Ask the board | Archive Titles

which of these roles are important for board members?
Role	% consider important
Ensuring the HA is financially viable	98
Determining the strategic objectives	96
Judging priorities for spending	95
Ensuring the association is meeting housing need	95
Holding management to account	95
Monitoring performance against objectives	95
Setting the standards of service	94
Ensuring good staff morale is obtained	86
Working with partners and other stakeholders	77
Tenant board members are more likely than others to consider “ensuring good staff morale is obtained” and “working with partners and other stakeholders” to be important. Although these were the bottom two reasons overall, 92% of tenant board members said the former was important and 85% the latter. Tenants also had a stronger commitment to personal development and gave more importance to role concerned with the interface between the association and the outside world.

What special skills/knowledge do you bring to the board?
Special skills or knowledge	%
Local area	44
Personnel/human resources	38
Finance	37
Community development	32
Equal opportunities	27
Housing management	25
Building maintenance	22
Experience of being a tenant	21
Construction	20
Legal	16
Social services	15
Computing and IT	15
Surveying	10
Architecture	7
A majority (79%) think their board has a sufficient range of backgrounds, skills and experience. It was not clear, however, whether the skills gap perceived by the remainder was due to recruitment difficulties. The main skills they thought lacking were IT, legal skills, architecture, construction and social services.

Which of these roles are important for individual board members?
Individual role	Tenant members (%)	All (%)
Ensuring ethical and legal conduct	94	93
Selecting and assessing chief executive	91	91
Reviewing and questioning managers’ decisions	94	90
Providing expertise and advice to staff	79	79
Monitoring performance in equal opportunities	86	78
Representing the HA to the outside world	89	76
Increasing own knowledge of relevant topics	91	73
Acting as the voice of the community	88	66

why did you join the board?
Reason	Tenant members (%)	All (%)
To contribute to society	57	76
An opportunity to exercise skills and experience gained elsewhere	45	69
To improve service for tenants	93	56
Something would be good at and this would be satisfying	42	51
To represent interests of local people	70	37
Because I was asked	23	32
The housing association has a good reputation	30	27
To gain skills and experience in managing an organisation	23	17
To make use of spare time	16	13
Other	7	6
Most board members join their boards because of a combination of altruism and a wish for personal fulfilment. Interestingly, nearly one-third said they joined “because I was asked”, indicating the value of directly approaching possible members. In fact, at least 40% of board members said they joined after getting a personal invitation from staff or other board members, even if this was not their primary reason for joining, showing that word of mouth is still a very important method of recruitment. Another 17% said they replied to an advertisement.
Tenant board members showed markedly different priorities from others: more than nine out of 10 said they joined “to improve services to tenants”, seven out of 10 said they joined “to represent the interests of local people” while less than half saw their membership as an opportunity to use their skills – for other board members, this was the second most important reason for joining.