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10 Excellent Association Governance Resources
There are some excellent online resources available to help membership associations understand their governance obligations that we thought were well worth sharing Not-For-Profit Law has put together an excellent list of resources for community not-for-profits. In the list below, we have picked out eight that we thought were particularly applicable for membership associations, and added in a couple of additional ones that we have found helpful. Please note, the Not-For-Profit Law information has been put together predominantly for Victorian associations.
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QUT – Developing Your Board
The Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has a wiki on board and committee issues. The wiki provides a range of resources on governance-related topics. -
Governance Institute of Australia – Not-for-profit resources
These resources for not-for-profit community organisations look at the relationship between a board (or committee of management) and management in not-for-profit organisations. -
Australian Institute of Company Directors – Good Governance Principles and Guidance for Not-for-Profit Organisations
This publication outlines ten principles that promote good governance, and helps directors and boards consider the governance needs of their organisations. -
Our Community – Boards
The Boards section of the Our Community website includes information on governance issues in not-for-profit community organisations. -
Community Compass
The Community Compass Assessment tool can help organisations self assess their board against a skills matrix and identify where training or recruiting should be undertaken. -
ASX – Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations
This is a link to the 2010 update of the guide to good corporate governance provided by the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). This publication is aimed at for-profit companies (and uses language like ‘shareholders’ not members) but the key principles of good governance are useful for not-for-profit organisations. -
Victorian Council of Social Services (VCOSS)
This page contains a link to VCOSS’s Board Governance Policy. This policy uses as a base the UK Good Governance Code for the Voluntary and Community Sector (2nd ed, 2010), and adapts it for Australia and VCOSS’s own circumstances. It provides a useful general model, although it needs to be adapted for each organisations individual circumstances. -
ACNC – Managing conflicts of interest guide
This guide contains information on conflicts on interest, explaining what they are and how they can be managed. The guide also contains a template conflict of interest policy and register of interests.We have also found the following references useful: - The Good Governance Guide
The Good Governance Guide is a website produced by the Victorian Local Governance Association, Municipal Association of Victoria , Local Government Victoria and Local Government Professionals. Although it is for local government, there is a lot of applicable information for associations. - CFAR Briefing: Association Governance in Disruptive Times
CFAR is a US-based management consultancy. Although this briefing was written in 2013, it provides insights into association governance issues based on the results of benchmarking undertaken with 10 associations.
If you want to improve governance at your association or have a specific issue that you’d like to discuss confidentially, then get in touch!