Basic Governance for Community Organisations

Course Description

Basic Governance for Community Organisations is a series of short interactive courses designed to provide the learner with the knowledge, skills and understanding to carry out the duties of a Board Director within an Indigenous community organisation. This project has been developed and is offered free of charge under the Social Sector Transformation Fund.

There are four separate short courses which can be undertaken individually and in any order. The courses are:

Conducting Board Meetings

In this course you will learn:

• the importance of Board meetings including AGMs
• how to effectively plan for a Board meeting
• how to appropriately conduct a Board meeting
• the follow up required after a Board meeting

Roles and Responsibilities of Directors

In this course you will learn:

• Governance Vs Management
• Overlap between governance and management
• Setting organisation’s mission, objectives and strategies
• Monitoring organisation’s performance
• Reviewing and approving Code of conduct
• Monitoring organisation’s financial viability
• Ensuring organisation’s legal and financial accountability
• Supporting management
• Appointing a CEO
• Maintaining effective governance

Legal Duties of Directors

• Roles and function
• Types of directors
• Duties of directors
• Common law and legislation
• Duty of care
• Insolvency
• Acting in good faith
• Act for proper purpose
• Conflict of interest

Interpreting Financial Reports

In this course you will learn:

• Basic terms used in financial reporting
• Balance sheets
• Income statements (Statement of Profit and Loss)
• Cash flow statements
• Key financial ratios