RMBF planning for success

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It is often said that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
As we approach our June conference in Tauranga and the end of my two-year term as your president and my 10 years on the RMBF Board, it is a good time to reflect on the significant governance progress made by the RMBF during that time.

I was elected to the RMBF Board in 2002. At that time the RMBF had only just changed from a National Council structure to the current Board of Directors structure.
The National Council focused primarily on regional representation at governance level.
In 2002, the RMBF Board contained a mix of fine, competent individuals who served the organisation with distinction. A number of them went on to become Life Members of the RMBF.
So, where is this article leading?

In my opinion, the RMBF Board has planned well to succeed, and is continuing to do so.

Here are some examples of that planning and implementation, in no particular order:
1. The maximum tenure of RMBF directors has been set at 10 years. This ensures rotation and draws attention to the need to identify and acquire new talent.
2. Our structure allows us to appoint up to two independent directors at any one time. This allows us to address any identified skills gaps.
3. We have employed independent consultants to survey our directors and assist with the identification of our strengths, weaknesses and skills sets.
4. We have, over the past few years, strengthened the mix of people on our Board. An example is the targeting of the commercial builder members with strong business acumen.
5. We have continually kept our eyes open for talent within our organisation. That is a list that is regularly updated. 

As we near this year’s conference and prepare for the simultaneous departure of two long-serving directors — Mike Fox and myself — we have undertaken a robust and professional succession planning process to ensure the Board has the right skill set at this point in time, focusing on the particular challenges that we know are ahead.
We have had a subcommittee conduct interviews with interested candidates from our membership. Each of those candidates are fine people and possess unique skills.

As a result of this process, the RMBF Board has identified each candidate’s skills set, and will be notifying Associations accordingly prior to the annual conference.
From then it will be up to the Associations to vote for whom they prefer.
Given the above examples, it will be abundantly clear to all that your RMBF Board is not failing to plan — or planning to fail!

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