For the few who might be interested in Governance issues in running CE centres and charities .... came across it, oddly enough, via Twitter .... Charity Finance blog, worth a look in itself, for some ... Best Behaviour by Tesse Akpeki
"Behavioural governance takes insights from relationships and the human side of leadership and applies this to the rational, the logical and the analytical aspects of governing and oversight."
"When these aspects are going well, the board and its surroundings can be a great place to be. This is totally different when it all breaks loose and there are misunderstandings, conflicts, mayhem, infighting, resignations, votes of no confidence and factions."
"Quakers have particular ways of handling business meetings, some of which work very well in a secular context. These include: recognising that everyone has a contribution to make; waiting between those contributions to allow time for reflection or pausing for longer periods of silence; ensuring that those present can in some way be identified by others (go-round intros, name labels etc); and especially the prac tice of writing the minute there and then. It is drafted, presented to the meeting, and amended/agreed before the meeting moves on to the next item.
"This may seem very demanding but is a proven way of (a) finding agreement (b) avoiding later dissension and (c) observing the Clerk (Chair in secular terms) as both the leader and the servant of the meeting. As Quakers are human, we often fall short of the best we can achieve using our own business methods! but I have seen their effectiveness on many occasions. Trustees at Woodbrooke (the Quaker study centre where I am Director) have operated in this way for many years and we offer courses on the Quaker business method......