On Wednesday 21 February, 2018 Vicsport in partnership with the State Government held an event titled “Building Effective Boards” at the Metropole Hotel in Fitzroy, Melbourne.
The purpose of the event was to provide the audience from various sporting organisations with information on how to elect, induct and appoint new board members.
Vicsport Chairman Ron Gauci addressing the room at the Building Effective Boards event
Guest speaker featured Bridie O’Donnell, newly appointed Head of Office for Women in Sport and Recreation. It was Bridie’s first appearance at a Vicsport event and delivered the message that now's time for leaders of sporting organisations to act and make gender equality on boards a top priority;
“We want to have modern sporting organisations, leading Australia in their governance and constitutions with boards that reflect our diverse community”.
Vicsport Consultant Fiona Jones and Bridie O'Donnell at Building Effective Boards vent
The workshop style event was facilitated by Vicsport’s Sports Consultant Fiona Jones and was interactive, giving the audience an opportunity to ask questions, breakdown the issues at hand and openly discuss how to implement better governance practices in their sporting organisations.
Fiona opened the session with a question: What is the ideal composition of good governance practices?
The discussion that followed involved scenarios-based conversations prompting the crowd to assess their current board structure and whether there are ways they can improve their systems and procedures to create a well-balanced, diverse board.
Questions that arose throughout the evening were:
- What influences the election and appointment of directors?
- What skills and experience are required to be a board member?
- What is the induction process for welcoming new directors?
- How can you ensure all directors understand their roles and responsibilities?
With the deadline of 1 July 2019 vastly approaching for organisations to reach minimum 40% women on boards to be eligible for funding, action needs to take place now.
Vicsport has a suite of online resources for organisations to gain a further understanding on what they need to do to meet the incoming quotas. Resources can be found here.
Vicsport are holding another event Strengthening Successful Boards on Wednesday 2 May, 2018. To register, click here.
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