Many unique features of trustee boards set them apart from other organisational structures. Being a trustee is not like being a member of staff, and it’s more than just about being a volunteer leader.
So here is the first part of my list of unique features of trustee boards. It’s important to understand these differences because a better understanding is the foundation of better running of a board.
1. Meetings take centre stage
Trustee boards often have a fixation about the number of meetings each year. They put it in recruitment ads and ask people if they can make those meetings. Most people run a mile from the idea of a role where people are fixated about the number of meetings.
Trustee meetings should be seen as the beautiful flowering and climax of many months of labour. The chance for trustees to drive forward their agenda. Sadly, too many boards see trustee meetings as a ritualised rubber-stamping session, and staff reporting-back session.
2. Trustees often love the cause more than the role
While staff think hard about their next roles and apply for jobs because they are excited about them and the new challenges, I have talked to many trustees and especially chairs who do it out of a sense of duty, with a love of the cause or organisation.
I talked to one chair recently who said ‘I took a lot of persuading. My predecessor wrote me a letter telling me how good I’d be.’ The reluctant chair or trustee is part of the challenge, especially for smaller charities.
3. No careers or progress path for trustees or chairs
Leading straight from the previous point, there is no formal (or informal) career progression for trustees and chairs. In the staff world, a CEO of a small charity will often have aspirations to run a larger organisation. In the governance sphere this is much less common. The problem this creates is that many chairs are first timers, even for larger charities. The learning curve is steep, and then all that knowledge can be lost if the chair doesn’t then go onto another chairing role.
4. All the legal responsibility, but the executive run things
One of the oddities of charity law is that trustees are legally responsible for everything that a charity does – while staff do all the work, especially as organisations get larger. This makes the scrutiny role of being a trustee all the more important – because trustees carry the can for how an organisation is doing.
5. Flat structure – limited hierarchy
Trustee boards are pretty flat structures. Indeed, in the eyes of the law they are pretty egalitarian, as all trustees are responsible. This flat structure gives rise to what I call the trustee #8 problem. How does a board make use of a trustee who isn’t chair or vice-chair, treasurer, or committee chair?
The trustees who don’t easily have a specific role are often those who find trustee boards the most challenging – because they can feel like they are there just to make up the numbers. It’s the chair and CEO’s job to make sure all trustees have clear, fulfilling roles.
6. Term limits vs no term limits for staff
Many trustee boards have term limits (though I once worked with a trustee who had been in place for 59 years!). This is the idea that trustees can only serve for a limited amount of time, typically 3 x 3 years, or 2 x 4 years. Senior staff very rarely have term limits – I have heard of only one instance.
I think it is good for trustees to have term limits – it ensures the renewal of ideas and people. I think it would be good if CEOs had term limits too. The challenge for trustee boards is that a CEO may be in an organisation for 10 or 20 years, so a new incoming board or chair face deep challenges in persuading a very well-established CEO to change the approach they have developed over many years or decades.
For six more unique features of trustee boards, head to part 2 of this blog.
