On the practical realities of board governance — legal duties, risk oversight, financial literacy, the work that separates governance from compliance theatre. Written for directors who want to do the job well.
The budget review is the most important governance moment of the financial year. Most boards spend the least time on it. Seven questions that turn a 30-minute approval into a 90-minute governance conversation worth having.
Most association risk registers are compliance theatre — produced, approved, filed, and never used. Five signs that yours is, and the six-step process to convert a document into a working tool.
Confidentiality is one of the four core legal duties of every director. New directors routinely misunderstand what it covers, what it doesn't, and when it ends. Five common breaches, in roughly the order they cause problems.
Most association strategic plans are approved with ceremony, presented at the AGM, and then forgotten until the next planning cycle. This is worse than not having a plan. Here's why, and how to break the pattern.
Most association boards have no formal succession plan. The cost of that absence becomes visible only when a director leaves unexpectedly. By then, it's too late. Here's what a real succession plan actually requires.
Most first-time directors accept their first board role on the basis of flattery and instinct. Six questions, asked before accepting, would have saved me significant grief on my first appointment.