Voluntary Action Within Kent offers a range of support and guidance to help voluntary and community organisations ensure that their Trustee Boards and Committees have the appropriate skills and information to maximize their effectiveness.  Voluntary Action Within Kent can support the creation and amendment of constitutions, Memorandum of Articles, Charity Commission and Company registration.

We can provide:

• Help for organisations to recruit new trustees
• Guidance on developing induction packs
• Resources on good governance
• Training and support for newly recruited trustees to prepare them for their new role
• In-house training for trustee boards to maximize their effectiveness or to address specific issues
• Trustee skills audits
• Facilitation for Board Development days

Governance terminology

The terms ‘Management Committee’, ‘Board of Trustees’, ‘Executive Committee’ or ‘Governing Body’ and abbreviations such as ‘the Board’ are all used interchangeably for the governing body that is legally and financially responsible for a charitable organisation.  If the organisation is also a company limited by guarantee all of the members of the management committee are also company directors.

Trustee roles

A management committee usually has an average of three to twelve members.  Some of these members have specific executive roles on the committee, also called the ‘Honorary Officers’, which commonly includes a Chair (person) and Treasurer, and may also include a Company Secretary (although in many incorporated organisations this role now falls to the Director), a Vice Chair or Co-Chair.

Good governance

Governance is about 'where the buck stops' - it is about power and responsibility in your organisation.  For voluntary organisations, it is about how the management committee or board of trustees oversees the overall direction, policy and management of their organisation.  For smaller community groups, this area is somewhat more blurred, as the trustees are often the same people who are carrying out the work.

How engaged are your board members?

• Fully engaged: all board members contribute at meetings;
• Partially engaged: some board members contribute at meetings;
• Passively engaged: board members contribute relatively little at meetings and decisions tend to be based on agreeing management recommendations. 

If your board members are nothing less than fully engaged, it’s unlikely that they will be committing their "hearts and minds" to achieving the organisation’s goals and visions.  Over a period of time, this could make the difference in achieving the necessary growth and cost savings to ensure long-term sustainability and this could be costing your organisation thousands of pounds each year in lost opportunities.  Investing in Governance is a new board evaluation framework.  It is designed to enable boards to assess their governance against best practice, and to make changes to improve performance.  The Investing in Governance board evaluation framework contains 69 governance practices designed to reflect the breadth and depth of processes involved in running a board, recruiting and inducting board members - through to supporting and reviewing their individual performance and that of the whole board.  You can download a copy of Investing in Governance and start using it straight away.  Find out too how you can use your evaluation as a means of gaining the externally accredited Investing in Governance Quality Mark.

You can download the latest framework herehttp://www.investingingovernance.org.uk/ 

Information and resources

Charity Commission is the UK national agency which monitors and implements charity law.  All charities with an income over £5,000 are expected to register with the Charity Commission.  See also their hallmarks of an effective charity (pdf).

Investigating Governance is a framework designed to support boards of trustees and chief executives to assess their governance processes with best practice; and to identify the changes they wish to bring about to increase the effectiveness and performance of their board.

National Council for Voluntary Organisations has a vast collection of resources and information for trustees.

Open Age Declaration by a Trustee (Word) regarding their role and responsibilities

The Trustee Network provides- a range of resources to support trustees.