Governing, Managing or Doing? (Resource adapted from a 2006 Code of Governance Toolkit exercise) This activity explores the roles of the board and those of volunteers. It is designed primarily for small, entirely voluntary organisations without employees, although it can also be used by organisations which have a small number of non-managerial staff such as a part time admin person, or chef, or a basic bookkeeper. How does organisation size affect roles? In reality, the size of an organisation makes a difference to how much the board simply ‘ensures’ good governance happens and how much they have to take part in doing some or even all of the tasks – managing the organisation, or doing front-line roles such as leading an activity or preparing the newsletter. In small organisations you’re likely to have a more hands-on role as a board member. This is because there generally isn’t anyone outside the board to whom the board can delegate certain tasks. For example: · Usually a small organisation doesn’t have a volunteer able and willing to draft the ·
Health and Safety policy or Child Protection policy, so a board member is likely to have to do that work. Usually a small organisation doesn’t have a separate accounts function, so the Treasurer is often more involved in actually producing the accounts and managing the finances.
In a larger organisation with a paid Chief Executive, drafting policies is likely to be done by staff with the board reviewing, commenting and ratifying; and there will usually be an accounts department to produce management accounts and cashflows and manage day-to-day financial matters. How should we define our roles? There isn’t a ‘right’ way of doing things, but it’s important to think through what works for your organisation at this point in time and why. If you’re in the situation of managing or doing front-line roles as well as your trustee role, it’s important to recognise that those ‘managing’ or ‘doing’ tasks, while important and valuable, are not part of your governance role. They are extra –something you could give to an ‘ordinary’ (non-board) volunteer or staff member if one was available. It’s wise to consider how much time you give to your board role and make sure other volunteering doesn’t take over at the expense of your board work. Changing and updating roles There also isn’t a ‘fixed’ way of doing things. It’s particularly important to make sure you review and update roles as your organisation grows or changes, because the opportunities and need for delegation change too. As an organisation gets bigger, especially when it starts to employ staff, typically the role of the board gradually shifts more towards an exclusively governance role and the managing and doing is all, or nearly all, delegated.
Code of Good Governance for Smaller Organisations: Useful Resources
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The Activity This activity will help you to think through how you currently divide up roles in your organisation and consider the proportions of time your board spends on governing, managing and doing. 1. Print and distribute copies of the handout on the next page 2. Identify who you think does each of the tasks listed in your organisation 3. Review the answers as a group Questions to ask: a) Does everyone agree on who does what? If you’re collectively not sure what actually happens, set yourselves an action to find out.
b) Which of the activities are mostly about governing? Which are more about managing
and which about ‘doing’? Try to decide for yourselves first, but if you’re not sure, look at the table on the last page for suggested answers.
c) Overall, considering ‘governance’ as described in the Code, do you think the board is spending enough time on governing?
d) Is there anything you think you should review or change? 4. Make any changes you decide should be made
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Governing, Managing or Doing? In pairs, decide which of the following common tasks are done by the board in your organisation, which by volunteers (or non-managerial staff if you have them) and which by both.
Task
Board
Vols/ Both (Staff)
Agreeing the annual budget Ordering stationery supplies Deciding the overall future plans for the organisation Setting the outline work programme Deciding on the details for the next activity or event Reviewing the Equality and Diversity policy Keeping the accounts up to date Designing new publicity materials Authorising volunteer expenses Recruiting members Writing volunteer role adverts Representing the organisation at outside events and meetings Reviewing how well the organisation is doing and changing things if necessary Preparing and sending the newsletter Exercise grid adapted from the Code of Governance Toolkit (2006) by Peter Dyer
Code of Good Governance for Smaller Organisations: Useful Resources
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Code of Good Governance for Smaller Organisations: Useful Resources
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Governing, Managing or Doing – Which is Which? Suggested Answers Typically the board should be covering the ‘governing’ tasks and the volunteers covering the ‘doing’ tasks. In a small organisation, ‘managing’ tasks are likely also to fall to the board, but may be delegated or shared. The boundaries between ‘governing’, ‘managing’ and ‘doing’ are often blurred, and different aspects of a task could be viewed under different headings. For example, ‘Designing new publicity materials’ includes managing the design process and key decisions, as well as doing the actual design tasks. Even where tasks are governance tasks such as ‘agreeing the budget’ and ‘deciding the overall future plans’, the board may seek the opinion of volunteers or staff to contribute to their decision making. The following are for guidance only: Agreeing the annual budget
G
Ordering stationery supplies
D
Deciding the overall future plans for the organisation
G
Setting the outline work programme
M
Deciding on the details for the next activity or event
M
Reviewing the Equality and Diversity policy
G/M
Keeping the accounts up to date
M
Designing new publicity materials
M/D
Authorising volunteer expenses
M
Recruiting members
M/D
Writing volunteer role adverts
M
Representing the organisation at outside events and meetings Reviewing how well the organisation is doing and changing things if necessary Preparing and sending the newsletter
G/M/D
Code of Good Governance for Smaller Organisations: Useful Resources
G D
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