Charities have been asked to share their views on how barriers to becoming trustees could be removed.
The Association of Chairs (AoC) this week opened a consultation on how charity boards and the nature of trusteeship could be improved in the coming years.
One focus of the review is to make trustees more representative of UK society and it will consider how to ensure people have enough time or money to take on a charity board position.
AoC is consulting on its plans until the end of April and aims to get at least 500 responses.
‘Some potential trustees can’t spare the time’
On financial barriers to becoming a charity board member, the extended consultation document says the fact that trustees and honorary officers such as treasurers are volunteers in 99% of cases can present a barrier.
“Some potential trustees can’t spare the time to be trustees if they are not paid to recompense them for the loss of time,” it says.
“In contrast local councils, NHS trusts, and other non-profit organisations pay their board members a day rate for attending and participating in meetings and other business.”
However, the document says that “for many trustees being paid is not a problem as such”, with time a greater issue.
“For some the problem is that 10 days taken up in the course of a year doing trustee duties could mean 10 days of holiday allowance being used up.
“That is a very significant commitment to being a trustee, and a substantial barrier, especially for those with young families or other commitments.”
Other topics
The consultation proposes introducing a set of personal standards by which all trustees should act.
It asks whether having an agreed way of measuring charity boards’ performance could be beneficial.
The consultation suggests that developing more of a culture of learning and training among trustees.
It also asks how support for trustees could be improved.
Writing for Governance & Leadership magazine recently, AoC chair Joe Saxton said: “We want to make sure that charities have boards of all the talents, led by chairs of all the talents, supported by trustees of all the talents, driving governance of all the talents – or BOATS, COATS, TOATS and GOATS.
“Charities will only be delivering to the peak of their talents if we harness and reflect all parts of the skills and experience of our society.”
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