Trustees' Week: Trustees’ involvement can be so much wider than the board meeting

We might imagine arm’s length trustees, divorced from the rest of the staff team, discussing the organisation and grilling the CEO in a 2 hour stuffy board meeting. And sadly, I think that is perhaps still the case for some charities and their boards.

I’ve realised that trustees’ involvement with the charity is, or can be, so much wider than the board meeting! Here are some of the things we do at Action Hampshire that I think help foster that:

• Trustees with specialist skills, interest or experience in different areas of our work relate to the staff team undertaking that area of work; policies, research, health, housing, communications, to name a few
• Trustees are invited to lunch and the afternoon session at our twice-yearly team away days
• Staff and trustees come together for workshops on different themes; such as developing our Theory of Change
• Theme specific staff meetings, such as comms or business development, are open to trustees with specialisms or interest in those areas to attend

Supportive trustees, that ask insightful questions, sometimes challenging ones, and share their own experience and knowledge whilst leaving operational decisions to the staff team are massive assets! I read a piece from the charities commission recently about recruiting and retaining trustees. For me it just missed one thing: passion for the cause. All our trustees, longstanding and new, though pretty diverse in experience and interests, have one thing in common: they really believe in and champion our mission.
 
Our jobs board also advertises one volunteering role – Trustees.

If you’re thinking about taking on a trustee role, do take a look, hopefully you’ll find an organisation that matches the things you really care about!

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