{"id":14296,"date":"2017-04-27T16:04:32","date_gmt":"2017-04-27T15:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/?p=14296"},"modified":"2017-05-04T11:37:29","modified_gmt":"2017-05-04T10:37:29","slug":"governance-weekly-for-27-april","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/2017\/04\/governance-weekly-for-27-april\/","title":{"rendered":"Governance Weekly for 27th April"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

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<\/a> Twitter feed.<\/em><\/p>\n

As I write this, it’s the annual Trustee Exchange event<\/a> down in London, considering, exploring and promoting all things related to charity governance.\u00a0 Although I’m not attending, much of what is discussed at these events gets shared afterwards and I hope to share something from the event next week.\u00a0 In the meantime Civil Society has today written up comments from Julia Unwin who was delivering the keynote at the event.\u00a0 She extols the excellent value of the charity sector governance model as a ‘jewel beyond price’.\u00a0 Read the article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As always, NCVO have published their excellent monthly roundup of everything that’s been happening related to governance in the sector. The April edition is here<\/a>. A few key things this month – something about a General Election and the impact on charities! Update on the evolving Charity Governance Code (nee Code of Good Governance), follow up on the House of Lords report I covered last month and some discussion around charitable values. Have a read.<\/p>\n

Also to read: Sir Stephen Bubb’s latest blog<\/a> explores his thoughts on ways to reduce the barriers to being trustees for individuals. You can read the article here<\/a>. He suggests a couple of options:
\nA. Make it law that employers should offer paid leave to individuals volunteering as trustees to attend meetings
\nB. Ensure trustees travel costs and expenses are met as a norm
\nC. Provide payment to trustees for their role.
\nThese are simple but interesting suggestions and I’d be interested to hear whether you think they might work for you personally, your fellow committee members or your organisation.<\/p>\n

Stephen also makes a powerful but accurate statement in his article:
\n“We know that weak governance can cause serious problems for charities, and that boards which just keep a charity ticking along, without effectively challenging and stimulating the executive team, fail in their duty to help their charge be the best it can be for beneficiaries.”<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s often hard for committees and boards to know whether they are ‘strong’ or ‘weak’ and to know what they do well and what they need to improve. Working in isolation often means there is nothing to compare against, no benchmark, and hence no way to know the ‘quality’ of how your governance works.<\/p>\n

VANEL<\/strong> is trying to help groups tackle this in a number of ways. Firstly of course we take take a look at your governance approach with an external view and let you know how it looks and where you may be able to invest some effort.<\/p>\n

Secondly, we’re developing our SVAg quality accreditation at the moment. Trustees are all volunteers so our Supporting Volunteers Award g(overnance) will help you to assess how well your governance practices match good and best practices.<\/p>\n

And we’re also continuing to provide our Trustees’ Network to enable trustees to communicate with each other and share ideas, ask questions, get support and explore a wider view of their governance.
\nIf you’re interested in any of these aspects of our support please make sure you contact me (Karl Elliott) for a discussion.<\/p>\n

But of course for this to work you need to put some time and effort in yourselves and want to improve. Perhaps that statement from Sir Stephen above can remind you why you should step back and take time to get better? We’re here to help you.<\/p>\n

Awards celebrating good governance practices<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Charity Governance Awards<\/a> are back for 2017 and the 21 shortlisted charities have now been announced with the winners to be crowned at the end of May. There have never (to my knowledge) been applicants to these awards from North East Lincolnshire, let alone winners. Yet there are many excellent charities locally, some of which must be demonstrating really good practices. It would be really good to hear of a local winner to the awards in 2018, but for now there are some really useful lessons to be learned by looking at who have been involved in the awards.<\/p>\n

You can read about all of this years shortlisted boards and charities here<\/a> across all the categories.<\/p>\n

You can also look back to the winners in 2016 here<\/a>. However, this year there is a useful bonus. The judges looked back at the awards for 2016 and produced an e-book<\/a> sharing information about the winners, and importantly, what was so good that meant they won! I recommend reading the booklet here. Use it to reflect: what is so different about these organisations to your own? Are you already excellent in these areas? Or can you learn and improve? Very worthwhile time to be spent looking through this.<\/p>\n

My final comment on these awards is the inclusion of a new category for 2017 – “Embracing Digital”. I’ll be excited to see who wins this one. And related to that VANEL have scheduled another of our “Technology for Trustees”<\/strong> workshops at our office on Friday 19th May (am). It’s a non-technical look at technology and digital for committee members, trustees and managers who want to know more. It focuses on how boards can help their organisations benefit from technology. Contact me to find out more or to book a place. \u00a310 per person (\u00a320 for non-members).<\/p>\n

And we’re also scheduling another of our “Induction and Refresher Training for Trustees<\/strong><\/a>“. If you have new or inexperienced trustees on your board then this two hour training session is ideal.\u00a0 Our next scheduled session is on Friday 26th May at 10am* Wednesday 10th May at 3pm<\/del>. Prices are \u00a310 per head or \u00a320 for non-members or (potentially) free for trustees aged under 30.\u00a0 Contact me direct (see below) to book or express interest.
\n* date change<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

To discuss governance, trusteeship or leadership, or to subscribe to the Trustee Network, please drop me a line<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Karl Elliott, Development Manager
\nwww.vanel.org.uk\/governance<\/a> – for resources and information
\nwww.theviewfromthetop.org.uk
\n<\/a>www.youngleadersmatter.org.uk
\n<\/a>@aboutgovernance<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our weekly roundup of news related to governance, trusteeship and leadership: We’ve skipped a couple of weeks over Easter, but “Governance Weekly” is back for Spring and in time to coincide with the Trustee Exchange conference in London today! This week: some blog articles worth reading and news from the sector relevant to all trustees and committee members. Also, dates for upcoming governance workshops from VANEL and more…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"xn-wppe-expiration":[],"xn-wppe-expiration-action":[],"xn-wppe-expiration-prefix":[],"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[5,391,11],"tags":[139],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3cThd-3IA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14296"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14296"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14334,"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14296\/revisions\/14334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}