What does a Board do?
The Board is responsible for the overall governance, strategic direction, and oversight of Scouting Ireland. The Board's key roles include:
1. Setting Strategic Direction: The Board establishes the long-term vision and strategic priorities of Scouting Ireland, ensuring that the organisation remains aligned with its mission to support young people in achieving their full potential through Scouting.
2. Governance and Oversight: The Board ensures that Scouting Ireland operates in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. It oversees the organisation's financial health, policies, and practices to maintain high standards of governance.
3. Risk Management: The Board identifies and manages risks to the organisation, making sure that appropriate measures are in place to protect the organisation’s reputation, assets, and members.
4. Support and Guidance: The Board provides support and guidance to the executive team, ensuring that the organisation’s operations align with its strategic goals. It establishes working groups and subcommittees to manage the workload involved in oversight and continuous improvement in the various aspects of Scouting.
5. Accountability and Transparency: The Board is accountable to members, stakeholders, and the public, ensuring that decisions are made transparently, to the best of the Board’s ability and in the best interests of the organisation.
The Board responsibilities are set out in a Board document call “Matters Reserved for the Board”. This Scouting Ireland document can be found here.
Unless the Board are asked to support in a specific task or area, the Board should stick to matters reserved for the Board and should avoid getting involved in day-to-day activities, staff management, or program delivery, leaving these tasks to the CEO and their team.
Useful Skills for Board Members
Leadership and Strategic Thinking: The ability to see the bigger picture, reach consensus, foster trust, and guide the organisation towards its long-term goals.
Financial Acumen: Understanding financial statements, budgeting, and financial planning to ensure the organisation's financial health. Having experience in charity finances and fundraising.
Governance and Compliance Knowledge: Understanding company law, familiarity with legal, regulatory, and governance requirements to ensure that the organisation operates within the law.
Risk Management: Skills in identifying potential risks and implementing strategies to mitigate them.
Brand, Communication and Collaboration: Strong brand and communication skills to engage effectively with a wide range of stakeholders, and the broader Scouting community. Ability to be very self-aware and collaborate effectively.
Problem-Solving: The ability to analyse issues, think critically, and make decisions that benefit the organisation.
Youth and Program Development: Understanding the needs and challenges of youth development, which is central to the mission of Scouting Ireland.
Commitment to the Organisation’s Values: A strong alignment with the principles and values of Scouting, including integrity, diversity, inclusivity, and dedication to youth development.
The Board strives to ensure it has a mix of skills and competencies and where it cannot cover a specific skill or competency through the membership it may look for external expertise. It is also considered good practice to have several external, independent Board members who can provide a non-scouting perspective.
Professional qualifications and skills in these areas help Board members contribute effectively to the governance and strategic direction of Scouting Ireland, ensuring it maximises the positive impact it has on young people’s development.
If you think you might be interested in contributing to the Board of Scouting Ireland and want to find out more, there are many websites and training courses, for example:
The Institute of Directors in Ireland: https://www.iodireland.ie/.
The Corporate Governance Institute: https://www.thecorporategovernanceinstitute.com/.
The Governance Forum: https://governance.ie/.
A professional board qualification is not a requirement to sit on the Board of Scouting Ireland. Most boards do like to have at least one or two professionally qualified directors on the Board.
What sort of commitment is involved in being a director of Scouting Ireland?
Even though it’s not the fun outdoors stuff of Scouting, it is a vital part of the work needed to have a well-functioning organisation. To that end, working on the Board can be extremely rewarding. Stability, consistency, and continuity are very important for any organisation. The Board is a serious commitment and responsibility and requires serious consideration.
Typically, there are 12 x 4hr Board meetings a year, mostly held on a Saturday or Sunday from 10am to 2pm, but some may be held on an evening. Typically, there are 12-18 agenda items that require discussion. There will be approximately 1-2hrs reading required before each Board meeting to read up on the agenda items and decisions that need to be made. Typically, the draft agenda is agreed between the Board Chair and Company Secretary, and this is circulated with any papers, the other members of the Board may propose additional items to be included in the agenda.
On top of the regular Board meetings, from time-to-time short, ad hoc Board meetings may be required, where management, advisors or a subcommittee may require a decision from the Board.
Board members are required to also serve on subcommittees to be able to progress work without tying up the whole Board. For example, the Legal Subcommittee would meet regularly to progress legal matters, the Audit and Risk Committee to look at financial and audit matters and so on. Depending on what is before them, the subcommittees may need to meet 5-10 times a year.
Board members may also take actions at meetings to support certain work such as researching and presenting findings on how other similar organisations might do things better, or what impact certain new legislation might have. Sometimes this work is completed with advisors or within subcommittees.
Joining the Board
If you have the skills, experience, and interest to contribute to the work of the Board, email cosec@scouts.ie to complete an expression of interest that will be kept on file. You will then be notified when the next openings for Board appointments appear.
