Archive

July 2008

Issues for the chair

• Dealing with a reticent trustee

Learning from others

• Diversity and umbrella organisations
• Fraud at the top
• Dysfunctional board with a weak chair
• Trading companies: hidden liabilities for trustee and staff directors?

Regulation, law & finance

• Members – asset or liability – why have them?
• When does liability of trustees begin and end?
• Gift horse or Trojan horse?

Strategy & performance

• Public service delivery: what trustees need to know and do
• Dealing with ethical dilemmas
• Things that go bump in the night

May 2008

Issues for the chair

• Dealing with a self-important trustee
• Dealing with trustees with personal agendas

Learning from others

• Good governance when risk is intrinsic
• Keep your distance
• Are we personally liable for tax bills?
• Am I making any sense?

Model documents

• Model procedures for trustee whistle-blowing

Recruitment

• The ideal chief executive
• The ideal chair

Regulation, law & finance

• Breach of trust
• The power to pay trustees for non-trustee services
• Trustee payments – the facts
• Companies Act 2006 and membership bodies

Strategy & performance

• Vision and mission – platitude or inspiration?

March 2008

Issues for the chair

• Dealing with an invisible trustee

Learning from others

• Reviewing and refreshing
• Walking blindfold into hell
• A chief executive who thinks he knows best
• Over generous employee terms and conditions
• Heads up – it’s the money bit
• Preparing for the unexpected

Model documents

• Model procedures for trustee grievances
• The role of the president - defined

Regulation, law & finance

• Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007
• Escaping from the public benefit maze

January 2008

Issues for the chair

• The bullying trustee

Learning from others

• Mergers and governance
• Managing risk without becoming risk-averse
• No looking back
• Fatal accident
• A shocked new trustee
• When I’m sixty-four
• Recruiting a new chair of trustees

Model documents

• Template e-mail policy

Recruitment

• Recruiting a new chair of trustees (Breast Cancer Care)
• Reasons for leaving

Regulation, law & finance

• Annual reports: hiding is no option
• Courage under fire
• Guidance on public benefit
• Charity Commission Register of Mergers

Strategy & performance

• The board’s role in balancing support with constructive challenge
• The trustees’ awayday

November 2007

Issues for the chair

• Advice from a new chair to her board

Learning from others

• Expanding internationally: balancing devolution and oversight
• Rising to debate: the thorny issue of governance
• Wake up to risk
• Financial mismanagement
• Meeting the challenge of dismissing a fellow trustee
• A bemused chair who has rather lost faith in people
• Letter from South Africa
• Using Trustee Standards to improve governance (Age Concern)
• Governance and all that jazz

Recruitment

• acevo survey of CE salaries (2007)

Regulation, law & finance

• Monitoring investments
• Audit query - I’m being asked to confirm what I cannot possibly verify
• Public Benefit: Revised timetable for guidance
• Vulnerability, vigilance and the voluntary sector
• Consultation on public benefit
• Progress with the public service delivery debate

Strategy & performance

• The three key strands of governance
• Making accountability work

September 2007

Issues for the chair

• Dealing with a problem chair

Learning from others

• Join us and join in - The National Trust
• In my view - A challenge to those who want to measure everything and forget judgement
• Tax-efficient cross-border charitable giving without falling into a black hole
• Case study - Advice to an international aid charity facing insolvency.
• A chief executive with some queries about familial conflicts of interest
• Listening to service users (United Response)
• Balancing your involvement as a trustee correctly

Regulation, law & finance

• Understanding investment reports
• Faith, hope and parity

July 2007

Learning from others

• Young, vocal and changing the care-system
• A charity at war with itself
• Dealing with abuse without hard evidence
• A trustee who has recently joined the board of an international charity
• Board leadership in America
• Listen to your toes

Model documents

• Christian Aid's misuse of funds policy
• Assessing the risk of fraud
• How to establish a formal anti-fraud policy

Regulation, law & finance

• Trustees' aversion to borrowing
• Keeping the taxman happy
• Are trustees at risk?

May 2007

Learning from others

• Users and beneficiaries at the heart of all we do
• Retain independence at all costs
• All that glitters is not gold
• Regional anarchy
• A chair of trustees trying to write a reference
• Part 10 - 1,579 emails – and still they keep coming

Regulation, law & finance

• Charities and fraud

Strategy & performance

• Understanding yourself and others on the board
• The treasurer

March 2007

Issues for the chair

• Information spin: does your chief executive give you bad news as well as good?

Learning from others

• Unprecedented change
• A trustee board at war
• A chief executive of a charity is frustrated as is the board
• Letter from Russia
• Part 9 - Now we are twelve

Model documents

• Internal auditor's job description

Recruitment

• Commercial trustees - how to find them?

Regulation, law & finance

• The Companies Act 2006: implications for charitable companies
• Public sector contracts: a governance perspective
• Public service delivery – look before you leap

Strategy & performance

• Trustees from a commercial background - do they add value?
• Trustee meetings without staff: should they happen?

January 2007

Issues for the chair

• A chief executive's guide to making the most of your board

Learning from others

• Preparing to replace an inspirational founder chief executive
• Stop drowning ‘strategy’ in ‘planning’
• The Trojan horse
• A trustee of a charity which runs a day centre for local elderly people
• Part 8 - Steaming round the bend
• Case Study - agony aunts and agony uncle to the rescue

Regulation, law & finance

• Trustees and Criminal Records Bureau Checks
• Charities Act: it’s been a long time coming…
• Risky business

Strategy & performance

• Strategic analysis of the future environment

November 2006

Issues for the chair

• Joint leadership: chair and chief executive
• The chief executive's report: what should be in it?

Learning from others

• Who really regulates charities?
• Good intentions are not enough
• Too good to be true?
• Learning from failure and from success
• Letter from China
• Evolutionary step-change in governance
• Part 7 - I'm OK, we're OK (Am I? Are We?)

Model documents

• Finance committee

Regulation, law & finance

• Charity Commission update

Strategy & performance

• Board agendas
• Learning through reviewing board performance (part 3)

September 2006

Learning from others

• Contract culture : an inevitable drift?
• A voyage into danger
• Part 6 - Ordinary miracles everywhere, all the time
• Young voices that need to be heard
• Assessing board performance - My Big Issue
• My support is woefully inadequate

Model documents

• New trustee: sample declaration of eligibility
• Audit committee

Regulation, law & finance

• The trustees' review of the financial budget
• Coming of age (discrimination)
• Part two - Payments to trustees: what you can and cannot do

Strategy & performance

• Learning through reviewing board performance (part 2)

July 2006

Learning from others

• Too much trust
• Part 5 - It's hello from me, and it's hello from him
• What is effectiveness in a non-executive director role?
• Letter from Singapore
• Time to move on
• Radical change to meet the challenges of tomorrow
• Managing a global membership organisation - My Big Issue

Regulation, law & finance

• Part one - Payments to trustees: what you can and cannot do
• Campaigning outside your charitable objects: the role of the trustees

Strategy & performance

• Learning through reviewing board performance (part 1)

May 2006

Issues for the chair

• Board agendas

Learning from others

• How many trustees does it take to change a light bulb?
• Part 4 - Sleepless nights and awaydays
• Compromising relations
• Our chair thinks trustees are irrelevant

Model documents

• Template for an investment policy

Regulation, law & finance

• Guarding assets: trade mark registration
• Sending money abroad
• Friend or Foe? - Charity Commission Update

Strategy & performance

• Reviewing board performance: first stages
• Survey of board evaluation

March 2006

Learning from others

• The five Ss in governance
• Part 3 - Building on shaky foundations
• Too many cooks
• Our chief executive thinks we are irrelevant
• Skeletons in the cupboard

Model documents

• Model terms of reference for a nominations committee

Recruitment

• A trustee handbook or induction pack
• The commitment that trustees are expected to make and what trustees should expect in return

Regulation, law & finance

• March 2006 Finance update
• The Scottish Charities Act
• Cause for complaint?

Strategy & performance

• Trustees and information technology
• Key performance indicators that really inform trustees
• The five S's of governance

January 2006

Learning from others

• Part 2 - Leading … from behind
• The Founder Syndrome: Myth or Reality?
• Separate pots
• PentaHact merger
• Hijacking Democracy

Model documents

• Template for a reserves policy

Recruitment

• Advice to a new chair of trustees
• Induction of new trustees

Regulation, law & finance

• January 2006 Finance up-date
• Governance and trading companies
• Members have responsibilities and not just rights

Strategy & performance

• The chair
• Carrying out a constitutional review

November 2005

Learning from others

• Part 1 - Starting on a high … now where next?
• The need to follow proper employment procedures
• Sarah Phillips , chair MS Society - My Big Issue
• Swapping roles: trustee to chief executive

Model documents

• The chair of trustees: model job description

Recruitment

• Finding new legal advisers

Regulation, law & finance

• See you in court?
• Getting to grips with performance reporting

Strategy & performance

• Getting to grips with performance reporting

September 2005

Issues for the chair

• Advice to a new chief executive
• Dealing with conflicts of interest

Learning from others

• God and governance
• The need for independent trustees
• Confronting alcohol dependency

Model documents

• Model conflict of interest policy
• Dealing with conflicts of interest

Recruitment

• Preparing to recruit a new chief executive
• Recruiting the best chair
• Skills, experience and diversity audits: who do you need on board?

Regulation, law & finance

• September 2005 Finance Update
• September 2005 Finance up-date
• Problems with your constitution?
• Charity Commission update - September 2005

Strategy & performance

• Performance measurement and improvement tools

July 2005

Issues for the chair

• Ground rules for board papers
• Conflict management and resolution
• Dealing with poor attendance by a trustee

Learning from others

• Do I miss my shareholders?
• Chris Kelly , chair NSPCC - My Big Issue
• They thought they were trustees but they weren't!

Model documents

• Trustee job description

Regulation, law & finance

• July 2005 Finance update
• Personal liability of charity trustees
• To share or not to share

Strategy & performance

• The role of trustees in strategic planning