16. Codes of Governance

If we don’t want to recruit according to skills and we can’t realistically assess ‘wisdom’ and ‘collective decision making skills’ how do we make it clear to potential committee members what is required of them?

One approach is to have an agreement or code of conduct.  You should be careful to pitch this appropriately for your committee.  At its simplest it could be a list such as
1 Attend all the meetings
2 Read any papers sent to you
3 Take an active part in the meetings
4 Etc

Click here for a sample of a simple code of conduct.

The Governance Hub has produced detailed codes of conduct .

I’ve been told the code of conduct should be based on the Nolan principles.  What’s that?

As a result of the cash for questions scandal Lord Nolan chaired the Committee on Standards in Public life to look into it. The committee proposed that people in the public eye should sign up to a code of basic principles. Click here for further information in this site. Go to the web site of the Committee on Standards in Public Life.

Next FAQ: Councillors on the Committee
Previous FAQ : Why are there so many different names for the committee and its members?

[print_link]

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

A Word About Words

This site is aimed at those who govern (control) small organisations - whether they are charities, companies, both or neither. Those who govern them may be called a variety of names. We have chosen to use mainly 'management committee' and occasionally 'committee member' or 'trustee'. more...
Back to Top