National Rural Touring Forum Board(Trustee) Membership

National Rural Touring Forum Board(Trustee) Membership

1.Introduction

The National Rural Touring Forum (NRTF) represents a number of mainly rural touring schemes and rural arts development agencies, principally across England, that aim to help local people to promote high quality, professional arts events and experiences inrural and other communityvenues.

The organisation became formally constituted in 1997 and is a registered charity as well as a company limited by guarantee. NRTF became an Arts Council England Regularly Funded Organisation (RFO) in 2004 and will become a National Portfolio Organisation from 2012.

The NRTF is governed by its members through a voluntary Board of management elected annually at the AGM. A minimum of 3 and a maximum of 10Board members (Trustees) must be elected by and from the full membership. In addition, the Board can co-opt up to 3 persons, who need not be members of the organisation but who are deemed specialists.

All Board members, whether full or co-opted have full voting rights.

Ordinary General Meetings are held quarterly and must take place in fully accessible venues, except where all potential participants are known to have no specific access needs. Meetings are organised with due regard to geographical location, taking into account the likely constituency of participants, the fact that NRTF is a UK national organisation and accessibility by public transport. Regular meetings should rotate venue except where a single venue mutually acceptable to all can be identified. Currently meetings are held in Birmingham.

2.Specification for Board (Trustee) Members

2.1Full Boardmembers should be able to demonstrate that they have:

• An active involvement in rural and other community arts touring;
• Knowledge of the arts sector;
• Knowledge of the rural sector;
• Understanding and or knowledge of charity law;
• Understanding of finances;
• Strategic vision and experience of decision making at strategic and / or policy level;
• A willingness to accept the legal duties, responsibilities and liabilities of a Trustee director;
• A commitment and capacity to attend Board meetings and participate in Board task groups;
• The ability to work effectively as part of a team and to take responsibility for the corporate decision-making process; To accept corporate responsibility and to maintain confidentiality;
• Understanding and commitment toequal opportunities and diversity;
• A readiness to offer personal and professional skills and experience to support the work of staff and the functioning of the board when required;
• A commitment to keep well informed about the work and operations of the NRTF.

2.2Co-opted Board Members

Co-opted Board Members may be brought onto the Board for their specialist skills or as a CPD opportunity. Co-opted Board Members would therefore be expected to at least demonstrate:

• A willingness to accept the legal duties, responsibilities and liabilities of a Trustee director;
• The ability to work effectively as part of a team and to take responsibility for the corporate decision-making process; to accept corporate responsibility and to maintain confidentiality;
• Understanding of equalities issues;
• A commitment and capacity to attend Board meetings and participate in Board task groups;
• A readiness to offer personal and professional skills and experience to support the work of staff and the functioning of the board when required;
• A willingness to learn and develop new skills through peer group learning in order to transfer skills to board management opportunities;
• A commitment to keep well informed about the work and operations of the NRTF.

3.Desirable Experience

NRTF strives to ensure a balanced and efficient Board that offers regional representation from across the UK. Membership of the NRTF Boardalso needs to encompass a range of skills and knowledge in order to act as an effective body. The needs of NRTF and the match with the composition of the Board will be reviewed annually and should include knowledge in the following areas:

4.Board Member (Trustee) Roles

4.1Ethical & Legal Compliance

• Ensure that NRTF complies with its Memorandum and Articles of Association and objects, charity law and other relevant legislation or regulations (Financial, Company/Charity Law, Health & Safety, Data Protection, Employment law and Discrimination)
• The Trustees act as voting members and are both company directors and charity trustees.

4.2Policy, Planning & Finance

• Determine organisation’s mission/purpose and meet objectives of the Charity;
• Establish a Business Plan and operational programmes which prioritise activities within available resources in line with members and funders requirements;
• Risks assess the organisation, its assets, its business plan and operational processes.

4.3Monitoring & Evaluation

• Ensure that proper financial planning, management and control procedures are in place and keep informed of actual and projected financial performance in order to make appropriate decisions involving the financial resources of NRTF;
• Be an active participant in the organisations annual evaluation and planning efforts and contribute actively to the strategic direction of the NRTF setting overall policy, defining goals and evaluating performance against agreed targets.

4.4Advocacy

• Act as ambassadors and advocates for NRTF;
• Where appropriate represent the views of the touring schemes and other members in their region and bring regional issues to the attention of the board;
• Act in that position with courtesy and respect to anyone with whom they have dealings on NRTF business;
• Represent approved Board policies and views and will do nothing to bring NRTF or its members into disrepute;
• Support NRTF’s equal opportunities policy and associated Race Equality and Disability Action plans and undertakes to promote equal opportunities as part of their work as board members.

4.5Board & General Management

• Build a congenial working relationship with other board members in order to contribute to consensus;
• Participate in recruiting, supporting and assessing performance of ‘staff’ and/or contractors;
• Participating in ensuring the Board is effective, including succession planning and selection of Board (including co-opted members);
• Selection of Board/Trustees and co-opted members.

4.6Attendance & Participation

• Attend at least 3 of the 4 quarterly board meetings and notify the meeting organiser/Chair if unable to attend;
• Make a serious commitment to participate actively in Working Groups and when appropriate work on sub committees set up by the Board to work on specific projects;
• Volunteer for assignments and complete them thoroughly and on time;
• Attend the annual conference unless prevented by circumstances beyond his/her control;
• Stay informed about committee matters, prepare themselves well for meetings, and review and comment on minutes and reports;
• Serve on at least one Sub Group;
• Avoid conflicts of interest and declare any interest in matters under discussion. Board members are expected to maintain independence and objectivity in their role;

4.7SubGroups

In order to meet the workload of the Board and to be able to provide ongoing consistent support, monitoring and decision making processes between Board meetings there arepermanent Sub Groups with some delegated powers. There is also occasional project orientated or time-limited Working Groups.These cover the main management, planning and activity areas.Sub Groups are as follows:

4.8NRTF Administrative & Development Support

The Development Director (Ralph Lister) and CAP (David Porter - Conference & Project Development. Alice Porter – Administration & Finance) carry out the ongoing development and administrative work of the Company.

The current Chair of the Board is John Laidlaw (Live & Local)David Porter is the Company Secretary.

4.9Trustee/Board Member Expenses

The NRTF will meet the travel and other expenses accumulated by Board Members exercising their duties as Board or Task Group members:

• NRTF will pay travel costs to attend meetings or conferences where required by the NRTF board - 2nd class rail / air fare or 45p per mileplus parking expenses.
• If board members are required to be away from their office/home over lunch, NRTF will pay for lunch expenses up to a maximum of £8 per person iflunch is not provided at the meeting or conference (equivalent euro).
• If board members are required by the NRTF board to be awayover night and where accommodation and meals are not provided, NRTF will pay subsistence to include accommodation and evening meal up to:
• £60 per night per person and equivalent euro.
• NRTF will not pay for alcohol.

Board Meetings: Agendas

4.10Each agenda item at Board Meetings will ideally have one these objectives against them: Decision, Assurance or Information.

4.11Decision

• Governance
• Policies – sign off
• Strategic aims and objectives
• Risk management
• Recruitment – Staff/Contractors/Freelance
• Setting Working Group’s Terms of Reference *
• New Partnership agreements
• Business Plan – sign off
• Budget – sign off

4.12Assurance

• Compliance [inc company objectives]
• Health & Safety
• PR and Communications issues
• Stakeholders
• Business Plan and KPIs * [monitoring performance]
• Management accounts
• Accountability to funders
• [Organisational capability]
• [Risk assessment]

4.13Information

• Programme and Projects
• Marketing & PR Strategy
• Environmental scanning **
• Fundraising
• Opportunities
• Social and gossip

** Environmental scanning: The process of collecting information to carry out a systematic analysis of the forces effecting the organisation and identifying potential threats and opportunities with view to generating future strategies.

NRTF Board Member Job Description (April 2016)1