Kate M: Someone has just been elected to the committee. They're excited. They turn up to their first meeting ready to contribute. Kate H: But they don't know anyone, and nobody really explains what they're supposed to do. Kate M: So they do what seems reasonable. They turn up, they nod along, they vote yes when everyone else votes yes, and they leave. Kate H: And at the end of the year, they really can't tell you what the committee achieved or what their role was or whether they made any difference at all Kate M: because no one told them what their job was. Kate H: Today, we fix that. Welcome to The Committee Room. Welcome back to The Committee Room. I'm Kate Hartwig. Kate M: And I'm Kate McPhee. We help small, time poor, volunteer led committees run better meetings, make better decisions, and build stronger structures and systems with less stress and less mess. Kate H: This is episode three and the second in our Great People, Great Committee series. Now last episode, we talked about who should be around the committee table. Today, we're going to talk about what they actually do there because understanding your role isn't just helpful. It's the foundation for everything else. Kate M: And a quick note before we start. This podcast is for general information on best practice governance for small to medium associations. It is not legal advice. Okay. Let's get into it. So you've been elected to the committee. You're keen as mustard. You're ready to go. But what exactly is your job? Kate H: Now that is a deceptively hard question, Kate, because there's much more to it than turning up to meetings and having a bit of a chat over a coffee or a wine. The Committee exists to govern the association on behalf of its members. You're not a collection of individuals. You're a single governing body and you, air quotes, speak with one voice. Kate M: And that means you have responsibility across three dimensions, organisational, cultural, and for want of a better term, group dynamics. Let's look at those one at a time. Kate H: Okay. Firstly, organisational responsibility, which is all about managing the association's affairs properly. That means meeting all your legal requirements, working towards your organisation's goals, using resources effectively, making clear decisions, keeping policies current and planning for both the short and long term. Kate M: These are all things that the committee can measure. Did you act within the law and your constitution? Did you achieve your strategic goals? Did you stay within budget? They're straightforward questions, Kate, with yes or no answers. A committee that's been doing its job properly should be able to answer yes with confidence. Kate H: Now, cultural responsibility is trickier because it's about setting the tone for the whole organisation, and this one matters enormously. There is a reason that people say a fish rots from the head. Kate M: Oh, that is such a disgusting mental image. Kate H: It is a gross image, isn't it? But rightly so. A committee that forgets that they're there for the members and not for themselves is very much on the nose. Kate M: If the committee is sloppy or secretive or treats the rules as optional, then that behaviour ripples through everything. We've both seen organizations, Kate, where the committee will say all the right things in the meeting room and then make the real decisions in the car park afterwards. Kate H: And that is not transparency. That is the opposite of transparency. It's opacacy. Kate M: Opacacy. I love that word. Excellent. That needs to go straight to the urban dictionary. I had a lovely email from a chair, a few weeks ago who signed off the email with yours cheerfully. Thought that was terrific. Kate H: Oh, I'm gonna pinch that one as well. Kate M: Okay. So let's get back to serious stuff. The committee has to live its values, not just put them on a poster or on their website and forget about them. Kate H: No, indeed. And then there's the group dimension, how committee members behave with each other. And honestly, this mostly comes down to common sense and common courtesy. Turn up on time, do your homework before the meeting, Participate respectfully and listen when other people are talking. And that means actually listening, not just waiting for them to draw breath so you can say what you want to say. Kate M: Absolutely. The other thing we must emphasize in there, it's really important that you follow-up on the promise that you've made and send your apologies early if you can't make it to a meeting. Not a text at 06:55PM saying that you're not coming. Give people advance notice so that the agenda can be adjusted if necessary. Kate H: And another really important part of the group dynamic is confidentiality, which is one of the most important and most overlooked parts of the group role. It's the Vegas rule. What happens in the committee room stays in the committee room. Kate M: Because that committee room needs to be a space where people can have genuinely robust debate, ask hard questions, voice their concerns, disagree with each other without it all being all over the Facebook group page by the next morning. Kate H: And once a decision is made, however much you argued against it, you support it publicly. One voice always. Kate M: So here's a scenario. The Committee is discussing, a proposal to move the annual dinner to a new venue. You love the old place. You thought it worked really well, so you argue against moving the venue for the dinner. The vote is taken. The motion to move is carried. So in effect, you've lost. The next morning, you run into a member of your association at the local supermarket. You start talking about that decision, and you say, didn't wanna change venues, but the rest of them outvoted me. Kate H: And just like that, you've thrown your own committee under the bus at Woolworths. Kate M: Not a good look. So speaking with one voice doesn't mean pretending that you agreed. It means not publicly undermining a decision once it's been made. The debate happened, the vote happened, the committee moves forward to implement that decision. Kate H: And if you find that you genuinely cannot support a particular big decision or a lot of small decisions on a regular basis, that's a serious conversation you have to have with yourself about whether you're in the right place. So Kate M: how do we make these responsibilities clear and upfront for people on a committee? Simple answer, job descriptions. I know I can already hear people saying, oh, it's a bit too corporate for volunteers. Kate H: But we know, Kate, that it isn't. People perform better when they know what's expected of them, and that's as true for volunteers as it is for paid staff. A good job description doesn't need to be complicated, just key responsibilities, main duties and an honest indication of the time commitment. Kate M: Every office bearer should have a job description, a written job description, the president or chairperson, the secretary, the treasurer, the vice president. But you also want a general committee member job description that covers the baseline responsibilities that apply to everyone on your committee regardless of their role. Kate H: Things like read the papers before the meeting. Kate M: Which sounds obvious, And yet I cannot count the number of meetings where someone says, sorry. I haven't had a chance to look at the reports. And then twenty minutes just evaporates while everyone reads documents they should have read three days ago. Kate H: Back in the day before the digital world, people used to come into their committee room opening their envelopes and it would drive me nuts. Kate M: Nowadays they just do it on their phone . You see them walking into the meeting room frantically scrolling through their phone trying to find the agenda. It's really not okay. It's not acceptable. It's not what we expect of a responsible committee member. Kate H: Don't be that person. Kate M: Exactly. So the job description is the thing that makes it official. Prepare for the meeting. Read the papers. In paper, on your phone. We don't care. Just make sure that you've done the preparation. That's part of your role. Same with sending apologies in advance, participating constructively in meetings, maintaining confidentiality and following up afterwards with the things that you've promised to do should all be in writing so that no one can say they didn't know. Now, listener, Kate H: Kate covers off on job descriptions in her book, Just a Tick. A one pager per role is genuinely all that you need to start, so we've included a simple template for you to download in the show notes. We've also got a link to Kate's book for those unfortunate enough not to have it already, so please look that up. Kate M: Thank you, Kate. So let's now look at the code of conduct. Every committee should have a code of conduct. The tricky thing is that most of them are actually completely bloody useless. Can I say bloody? Kate H: Yeah. Why not? Is that okay? Well, yes. I think our audience is mature enough. Not a big market for governance podcasts amongst the preteens. Okay. Now let me guess what a typical code of conduct says. It says integrity, respect, excellence, collaboration, accountability, which would be just about exactly the same as everybody else's yada yada yada, Kate M: laminated on the wall of the meeting room Kate H: where it has lived undisturbed since 2017. Kate M: A list of aspirational words is not a code of conduct. It's a poster. It's a piece of paper. It's a footnote on your website. A meaningful code of conduct is grounded in your organization's actual values, and it has two components. The guiding principles, which are the big picture ideals, and the second part, the specific behaviours that demonstrate those principles. Kate H: So here's a concrete example. A junior sports club. Their guiding principle might be that every child should have the opportunity to participate regardless of skill or ability. And the behaviour that flows from that is that committee members will make decisions that prioritise child well-being and inclusive participation over competitive success. Kate M: And that's something a committee member can actually use. When a difficult decision comes up, a committee member can ask, does this align with what this organisation says we stand for? That's the code of conduct doing its job. Kate H: There's a test I love for this. For every value in your code of conduct, you should be able to point to a recent real example of the committee demonstrating it. So it's something that happened, a decision that was made. Kate M: And if you can't think of one, then that's the code of conduct telling you something. Either the value that you've got in your code of conduct isn't actually genuine or it's genuine, but it's not being lived. Either way, it needs some attention. Kate H: So what you need to do is build your code through conversation. Ask the committee what fundamentally matters to us. What would disappoint us if a committee member did it? What would make us proud? Then you review it and recommit to it at the start of every committee year. Kate M: Not filed, not forgotten, actually lived every day, every week. So Kate H: three dimensions of committee responsibility. Firstly, organisational. Manage things properly and measure whether you have. Secondly, cultural. Set the right tone and live it. No car park decisions. And the third, group. Be a good committee colleague. Prepared, respectful, confidential, and singing from the same song sheet when you leave the room. Kate M: I think you should sing a little something in there, Kate. Kate H: I think everyone got enough of my singing in the last episode, Kate. Feedback hasn't been great. Never mind. Kate M: Not giving up your day job then? Kate H: No, not yet. But I digress. Job descriptions make expectations clear for everyone. Kate M: And a code of conduct is a great thing to have, but it's only worth having if it's grounded in your real values and if you can point to actual examples of it in action. Kate H: So, dear listener, your challenge for this week. Two things. First, does your committee have a written job description for every role, including the general committee member? If the answer is no or I'm not sure, that's your starting point. There are links to resources in the show notes or get in touch and we can point you in the right direction. Kate M: Second challenge for the listeners for this week, pull out your code of conduct. Ask yourselves, when did you last look at it? Put it on the agenda for the next committee meeting, not to rewrite it, but just to spend some time having a look at it, just to read it together and ask, is this still us? Does it match how we actually operate? Kate H: And if you don't have a code of conduct, that's fine. This is a good place to start, put it on the agenda and have that conversation. Kate M: If today has been useful for you, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and share this episode with someone on your committee. The show notes and resources are at the committeeroom.com.au or wherever you get your podcasts. Kate H: Next episode, we're going deeper into the legal duties every committee member carries whether they know it or not. Care, loyalty and obedience. Three words that sound a bit like an old fashioned wedding vow, but turn out to Kate M: be very serious indeed. Until then, I'm Kate McPhee. Kate H: And I'm Kate Hartwig. Kate M: This has been The Committee Room, and remember Kate H: You don't need good luck if you've got good governance.