Jean Roberts

Archive for June, 2009

Highlights of my attendance at the three-day 31st Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE) World Conference in Belfast, Northern Ireland, November 2008.

The Conference theme: International Entrepreneurship – promoting excellence in education, research and practice.

Conference Tracks:
Papers were…

A nonprofit organisation offers or provides a range of programs, services, publications, activities, events, initiatives or benefits to one or more targeted audiences.

The Board, together with the CEO, negotiates contractual and funding agreements containing particular and specific terms and conditions to be complied with and outcomes to be achieved. The Board is accountable to the membership base to adopt the ‘best possible practices’ of governance, management and operation in order to ensure and provide the ‘best possible experience’ for service-users.

Committee-itis – a light-hearted look at the pitfalls and pleasures of sitting on a committee

Despite the best intentions of its members, a committee can easily fall victim to the dreaded committee-itis virus.

This illness can invade the body of a committee – or the body of a member of a committee. This book examines a wide range of committees – including kindergartens, schools, youth groups, body corporates, workplaces, communities, community organisations.

Committee-itis de-mystifies committee dynamics and procedures, offers diagnoses and examines a range of remedies and survival strategies. It then moves on to explain various infection-avoidance techniques.

Committee Members’ Handbook

A ‘how-to’ and ‘how-not-to’ for those who join the community of a club, association, council or other nonprofit organisation

This book is a guide to the role and responsibilities of the voluntary committee or board in delivering services to members, service-users and the wider community. It looks at why anyone would accept a voluntary management position – particularly at a time when money is hard to find and community needs are escalating.

Competitive Tendering

From the 1970s and onwards – including many tools for nonprofit organisations to assist with forward planning

How to write a competitive tender

Tendering begins with a healthy appreciation of the concept and practice of outsourcing.

A successful tender is one that not only wins the job, but also ensures that the project offered in the tender is followed through to a successful conclusion.

Tendering is a core business activity and growth strategy. It should be a natural follow-on from your strategic and business plans.

The Left and Right Brain Business

Linking organisational effectiveness with individual job satisfaction

It’s easy to be confused by other people’s behaviour. It’s just as easy to be confused by your own. We can all look back across a number of years and recall particular occasions and relationships where we wish things had worked out differently or better. Or we can wonder why, at other times, everything seemed to go so well, almost without any effort on our part.

Riding the Waves of Community Development in Australia

From the 1970s and onwards – including many tools for nonprofit organisations to assist with forward planning

Community-based organisations are now providers of contracted service providers rather than groups of like-minded people offering services or assistance to people with a need, interest or aspiration. Legislative frameworks for service standards and accreditation have become highly sophisticated, leading to an increasing requirement for continuous quality improvement – in many cases through external audits.

Managing Governance in Nonprofit Organisations in Australia

Managing Governance in Nonprofit Organisations in Australia – includes a CD ROM with more than 500 pages of practical checklists and tools and all 44 of Jean’s Library of Issue Papers

This book and CD introduces the © Jean Roberts Governance Framework, 29 Building Blocks and 44 Units, developed by the author through 30 years of active involvement with the Australian nonprofit sector. Each Building Block is a critical success factor which, if not functioning or operating to the desired level of quality, effectiveness and performance, may place an organisation at risk.

Governance Kit 3: Personal responsibilities of nonprofit Board Members

Personal responsibilities of nonprofit Board Members – including code of conduct, conflict of interest, confidentiality, and loyalty to the organisation’s purpose

This Kit focuses on the individual Board or Committee member – whether office bearer or ordinary member. The message is that each Board member is responsible for her/his words, conduct and behaviour as a Board member: and this responsibility is legal as well as moral, ethical and social.

Nonprofit Board membership is similar to for-profit Board membership in relation to the nature and extent of responsibility. The language is different, as are the structure and processes: however, the risks are similar, as is the need for careful attention and diligent behaviour.

Governance (‘Board’ includes Committee or Board of Management, and Board of Directors)

The Board is the governing body of the legal entity with the legal responsibility to govern the affairs and activities of the organisation on behalf – and in the interests of – the financial or formal members of the association, company or co-operative:

• a financial member will have paid the annual membership fee
• a ‘formal’ describes a member where there is no entry or membership fee.

In both cases, an application for membership will have been formally submitted.