Director Job Description
Updated: Thursday 15th July 2010
This page was formerly the "General Committee Member Job Description".
As a director of Autscape you will make a positive contribution towards the functioning of Autscape, using your strengths alongside other peoples’ differing strengths for the best interests of Autscape. The Autscape committee does not just make decisions about Autscape, committee members are also the volunteers who actually carry out virtually all the necessary work involved. So, being on the committee means making a significant commitment of time to putting in some work throughout the year, although for some positions the demand can vary. The work involved can be expected to require at least 1 hour per week and often considerably more. Most directors will (certainly by their second year on the committee) take on one or more specific responsibilities such as: a major post (e.g. Venue Co-ordinator), serving as vice to a major post (e.g. Vice Treasurer) and/or chairing one or more sub-committees. Training may be available or indeed preferable for some roles. If you are unable to make that degree of commitment, please consider becoming involved in other ways.
Throughout the year you will expect to:
- attend online monthly meetings regularly (usually 2 hours max), having read relevant documents in advance;
- volunteer to take responsibility for tasks suited to your ability, including some uninteresting tasks;
- develop and maintain a general understanding of some areas of Autscape’s work and be proactive in seeking out information and working out what needs to be done within those areas to achieve Autscape’s goals;
- carry out tasks you are responsible for effectively and reasonably efficiently, delegating tasks and updating the committee on progress or difficulties (inertia is understood and allowances made, but you will need to have sufficient support to be able to carry out some tasks effectively and must be able to alert others when you can’t complete a task);
- take an active and probably leading role in subcommittees;
- join in general discussions and vote online as appropriate, putting aside personal preferences and feelings and acting impartially for the benefit of Autscape as a whole;
- be receptive to feedback from others, develop an accurate assessment of your own abilities and learn new skills (appropriate to your own abilities and interests).
During the Autscape conference you will expect to:
- attend meetings during Autscape;
- take several ‘duty’ shifts during Autscape to respond to queries and resolve problems (seeking support from other committee members as necessary);
- assist in the running of Autscape (sometimes missing presentations or other activities as necessary).
You will not expect to:
- struggle on alone or deal with tasks that are outside your personal ability.
Legal responsibilities
Being a director does involve some formal responsibilities. These are1:
- a.To act within the powers set out for directors in Autscape’s governing documents
- b.To promote Autscape’s success
- c.To exercise independent judgment
- d.To exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence
- e.To avoid conflicts of interest2
- f.Not to accept benefits from third parties3
- g.To ensure that Autscape’s annual accounts are provided to Companies House by
- nine months after the end of the financial year4
As Autscape is5 a Charitable Company, all directors are also charity trustees. This means that all directors also have the following responsibilities:
- h.To act with integrity;
- i.To ensure that Autscape complies with necessary legislation and regulations, including abiding by the rules set out in our governing documents;
- j.To ensure that Autscape remains true to its charitable aims and is effectively and efficiently managed;
- k.To ensure that Autscape’s money and property are used only for charitable purposes consistent with Autscape’s objectives and are invested, managed and kept secure and that the organisation is kept financially stable;
- l.To ensure that the good name and values of Autscape are safeguarded;
- m.To consider getting external professional advice on all matters where there may be material risk to the charity, or where the trustees may be in breach of their duties.
More detailed guidance on the responsibilities of charitable trustees is available from the Charity Commission. Please note that directors are not required to have expert knowledge of all these areas, just to be willing to ask questions, learn, seek expert advice as necessary and act responsibly.
Footnotes
- 1. Companies Act 2006
- 2. This means that, as far as possible, directors should avoid situations where they are involved in making decisions for Autscape about issues which would have a substantial effect on them personally or on another organisation they are involved in. Directors are always required to tell the committee about any situations where this might be the case. e.g. If a director’s family was involved in running one of the venues Autscape was considering.
- 3. This means that directors may not accept money, presents, discounts or anything similar from people or groups which Autscape deals with.
- 4. All directors are required to share this responsibility and are liable to a fine if it is not met. However, directors do not need any knowledge of accounting to accept this responsibility – only a willingness to ask questions to ensure this is happening. In addition, Autscape will be employing accountants to assist in ensuring our accounts are submitted on time. Finally, Autscape intends to consider providing Directors Indemnity Insurance to protect directors from the financial consequences of inadvertently failing to meet this and other responsibilities.
- 5. Expected to be the case from around September 2010.