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trustees' week 2011
This year, Trustees’ Week is being held from Monday 31 October to Sunday 6 November. Trustees’ Week 2011 is the second annual celebration of trusteeship, to highlight the great work that trustees do and to draw attention to the opportunities for people from all walks of life to get involved and make a real difference.
The Charity Commission organises Trustees’ Week in partnership with us at the Small Charities Coalition and Charity Trustee Networks, along with a number of other national bodies. For more information on Trustees’ Week, do go to their website at www.trusteesweek.org.uk.
As you’ll know, trustees are the people in charge of a charity. They are often the unsung heroes, playing a vital role, volunteering their time and working together to make the decisions that really matter about the charity’s finances, activities and plans for the future. People often become trustees to ‘give something back’, but there is a two-way benefit; charities benefit from the range of skills and experience that their trustees bring, but trustees can learn and develop new skills that may open up new opportunities for them, as well as meeting people who share their passion.
The Trustees’ Week website lists events that are taking place around the country and has inspirational stories from other trustees. If you’d like to post details of an event on the website please email trusteesweek@charitycommission.gsi.gov.uk. You’ll also find promotional material on the website if you want to publicise any activity you are doing for the week.
We want Trustees’ Week to make a real difference – not only to celebrate the fantastic work that you and other trustees do for charities around the country but also to use the week as a way of encouraging you to do be even better and give you some help and support along the way.
So we have come up with a Trustee Week Challenge.
If you’re up for it – read on. We're really grateful for the support of our partners; charity recruiters TPP Not for Profit* and the Directory of Social Change** for generously donating training vouchers for prizes to give you a nudge to take part.
the trustees' week challenge
Our challenge is for you and/or your trustees to do at least one of the challenges below during Trustees’ Week. We know that time is precious and you are already doing so much fantastic work. We also know that many of these things can be done at any time – it’s just that Trustees’ Week is such a good excuse to do it now!
Plus, every contributor will be sent a free copy of the Codes of Conduct for Trustees (cover price £6) [click the link for more information]
We have grouped our challenges into 3 categories and will award a prize to the best contributor in each one – so if you do one or more things from each category you increase your chances of being a prize winner!!
We’ll also award an ‘overall winner’ prize to our favourite Trustees’ Week Challenger!
We’ll announce the winners on our website on Tuesday 8th November and be in touch by phone and email - so you have the whole of Trustee Week to join in.
Simply undertake your challenge activity and then complete our short survey telling us about it. We would love as many stories, photos, videos as possible to go on the website and share with others so please do send them in.
Go on, take the Trustee Week Challenge now!
category 1 - celebration
Have you taken the challenge? Tell us about it here
category 2 - governance improvement
Trustees’ Week will see the launch of a new publication:
Good Governance: a Code for the Voluntary and Community Sector – Version for Smaller Organisations
This is a practical adaptation of the main Good Governance Code of which the 2nd version was published in Oct 2010. So many Boards who have read and applied the Code to their work have seen enormous benefits. We encourage as many of you as possible to download whichever version best suits your organisation:
- Download the Good Governance Code at www.trusteenet.org.uk/resources/code-good-governance-second-edition-2010
- Download the new Good Governance Code for Smaller Organisations at [please note that this link will not be live until Oct 31st 2011]
- Set aside time at your next Board meeting to come up with an action plan to assess your practice against the Good Governance Code.
- For a more bite-sized approach, review one aspect of your Board’s performance against one of the Principles in the Good Governance Code.
- Another great tool to help you improve governance is the CTN publication Codes of Conduct for Trustees. We’ve given you a free one but you can order more for a reduced price of £4 or download it for free here www.trusteenet.org.uk/resources/codes-conduct-trustees-ctn-booklet
- Come up with and sign the code of good conduct – a simple model Code of Conduct is at www.trusteenet.org.uk/resources/simple-model-code-conduct-word-format
- Do some governance housekeeping – make sure all your Board minutes are signed and filed, all conflicts of interest recorded and filed
- Book your Board in for some training. See the CTN events listings for an idea of what's on offer www.trusteenet.org.uk/events
Have you taken the challenge? Tell us about it here
category 3 – gearing up for recruitment
For Trustee Recruitment & Induction resources click here
- Carry out a board skills audit and come up with an action plan to fill your board’s skill gaps
- Produce a standard job description and an information pack about your charity to help attract trustees
- Come up with an action plan for trustee recruitment – make sure you include milestones to check on progress. Don’t leave vacancies languishing on vacancy boards. Be proactive. Consider trying some less obvious methods i.e. trustee speed recruiting events
- Produce an induction plan and pack for new Trustees
- Look at how other charities describe their Trustee roles – what can you learn from them
Have you taken the challenge? Tell us about it here
We’ve given you some ideas – you can of course come up with an idea of your own and submit into whichever category you think best fits. Alternatively, just tell us about what you’re doing.
And of course, we are here to provide support at any time. You can use our skills matching service – accessing new skills for your organisation or offering to share your experience with another charity, you can ask for or sign up to be a trustee buddy or mentor – to help you in your role. At any time you can use the online resources on our website and always check back to see what events and training are happening around the country. We’ll also be at the end of the phone or email to help. If we don’t know ourselves, we’ll find someone who does.
In the meantime, have a fantastic Trustees' Week and enjoy the celebration of the fantastic work trustees do and the amazing difference they make every day.
Best wishes
Cath Lee
Chief Executive
*TPP Not for Profit
TPP Not for Profit is a specialist consultancy dedicated to meeting the recruitment needs of not for profit organisations. All our consultants are specialists, with the experience, sector knowledge and shared values and principles required to be able to offer the best advice and service to our clients. TPP’s divisions cover the full breadth of charity roles.
The Senior Appointments team recruit senior professionals to interim, contract and permanent appointments across all disciplines. We have an excellent track record of successfully sourcing and placing Chief Executives, Directors and Trustees to a wide variety of not for profit clients, both national and international. The team is headed up by Rob Hayter, who is also Chair of Trustees for the National Childbirth Trust.
**Directory of Social Change
Directory of Social Change (DSC) is an independent charity with a vision of an independent voluntary sector at the heart of social change.
We achieve this by providing essential information and training to the voluntary sector to enable charities to achieve their mission.
Since we started in 1974, we have been running courses and publishing charity and voluntary sector books on fundraising, management, organisational and personal development, communication, finance and law.
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