Step 2: Who Are You Looking For?

Who are you looking for?

You should consider who would make a good trustee for your board. Your governing document is the rule book for the way your organisation is governed.  This must be the first place to look for terms of office, eligibility, procedures for election and so on.  Even if your members elect your new trustees, it is still worth thinking about who would make a good trustee as you can still work to help ensure that people with the right skills and experience put themselves forward.

What skills and experience would you like to find?

Ask yourselves what skills and experience you need to make your board more effective.  It could be that by talking to each other you are able to decide on the skills and experience you would ideally want your new trustee to have. If you cannot identify the skills that are needed you may want to complete Activity 2: How to identify skills and experience (.doc 4.3MB) (highly recommended).

Are you looking for someone who doesn’t exist?

It can be difficult to balance all the things that you want from a new trustee with the reality of the people that you are able to attract. Make sure that what you are asking for is what you really do need. For example, do you need someone with a qualification in accountancy if your organisation has a very small income? Would someone with bookkeeping skills or experience of managing their household budget be able to do the job? Communication skills, team working, enthusiasm and the time to commit to the organisation may be just as valid as any formal qualifications you think you might need.

Can you tell people about the role?

Trusteeship is not widely understood by the general public. Most people wouldn’t put themselves forward for something they don’t understand, so you need to find a way to describe the role.  Although role descriptions are often more associated with paid positions, they can be an effective tool for communication.

• If your trustees already have role descriptions, these can be reviewed and made available to those who express an interest or extracts can be used in any advertising you do.
• If you don’t have role descriptions, you may want to work as a group to develop them. Take a look at Activity 3: Create a Role Description (.doc 292KB) (optional)

Why would anyone put themselves forward?

You should think about how to ‘sell’ the role to someone and to do this it is helpful to understand what might motivate potential trustees to join you.

What motivated you to join your board and what motivates you to stay? What might motivate others? What can you offer to potential volunteers? A key point to remember is that one reason for volunteering to become a trustee is no more valid than any other reason.  Activity 4:  Trustee motivations (.doc 2.87MB) can help you do just this.

Next Step - 3. Attracting new trustees

Previous Step - 1. Are you ready to recruit?

Back to - Introduction to Trustee Recruitment for Small Organisations