Are you and your fellow trustees ready to up your game? Here is a great chance to understand where your charity is sitting governance-wise. Together with a structured conversation about how your charity can do things even better. You will learn lots in your Trustee Pit Stop, but it will also be interactive. Your Trustee Pit Stop will be tailored to your charity. Each workshop will include applying your new knowledge to your charity. And happily it’s not in my nature to be dull! I will make sure your Trustee Pit Stop is an engaging, accessible, and value-added experience. We can schedule your two hour Trustee Pit Stop to suit your team. It can be during working hours, evenings or on Saturdays. The workshop can be held at your charity’s office. Skype may also be possible. I have a passion for helping charities to be their very best. And I’m well aware that your charity doesn’t have endless cash to splash. Each two hour Trustee Pit Stop is £135 for your full team. For, say, seven trustees, that’s about £19 per trustee. Compared to, for example, the Civil Society’s trustee training, at £195 for each trustee for five hours of training, these workshops are highly cost-effective. Travel expenses may apply outside London. Trustee Pit Stop A: Maximising the effectiveness of your trustee meetings

Training • The role and authority of your chair • Information needs of your trustees • Criteria for briefing papers • Agendas - their importance and formulation • Delegated authority and decisions between meetings • Your record keeping obligations

Discussion • What’s going well with your trustee meetings? • How would you like them to be better? • Agreeing three next steps to build your effectiveness

Trustee Pit Stop B: Understanding your charity’s accounts

Training • What the heck is the charity SORP 2015 anyway? • Fund accounting - types of funds • Your statement of financial activities • Your Annual Report • Key metrics to keep an eye on

Discussion • What are the good points of your accounts? • Where are they letting your charity down? • Agreeing three next steps towards higher-impact accounts

Trustee Pit Stop C: Working well as a team

Training • The concept of trusteeship - origins and in practice • Selection, appointment, and retirement • Trustee skills and experience inventory • Appropriate training, register of continuing professional development • Trustees, staff and volunteers – confidentiality, knowing the boundaries, understanding the roles • Trustee appraisal / board performance evaluation • The problem trustee - retirement or removal

Discussion • How well do the skills and experience of your trustees fit your charity’s needs? • Does your board have unmet training needs? • How well are the different teams within your charity working together? • Agreeing three next steps towards even stronger teamwork

Trustee Pit Stop D: Are the risks you’re taking intentional?

Training • Your legal and regulatory duties and responsibilities as trustees • Your personal liability • The components of governance • ‘Governance’ and ‘management’ compared and contrasted • Conflicts of interest, benefits and priorities • The six essential duties of charity trustees • Collective responsibility and authority; delegation • Decision-making and accountability • Risk and risk management - impact assessment

Discussion • How clear are you as a board on the various risks you are facing? Are there any grey areas? • How comfortable are you with your risk profile - as a charity, a board, and as individual trustees? • Agreeing three next steps towards greater risk transparency

Trustee Pit Stop E: Meeting your charity’s responsibilities

Training • Charitable objects, working “for the public good” • Charity Structures - UCAs, CsLG, CIOs • Ownership and control - whose charity is it? • Constitutions / “governing instruments” • The Charity Commission - friend or foe?

Discussion • How aligned are your charity’s operations with its governing document? • How fit for purpose is your current governance framework? • Agreeing three steps to even more rigorous governance

Trustee Pit Stop F: How well is your charity working?

Training • Assessing your charity’s impact • Involving beneficiaries • Key financial metrics to keep an eye on • Budgeting and cost management • Fundraising effectiveness • A sustainable reserves policy • Trustee appraisal / board performance evaluation

Discussion • How do you feel about your charity’s impact? • How well are your charity’s fundraising, budgets, finances and reserves, aligned with sustaining its mission? • How confident are you about your performance as a board? • Agreeing three next steps to boost your charity’s impact

Just get in touch to book your first Trustee Pit Stop.