Jenni Cahill spent yesterday at the eighth annual Trustee Exchange conference, chaired by Governance editor Dorothy Dalton.  Here's what she learned.

It was a lively day at Civil Society Media’s eighth annual Trustee Exchange at America Square Conference Centre in London yesterday, attended by more than 150 trustees.
Even special guest Princess Tilly the golden Labrador (attending with Mike Hughes of Guide Dogs) gave an approving bark at opportune moments.

Several key themes emerged throughout the day; the importance of ‘robust discussion’ around the board table was mentioned several times, a concept that became a reality in many of the workshops as delegates worked through the governance case studies together and devised solutions to some of the problems caused by dysfunctional boards or disgruntled trustees.

Dr Elizabeth Vallance assured us in her opening keynote of the benefit of different personalities and skills on the board, so that while a consensus of views is not always possible, mutual respect for one another is imperative.

These were some of the takeaways for me:

1.  The pivotal role of the chair

Throughout the day we heard evidence of the crucial role played by the chair to ensure the organisation is fulfilling its purpose and serving its beneficiaries efficiently. Alice Maynard, former chair of Scope, who spoke about her experience of steering the organisation through rapid change, went so far as to say “If the board isn’t performing, the chair isn’t performing”.  

Dr Elizabeth Vallance spoke of the responsibility and loneliness of chairmanship in her plenary about the chair’s ten commandments; an invaluable checklist of advice such as ‘thou shalt have enthusiasm’ to ‘thou shalt let thy CEO be CEO’.

2.  New technology is presenting new risks

In a hyper-connected world, potential risks are not as easy to identify and crises can spin out of control. Social media in particular represents a new area of risk which is difficult to manage; withdrawing a tweet for example does not necessarily mean it will go away, due to the speed of information sharing.

Media consultant Tess Woodcraft emphasised that your brand is one of your organisation’s most valuable assets, and that individual responsibility lies with board members to engage with it, and be involved with safeguarding its reputation and the planning and strategy of crisis management.   

3.  The importance of developing a culture of accountability

The positive effects of building a culture where board members are comfortable with self-evaluation, and giving and receiving feedback, cannot be underestimated. Ros Oakley, founding trustee of the Association of Chairs, suggested that effectiveness reviews ought to form part of an integrated approach to the development of the board, setting clear expectations from the outset, giving praise where praise is due, and providing clear feedback.

Alice Maynard echoed this by emphasising the importance of a “learning board”, and suggesting this is one of the key factors in whether or not a board will be equipped to hold its nerve in the face of ambiguity or sudden change.

4.  Risks must be examined strategically

Gavin Leatherbarrow from Ford Risk Management and Sarah Pearson from Zurich Insurance advised delegates on how to handle the strategic risks in your charity. They said the key steps were to “identify, assess, monitor and manage”.

Leatherbarrow said trustees needed to spend time with people in their charity and do some research into what the real risks were.  “Don’t just Google somebody else’s risk register and say that will do – organisations with similar risks will be there on the internet but it’s up to you to prioritise yours.” Once the risks have been identified, boards need to assess whether they need to be “terminated, tolerated, treated or transferred”.   In order to make these decisions they must first decide what their appetite is for various types of risks.

A risk register ought to be formally reviewed at least annually but must not just be left to gather dust on a shelf in between times – it must be a living, breathing document that evolves as the external environment changes, they said.

5. The new Sorp is not just something for finance staff

Sam Coutinho, partner at haysmacintyre, sought to explain the most pertinent changes to the Sorp, from a trustee perspective. She assured trustees that as long as they comply with the new Sorp they will be complying with all the various new reporting standards that have been introduced over the last couple of years. “It may be called the Statement of Recommended Practice but it’s not ‘recommended’ – you have to do it,” she said.

She advised smaller organisations not to adopt the alternative FRSSE that is available to them, because this may only be open to them for a year and then they will have to revert to adopting the new Sorp anyway.

The new Sorp has widened the disclosures around risk and going concern, and changed the requirements on legacy income, the value of donated goods, and disclosures on salaries of senior staff and redundancy payments, she said.
“Under the new Sorp you recognise donated goods on receipt, not once they are sold. But they have caveated it by stating ‘if it is material’ but not defined ‘material’.  Most auditors define material as 1 per cent of your income.”

On salaries, she said the Sorp requires that all salaries and benefits of key management personnel must be disclosed as a group, although recent guidance from NCVO advises charities to go further and list the actual packages of each senior staff member.

Charities must also list the total of all trustees’ donations to the organisation and disclose any conditions that have been imposed upon those donations.

The new Sorp also states that all termination and redundancy payments must be disclosed in the accounts.  Coutinho said haysmacintyre had taken legal advice on how this would play out in the case of non-disclosure clauses in compromise agreements, and been advised that charities must still list such payments in the accounts in those cases.

Jenni Cahill is a content producer at Civil Society Media

If there are any topics you would like to see covered at next year's conference, please contact [email protected]