YMCA Fairthorne Group is both a Charity and a Private Limited Company, but essentially we are work on a social enterprise model where all income generated by the products and services we offer goes directly back into funding the local community projects and initiatives that we work on. 

One of the requirements of being a Charity is that we are governed by a board of voluntary trustee’s, who’s role it is to determine the long term strategy and day-to-day compliance of the charity with both legislation and best practice. A no small task for a charity of our size and we are so grateful for their on-going dedication and commitment to our organisation that we wanted to highlight the role of a trustee as one of our days of positivity. 

The biggest part being that all of our board are volunteers, and give not only their time but the vast amount of expertise to help guide our organisation.

So, what makes an effective board:

• Is actively involved in strategic development – it approves strategic plans and is structured around its functions
• Seeks diversity – experience, background, skills
• Acts as a group – “constellation” not “stars”
• Is strategic – uses clear measures for evaluating success and for monitoring progress against plans
• Consults experts and seeks advice as required
• Focuses meetings on what matters, develops a strategic agenda
• Assesses, monitors and evaluates its performance and the performance of the organisation
• Promotes effective reporting to and from the Board

What makes an effective board member:

• Knows and understands the roles and responsibilities of the Board, and their role within it
• Differentiates between governance and management (ie works on issues that represent high stakes for the organisation)
• Knows the organisation and the context in which it operates – educates itself
• Is actively involved in policy development and understands the complexity of the organisation and implications of decisions
• Understands the organisation’s constituents/stakeholders
• Makes an individual contribution to the team

We think there should be a National Trustee Day where we get to say a massive thank you for their time and dedication. If you know of such a date contact us and we will make sure we come back to it next year! But for now we will use Thursday 22nd February as our day to honour our Trustees!