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A few years ago, the the Volunteer Action Centre of Kitchener Waterloo and Area set out to adjust the tone of its board work.
Now a panel of judges loves the pitch.
The centre, which encourages volunteerism in Kitchener, Waterloo and the townships of Wellesley, Wilmot and Woolwich townships, won the 2016 Manulife Governance Excellence Award this week. Capacity Canada presented the award Thursday night (Nov. 17) at the start of the Manulife Board Governance BootCamp in Kitchener.
Judges Bob Astley, Fred Galloway and Don McCreesh liked the fact that the centre has made such changes as setting up a governance committee and improving orientation for new board recruits. By paying attention to succession planning and having a governance committee keep an eye on how the board operates, the centre is also thinking more strategically.
Combined, the improvements establish what governance experts call good “tone at the top,” which then resonates through the organization.
“I think it’s an evolution rather than instant change,” said Jane Hennig, the association’s executive director. “We’ve been to the camp three times, and each time we’ve implemented components of it. The board members who have come with me have all been extremely invigorated by the process and the learning, and immediately came back with suggestions.”
Hennig received the award with board chair Desmond Courtney and past-chair Alison Boyd. It comes with a $5,000 grant the centre can use anywhere in its operation.
Judges looked at 12 nominations for the award this year. A key criterion: nominees have to be previous attendees of Capacity’s governance boot-camp program.
At 50 people from more than 20 organizations, this year’s cohort in Waterloo Region is the largest since Capacity Canada hosted the first Board Governance BootCamp in 2009. It has since rolled out similar BootCamps on board governance in Fort McMurray, Alta., St. John’s, N-L., and Hamilton, Ont.
The BootCamps draw board members and top administrators of organizations in the charitable non-profit sector to help them better understand their separate but complementary roles.
“Good people doing good work — ‘trust us’ — just doesn’t work anymore,” said governance expert Don McCreesh as the first of two full days got underway Friday. “We have to demonstrate the solid processes we have in place.”
By the end of the day Saturday, participants will leave with new strategies to handle risk management, succession planning, board recruitment and other board responsibilities.
They meet again in March for a half-day check-in on a homework assignment: what happened when they applied what they learned at the BootCamp to real situations in their respective organizations.
To set the tone for the work ahead, Capacity Canada brought in Eileen Mercier as the keynote speaker at the BootCamp’s opening reception Thursday night.
Mercier, the chancellor of Wilfrid Laurier University, said she approaches board work as an open-minded “enthusiastic amateur,” learning along the way. Her numerous board roles, past and present, include chairing the boards of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Payments Canada, the non-profit organization that oversees financial transactions in Canada.
Boards and directors should, she said:
• Use a matrix to plot out the skills they have on their board and the skills they need;
• Develop a job description for the chief executive officer or executive director, and never let it grow stale;
• Establish succession planning to deal with the departure of board members and key staff. Succession planning, Mercier said, should be a recurring agenda item;
• Create measurements to track whether the organization is achieving its goals.
New board members, Mercier added, should find their voice quickly.
“One of the ways you add value is by asking questions,” she said. “Don’t sit there and not say something if there is something you don’t like.
“People who don’t say anything should be doing something else.”
Photos by David McCammon, David McCammon Photography
