Articles

What Makes a Great Company Secretary?

What Makes a Great Company Secretary? At one of our recent webinars on the Role of the Company Secretary, Kristy Huxtable, Head of Company Secretariat at Australian Retirement Trust, shared insights from her experiences in the role. We’ve gathered together some key points from the webinar into a brief article to assist those donning the Company Secretary hat. A boardroom can be an intimidating setting. For it to be less so, each person involved in an NFP’s management and its board should understand the intricacies of their given role.

Five Fatal Flaws to Avoid in Your Next Board Review

Five fatal flaws to avoid in your next board review: 1. A lack of purpose, rather than a lack of talent 1 Ask yourself, why are we doing a board review? If the answer is, we are required to do so under our board charter, then beware, you are missing a great opportunity. Boards are encouraged to stand back and reflect on where their organisation is on its journey of development and how the board is operating in this context.

Key Stages of Building a Financial Model for NFP Organisations

Financial modelling is one of the most important tools a non-profit organisation can have under its belt to improve its Financial Management. It can help in the planning of short and long-term strategies, to identify areas for improvement, and even to adjust the entire business model. The board should be part of building a financial model, but it must cooperate with other key decision-makers in the organisation to ensure everyone’s needs are being met.

The Board and Risk Management

We remain in the midst of a global pandemic. We have all had to think, respond and behave differently as a result. Things that we took for granted before 2020 are no longer possible or require a different approach. Our expectations have changed. Our priorities have changed. The pandemic has created uncertainty for us all. This is in addition to other factors that create uncertainty in our environment, business and personal worlds.

What is a Director Identification Number?

The Australian Government is working to modernise the Australian Business Register. As part of this project, as of November 1st 2021, The Australian Government has introduced the Director Identification Number (DIN) system. Table of Contents What is a Director ID? What are Director IDs For? Why have Director IDs been introduced? Why do I need a Director ID? What is the format of a Director ID? Who needs a Director ID?

Board Culture CPR

Long ago, in a land far away, there was a corporate board with members alive with passion, respected by their peers, easily engaging with senior management, and receiving accolades from general staff. Meetings started and ended on time, agendas were adhered to, and meeting minutes were accurate. The ambiance from the top down was warm and collegial, and whistleblowers were praised and rewarded for their candor. Does this sound like fantasy land?

Directors Duties – Understanding Core Business

Directors’ duties, as prescribed by law, set the scene for how a board constructs and operationalises its governance model and structure, roles and responsibilities, policies and procedures and undertakes its work and activities. Beyond directors’ duties, a shared understanding between directors of the key concepts underlying their organisations (and their practical application) provides for more effective agreement on how their board and organisation will be configured, thereby enabling fundamental governance principles and practices to be enacted.

How to Handle Conflicts of Interest On Your Not-for-profit Board

Conflicts of interest are likely to arise in any not-for-profit organisation. How you manage them can improve or damage your organisation’s reputation. A conflict of interest arises when the interests of a not-for-profit organisation’s leadership, or their friends or family, conflicts with the best interests of the organisation. The three prongs to handling conflicts of interest are: identifying them, putting steps in place to prevent them, and managing them well when they arise.

What Is It About the Role of the Chair?

Once upon a time there was a board member who was passionate and diligent but inexperienced and naïve who was asked to take on the role of Chair of the Board. “I’m really flattered. I don’t really know what I have to do other than chair some meetings, so how hard can it be?” they thought to themselves. A fairy tale it might appear to be, but this was me. Twenty years on, I reflect on my transition from well meaning board member with little experience to having held the role of chair on a few occasions in my career.

Which Comes First – the Purpose or the Behaviour?

The theme of the Better Boards Conference for 2020 was ‘passionate directors – purposeful boards’. The conference website neatly defined a ‘purposeful board’ as one that is “united, collegial, focused and disciplined, led by a chair who not only facilitates discussions and decisions, but is guided by strategy, KPI’s and timeframes.” One might gauge from this definition that contrastingly, a board that lacks purpose is therefore divided, argumentative, disinterested and irrational.