Understanding the Role of a National Board

What is the role of a National Board and its members? You think this is an easy question to answer? Well, at least for newly elected board members it is quite difficult sometimes to understand the responsibilities of the National Board and get into their new role. That is why the Organisational Development Core Group is currently developing an overview session on the role of the National Board and its members. A session that is inspired by the Global Support Assessment Tool GSAT, as well as the experience of experienced Scouts from around Europe.

The last weekend, the Lithuanian Scouting was trying to answer the basic question of what a National Board should be doing. Together with their executive team, the recently elected National Board spent a full weekend on developing a better understanding of their role and future priorities. They were supported by a WOSM facilitator. And a first version of the induction session was tested.

A national board should be making decisions, it should develop a strategy, it should represent the organisation in the society, it should monitor and evaluate the performance of committees and it should also collaborate with the local Scout units and district representatives. But the most important issue for to the Lithuanian Scouting is to establish a good working relation between their Board and the Executive Team. Sometimes it is not obviously clear who should be doing what and what kind of tasks are operational and what kind of responsibilities are to find on the strategic level.

Based on the experience of this workshop, the Organisational Development Core Group will now further develop the basic session on the role of the National Board and will also develop a full weekend training for National Boards and especially newly elected Board members.

So tell us if you are interested to contribute to the understanding of National Board responsibilities and if you are in need of a similar training for new Board members. In July there will be the next test run in the FYR Macedonia, so stay tuned for more to come.

written by: Matthias Gerth, Coordinator of the Organisational Development Core Group

Comments: