governance and leadership in the digital era
AM2: What every trustee should know
AM3: Overseeing charity finances
AM4: Effectively managing risk
AM5: Charity law and regulation update
PM1: Adapting to the digital age
PM2: Developing high performance in your board
PM4: How to recruit the best boards
PM5: Getting campaigning right
PM6: Focusing on impact
If any are of particular interest then please get in touch with VANEL for a conversation and to see if we can help you.
I didn’t managed to attend the NCVO led Trustee Conference down in London on Monday 7th November, but by following Twitter for the day, reading follow up information and comments and looking though the slides from the day, I’ve managed to pick up a few little bits and pieces from the event. Of course you can review everything yourself too, but here, for what it’s worth, are various points and notes that I’ve picked up of interest:
Volunteers and Trustees (who are of course, also volunteers) make a huge and valuable contribution to society.
We’re not doing enough about diversity on trustee boards.
There needs to be less duplication in the sector (and potentially more mergers).
Trustees need to become better advocates, get dirty ‘on the shop floor’ and believe in their own organisations (would they donate themselves?).
Digital is not going away any time soon! Boards need to embrace it. Try, adjust, learn as you go. (Found this article to read about the subject too).
Board culture (and behaviour) is something for every board to improve.
Feedback. An athlete gets feedback on performance all the time – what feedback do trustees and boards get? Without feedback how do we improve?
There are different ‘roles’ for trustees – including tokenistic which needs to be stamped out.
Trust is a pre-requisite for high performing boards – but it needs work to build it.
Rethink of the NCVO Governance Wheel with a proposal to introduce two new principles – trustee engagement and external leadership. Do you use the governance wheel?
Five board personas: champion, enthusiast, director, protector, chaser – which are you?
Impact assessment for boards and charities continues to increase in importance.
Boards need to do a lot more about active risk management. And a reminder on how reputation can be destroyed pretty quickly – good communication can’t cover up for poor governance.
In your governing documents do you include an express provision to be allowed to make decisions using social media? Constitutions for a digital age!
And finally – lots and lots and lots of reminders throughout the day on the basics of governance. Recruit the right trustees, get induction right, have good processes and behaviours, get your governing documents right, take responsibility (and understand what those responsibilities are), challenge and question, support and encourage – and enjoy the experience as a trustee!
Each month NCVO produces a quick governance roundup on their blog. It’s always worth a read to keep up to date with the very latest developments in governance. This month the November blog came out on 4th Nov just in advance of Trustees’ Week and had some pretty important announcements (which we cover later). Read that blog entry here. One of their key points was that NCVO has discounted down by 10%, 20% or to free most of their governance support related resources – but just for Trustees’ Week. So if you’re interested, you’d better start watching, reading, studying, downloading or buying them now! Included are:
Free access to NCVO’s new online course on a trustee’s role and responsibilities
Free access to all other online NCVO governance courses
Free access to the ‘Board Basics’ tool – templates and guidance
20% off all NCVO governance publications
10% off some NCVO governance training courses
Details of all of these are here.
“The View from the Top” – the e-newsletter about governance, trusteeship and leadership from VANEL came out last week. Now we’ve moved to sharing news and general updates via this weekly “Governance weekly” column, the View from the Top is focusing much more on a series of informational articles to get you thinking on particular topics.
This month we covered:
Demonstrating Good Governance
Leadership on the Board
Trustees are Volunteers too
Follow your Rulebook
Digital again
Back to Basics
A new Code of Good Governance
If you didn’t receive a copy of the e-newsletter then contact me (karl@vanel.org.uk) to request being added to the mailing list. Your organisation needs to be a Member or Friend of VANEL to qualify. You could always ask your Chair or Secretary to sort it out and forward you a copy – hopefully they are receiving it. And as always, I value comment, feedback and ideas. If any of the articles strike a chord with you and you’d like to discuss them further or get support, then contact me direct for a conversation.
It was surprising how many of the themes and issues we’re tackling in The View from the Top arose at the NCVO Trustees Conference this week too!
The “Code of Good Governance” has long been a key resource for governance improvement and development in the sector. But it’s been seven years since the last update and the world has kept on changing. So this week – to coincide with Trustees’ Week – NCVO and the other partners on the Code Steering Group have shared a new version of the Code (now called the “Charity Governance Code”) and put it out for consultation.
The consultation itself goes on until Feb 2017, but it’s now time for all boards and trustees to take a look at this new version and provide feedback. You can read all the background to the document and the consultation here, including links to the new code itself
There has been a Parliamentary consultation underway over the past few months which should be of interest to all charity and voluntary sector boards and committees. The House of Lords Select Committee on Charities consultation has been asking a lot of questions about our sector, so it’s rather important that, as a sector, we keep an eye on how this pans out. I’ve recently come across information about the formal responses provided to the committee by NPC and also the Small Charities Coalition.
The submission from NPC is here in full.
A key paragraph lifted straight from their report:
“Charity governance needs particular attention. NPC suggests that boards should have to report on their impact and governance processes to the Charity Commission. The aim would be to drive trustees to concentrate more on the difference the charity is making, and how they can improve, rather than a narrow focus on financial sustainability at all costs. Attitudes and skills in the boardroom also need updating. The sector needs a more diverse trustee base, and new skills such as expertise in digital, if organisations are to thrive in the modern world. Furthermore, charities need to be bolder, and boards need a greater appetite for risk, if the sector is to adapt and deliver greater impact in a changing world.”
That paragraph refers to us – our charities, boards and trustees. And starting on page 7 of the report there is an entire section dealing with governance and leadership.
The Small Charities Coalition response is also available here. It too covers Governance and Leadership in detail.
At the Trustee Conference on Monday the three winners of the Winifred Tumin memorial prize for charity governance were announced. The winners were (1st) Shared Lives Plus, (2nd) Manchester Student Union and (3rd) Hearing Link. Congratulations to them, but the lesson for our local groups must be to work out what these three organisations are doing right with their governance approach and what we can learn from them and replicate. There’s information about the prize and about previous winners here, and I’ll keep an eye out for more information about this years’ winners. I’d like to aim for an organisation from Northern Lincolnshire to enter and win this prize in the years to come for their governance practices, so if that sounds interesting let me know!
An interesting comment was made this week proposing that every graduate (and undergraduate) should become a Trustee – primarily to further their experience, enchanted their CV and to prepare them for the future of ‘portfolio’ careers. You can read the article here. At VANEL we’d agree the importance of the role for younger people – hence our IGNITE and Young Leaders Network programmes, but we’d also express the note of caution that the relationship has to work both ways. Groups and charities also need to ensure their board functions well, so they need to prepare themselves appropriately to receive those energetic young people who do will need to contribute to the benefit of both themselves and the group. Read the article and if you are interested (or know someone who is interested), get in touch with VANEL.
Registration on the AboutGovernance Trustee Network forum is now possible. The site is www.vanel.org.uk/aboutgovernance but to register contact Karl Elliott direct first (karl@vanel.org.uk). Open to trustees and board members for any VANEL Member or Friend organisations or for anyone aged 25 or below who is looking to move into a leadership role. On the site we share news, information, resources, ideas, thoughts and articles about anything related to governance, trusteeship or leadership. But the important bit is that this site enables comment, feedback and discussion. We’d love you to get involved – whether you’re new to Trusteeship and need to learn and ask questions, or are long experienced and would like to share ideas and knowledge and answer questions. Get in touch or visit the site to find out more.
And one more thing. This was issued a couple of months ago, but an interesting and relevant report from NPC about governance and leadership. It’s a policy paper entitled “It starts from the top” and it outlines how we can improve charity governance and, by extension, the impact of the sector as a whole. Something for every board and trustee to read?
Trustee Opportunities
We’re always interested to match people to trustee opportunities and as a Volunteer Service we hear both from volunteers seeking positions and from groups and charities seeking to fill board roles. Some of this is done on a ‘match up’ basis – people are seeking a very specific type of trustee role, or boards are seeking individuals from a particular area or with particular skills and abilities. But occasionally groups ask us to promote their trustee vacancies.
This week…
Locally Grimsby, Cleethorpes & District Scout Council, who have 15 Scout Groups across North East Lincolnshire, are currently recruiting for many Executive Committee/Trustee roles – These include Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer or Executive Member. For more information visit www.do-it.org or contact Liz at the Volunteer Service on 01472 359326.
We do have another few groups that have places available on their boards and would be interested in hearing from the right individuals. If you’re seeking an opportunity get in touch and we’ll see if there is a match. And, of course, if you are a group with a vacancy on your committee or board then let us know.
To discuss governance, trusteeship or leadership, or to subscribe to the Trustee Network, please drop me a line.
Karl Elliott, Development Manager
www.vanel.org.uk/governance – for resources and information
www.theviewfromthetop.org.uk
www.youngleadersmatter.org.uk
www.vanel.org.uk/aboutgovernance