When it comes to governance on decision making, you will need to follow your governing document but you may need to add more to it.
Key things to remember:
- Responsibility for the organisation ultimately rests with the governing body.
- Charity trustees are required to act collectively. Decisions do not have to be unanimous, but they must be supported by the majority.
- Decisions can only be delegated if properly authorised by the board (and if your constitution gives you power to delegate).
You may want to consider:
- Clear rules for meetings: frequency, who attends, how many trustees are needed for a quorum, dealing with conflicts of interest, agreeing meeting dates well in advance.
- Agreeing a work calendar for the board (for example, you might agree that your December board agrees the budget, and your July board considers the training and development needs of the board).
- From time to time you may wish to set up a time-limited working group or a ‘task and finish’ group to focus on a specific issue. Be clear about what its remit is.
- Subcommittees: In larger or more complex organisations it may be appropriate to have subcommittees, but make sure you are clear about its purpose and powers.