As brightly, radiantly, or as ginormously as a Key Stage 2 word of the week list.
There now, that got your attention. Possibly. If anyone sees the sun for more than 2 hours on 2 consecutive days let The Elbow know there’s a dear. She’s beginning to wonder if she has a vitamin D deficiency or something.
Anyhows back to the point.
This week The Elbow has been mostly driving. It’s been a joy. Tuesday saw her in her volunteering hat at an event at the old National College building in Nottingham. Oh, those were the days. Back when system leadership was a thing we just did. It still remains the right thing to do and as a former, former National Leader of Governance (keep up at the back) The Elbow still holds the principles of ‘learning by sharing’ close to her little old givernancy heart. It should never be a competition.
Wednesday had The Elbow traipsing up and down the M6. A wonder of personkind when it works is the M6; a dystopian nightmare of Dante-esque proportions when it doesn’t. The journey was worth it though. Oh yes. A board new to The Elbow was a.maz.ing…questions, challenges, visits, confirmations, effective committees, care and nurture. If only Ofsted gave a separate judgement for governance. No, not really. It would be chaos.
Thursday, yes, you guessed it- the M6, again. This time The Elbow made it with 3 minutes to spare and a chair looking slightly worried her meeting was going to be inquorate. The Elbow still isn’t sure if it was or not given there were 8 people round the table – two of whom were staff, two were associate members of the committee, one was The Elbow and another an observer. Key learning point is check the terms of reference and/or scheme of delegation prior to clerking. Most of the time it doesn’t matter but when it does, it does.
Friday. Friday had been on The Elbow’s mind all week trah lah lah. A meeting has been arranged for a Friday afternoon to talk strategy. The Elbow thought it was illegal to hold governance meetings on Friday afternoons. She’s sure she read it somewhere or was that a figment of her fevered imagination?! Reader, it was postponed. Reader, The Elbow wasn’t disappointed. It means she has time to prepare the minute template properly. This is something she has started investing time in. By having a slightly pre-populated minute template done in advance helps her a) think about compliance in advance of the meeting, b) helps identify where decisions are needed so she can double check that these are made, and c) saves time afterwards. As any clerk and Governance Professional will tell you you may walk away from the meeting and forget all about it apart the bits you need to remember, we have to relive the whole thing all over again. Hence the need for sunshine.
And finally the highlight conversation of the week was with a trustee and was a discussion about the fact minutes are public documents and a misplaced comma is not a good look apparently. Good luck with, this blog post. Then
Seriously though friends whether the sun shines or not, whether the comma is missing or misplaced please remember to be like the Board The Elbow met on Wednesday and check your compliance for own goals. Nothing like an own goal to make you groan.
Onwards!
The Clerk's Elbow 