Every organization looks for talented, capable and prepared leadership. After spending a lot of time on searching and even training, how do we prepare new board members or trustees? The guidelines offered by the UK Charity Commission in their May Newsletter are applicable to volunteer and professional organizations. Providing this kind of preparation should be standard operating procedure for alumni organizations as well.

A proper induction ensures that trustees can become valuable and effective members of the board as quickly as possible. As a minimum we recommend that new recruits to charity boards should be given key documents about the charity, including:

• the charity's governing document



• the charity's latest annual report and accounts



• minutes of recent trustee meetings



• the charity's policy on dealing with conflicts of interest



• any other key documents which trustees will need, for example, the charity's strategic plan and its vision and values or mission statement

New trustees should meet with other trustees and key people within the charity to get a better understanding of its work and any challenges. We advise charities to invest in the training, support and development of their trustees, as well as members of staff, to increase the contribution that the board can make to the charity's management.

There is more detail in their report: The essential trustee: what you need to know, what you need to do.