Corporate Governance in the Third Sector - whats happening?

Third Sector  and governance arrangements has been in the news lately and it brought home to me a conversation I had with a Trustee on the telephone a few weeks ago in Denbighshire. The discussion related to the training we offered around roles and responsibilities of Trustees and the Trustee in question felt it was wrong for us to charge £20 a head for such training even though I explained the costs of that training were far higher than £20 and that we were subsidised by the Welsh Government to run the course. He acknowledged the course content and trainer was first class but questioned why a small struggling voluntary organisation should pay the money. As you can imagine it was an interesting debate and by the end he said he would write in so that his views could be presented to DVSC Trustees. Given I have not received that letter I can only imagine that on reflection  the Trustee felt that our training was worth every penny . During the conversation I went through the various issues that Trustees needed to be aware of  and  the consequences of non compliance   both in terms  of the impact on the staff , Trustees and volunteers if the processes were incorrect and equally important the reputational risk for the organisation. As someone politely reminded me a few years back it takes years for a business/voluntary organisation to build up its reputation but can take just 5 minutes to lose it.

So  on this subject  I would urge  all Trustees and future Trustees to please sign up to County Voluntary Council training courses because the sessions have been written with you in mind to ensure that you continue to provide effective , value for money services that are accessible by all.  Please refer to our web site and you will see a range of training sessions we offer supported by a variety of trainers.