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What do Boards and Committees do?

The Board or Management Committee of an organisation is required by law to convene a meeting on a regular basis, usually once a month.

These meetings are FORMAL, that is they must follow rules.

At such meetings, members of the Board or Committee consider a wide range of issues and collectively make decisions as to what actions must be taken to ensure that the organisation is being appropriately managed.

There are some differences in the work done by boards of large or small organisations (see table below).

 

Small Organisations	Large Organisations
Board members usually come from within the membership of the organisation	Board members may be “head-hunted” or gained by public announcement of the positions to be filled.
Work is usually entirely voluntary	Membership of the board may earn a “Director’s Fee”
Often have no professional administrators	Often have one or more professional administrators
Board tend to take on a day-to-day running (management) of the organisation	Board tends to leave the day-to-day running of the organisation to professional administrators

A priority task of the Board is to set and manage the policy framework of the organisation. Policies are the mechanism for controlling the behaviour of individuals, and thus the organisation itself. Policies are a guide to individuals so that they can do their job in an appropriate way. The table below shows how policies guide individuals:

Policy	Controlling effect
Financial management	Guides the Treasurer and others on how funds should be managed and safeguarded.
Selection	Provides selectors with guidelines on how to make selection processes fair.
Communicable diseases	Guides coaches and players about the prevention of communicable diseases such as Hepatitis from the sharing of water bottles, and/or exposure to contaminated blood from injured players.

If an organisation is critically lacking in policies, the organisation is in danger of being out of control, and this becomes an unacceptable legal, financial and ethical risk.

The most common issues that require decision making by the Board / Committee of smaller organisations are:

• The planning of programs, events and services as desired/ expected by the ordinary members of the organisation.
• The raising of revenue to ensure the organisation has sufficient funds to provide the level of service expected by the ordinary members of the organisation.
• The allocation and expenditure of funds raised to provide services to members
• The quality control of programs and services to meet the expectations of members. The board can affect quality control by developing policies and procedures with respect to programs, events and services.
• The recruitment of personnel, voluntary or paid, to deliver services e.g. coaches, referees.

 

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