Board Update – April 2018

Hello to all our readers.

2018 is already getting away from us with Easter already gone, but the Board has been hard at work.

We have added two new members to our Board and I take great pleasure in introducing them to you. At the same time, I also must acknowledge the wonderful work done by our outgoing members – Andrew Cottrill, Noel Sargent, and Sue Slater.

Their time and input into a variety of areas and Board matters, including Clinical Governance, Community Engagement and Finance, their individual strengths and skills as well as their camaraderie will be missed by us all.

Thank you all for being part of Aspire’s history and growth.

We welcome Emma Reid and John Duck.

They each bring a wealth of experience to specifically sought-after skill areas required as part of our ongoing Strategic and Succession Planning.

Both have worked in a variety of large organisations, within allied health, medical and disability fields in positions of significant responsibility, enabling them to have a perspective of our role as Board Directors, as well as from a Management viewpoint. We take great pleasure in welcoming Emma and John to the Aspire Board and look forward to putting those talents to good use.

Board Performance

The Board has just undertaken one of our regular, in-depth surveys, in conjunction with lengthy phone interviews, looking at our own performance, that of the CEO  and the Board’s relationships within the organisation’s structure and management. This process allowed us to be honest in our self-appraisal and to identify areas of our practice that we would like to address.

It was terrific that both new Board members were able to attend the last meeting where we had a professional facilitator spend three hours working her way through those compiled results and working with us to map out and prioritise our next steps in planning and focus. It was time very well spent, beginning with revisiting various scenarios of several corporate boards where cases had arisen around practices that had occurred over the years.

It was an excellent way for us to focus on exactly what our duties are, and from there to re-set our course.

We plan to restructure some of our Subcommittees, with a view to greater feedback, to seek more efficiencies in areas such as Reporting Frameworks and to working on multi-levels with our Management Team, in the running of the organisation.

We very much value and look forward to supporting our customers and staff. We will continue to all work together to facilitate a smooth transition for our customers to the NDIS.

Warm regards

Lizzie Pogson
Board Director, on behalf of the Aspire Board.