By Helen Reid, GGV Executive Board Member 
In late May at the GGV AGM I was elected to the GGV Executive Board. I have been on the Board in the past but with both State and National Management roles recently it has been nearly a decade since I have been involved with the GGV Board. I thought it would be fun to record and share my experiences of being part of the governance side of State guiding.
Some might think that the governance side of guiding isn’t that exciting, and as a Board member said to me the other day, “talking about leases isn’t that interesting”, but hopefully I can make it a little bit more engaging and inspire others to get involved.
The Board meets once a month and straight up I got to be involved with approving the appointment of a new CEO for GGV. Following Amanda’s resignation, a recruitment process was followed and a small team from the Board interviewed candidates. This resulted in one candidate being invited to present to the whole Board. It is no small responsibility choosing a new CEO for the organisation but this woman, as she shared her story and vision for GGV, was amazing. As soon as she officially resigns from her current position, Margaret Hansford, the Chair of the Board will make an announcement. What a fantastically positive way to start my time on the Board.
I was looking for a suitable quote to explain good governance and found this:
“The Board’s role is to pull management out of the trees to see the forest.” — Pearl Zhu, Digitizing Boardroom: The Multifaceted Aspects of Digital Ready Boards.
Having worked in management in Guides and in my professional life, it is a fair description. The Board has responsibility for the strategic direction of GGV and, of course, the finances. In other words, to look at the big picture while the Region Managers, the Department Managers and the CEO and staff of GGV are beavering away on the day-to-day stuff that keeps our organisation running.
Check out the current strategic plan. I hope to share what great initiatives are being undertaken to achieve this plan as part of this journey.
There are a number of subcommittees of Executive that involve both Executive members and others where, along with the staff of GGV, the work of the Board gets done. Over the next few posts I would like to share what each of these subcommittees do and how members of GGV might get involved if they are interested.
So next time: a sneak peek into the world of the policies and procedures subcommittee to meet the people who are crossing ‘t’s and dotting ‘i’s to make sure things are running smoothly.
And remember, the Executive Board serves GGV members, so if you have any questions, just ask.
To contact Helen, email: helen.guiding@bigpond.com
