Template Role Description
Management Committee Member of
My-Organisation-Name
The Committee’s roles
Note: Although the legal role of the committee is to govern
(1), many small organisations expect the committee to do much more. If you have no staff then the committee must
do everything. You may as well be
explicit about what else is required of the committee (2, 3, and 4). But bear in mind that not all members of the
committee may want to do all of these roles.
Only 1 is required of all the committee.
For Everyone:
1 To
govern i.e. directing and controlling the organisation through collective
decision making. This is a mandatory
requirement of everyone on the committee.
To be agreed when joining the committee:
2 To
be a pool of expertise and advice i.e. making advice and expertise available to
the committee, staff and volunteers.
3 To
manage one or more staff, volunteers or projects (for instance managing the
Coordinator, or managing the production of the newsletter).
4 To
do work (staffing a helpline, answering correspondence, filling out grant
applications, changing hearing aid batteries, sitting as a representative on
outside bodies etc).
The Governance role
Note: This is the most important part of the
document. Take time to choose the
language that best suits your organisation and bear in mind that there many
ways of expressing these five key ideas.
Together
the Management Committee Members must fulfil the 5 Core Governance Functions:
•Determine Mission and Strategy –
setting the organisation’s direction and determining how it will get there.
•Accountability – being held to
account for the actions of the organisation and holding those who carry out the
work (staff and/or volunteers) to account.
•Look after the committee – ensuring
committee renewal (recruitment, induction and retirement), effective decision
making and information sharing processes, positive group dynamics, and
reflection, learning and development for the committee as necessary.
•Safeguard assets - acting as custodian of the assets,
tangible (money, property etc) and intangible (organisation’s reputation and
name), ensuring that assets are used appropriately and constitutionally. Ensuring that there are sufficient assets for
the organisations survival.
•Act as ‘boundary-spanner’ – linking
the organisation to its stakeholders, such as members, the community, funders
etc.
In addition there is always 1 management role for the committee once staff are employed;
•Hire, support, monitor (and, if
necessary, fire) the head of staff.
Conduct (legal)
Note: These are Charity Commission requirements but it
would be prudent for all voluntary or community organisation
to abide by them.
Management
Committee Members must:
·
Be
active – you cannot be a dormant or ‘sleeping’ management committee member, you
are still liable for the decisions the others make in your absence.
·
Act
jointly – an individual has no powers on their own
unless they have been specifically given them by the committee (minuted at a proper meeting).
·
Act
constitutionally (and within the law) – make sure that you act within the
powers and objects (remit) set out in your constitution. Including following the constitution on how
meetings are run and how the committee is recruited.
·
Act
in the interests of the beneficiaries – put yourself in the beneficiaries’
position and make decisions that are best for them.
·
Act
reasonably and honestly – remembering to minute discussions and debates so that
your reasonableness can be demonstrated.
·
Have
a duty of care – act prudently and reasonably.
·
Not
delegate control – everything can be delegated except the power of delegation
but the management committee remains responsible and accountable.
·
Not
benefit personally – unless allowed specifically in the constitution or by law.
·
Avoid
conflict of interest – manage actual conflicts of interest through a written
process/policy and elsewhere avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest.
Conduct (practical)
Note: Some organisations have a separate Code of
Conduct and some of these are quite extensive running to several pages. If you want to use a short code it may be
worth including it here.
Management
Committee Members should:
·
Strive
to attend all meetings, sending apologies to the chair for necessary absences.
·
Prepare
for the meeting by reading the agenda, papers and emails before the meeting.
·
Talk
to the chair before the meeting if you need to clarify anything.
·
Arrive
on time. Stay to the end.
·
Participate
fully in the meeting;
o
Listen
to what others have to say and keep an open mind.
o
Contribute
positively to the discussions.
o
Try
to be concise and avoid soliloquies/speeches.
·
Help
others concentrate on the meeting. Discourage
side conversations.
·
Have
the best interests of the organisation/beneficiaries in mind at all times.
·
Draw
attention to any potential conflicts of interest that may arise in the meeting.
·
Fulfil any
responsibilities assigned to you at the meeting and be prepared to report back
on your progress at the next meeting.
Conduct (best practice)
Note: If you feel you need more on conduct then it is
probably worth having a separate Code of Conduct. See ‘Governance Codes’ in the Governance Pages
FAQ for more information.
Ideal Qualities
Note: Job descriptions for staff usually also come
with a ‘person specification’ which is an idealised profile of the sort of
qualities the post holder should have.
It can be difficult to draw up a realistic profile for a committee
member - particularly if your aim is to involve a very wide spectrum of people
on the committee – all contributing in different ways.
Management
Committee Members should: