The Town Hall meeting that happens twice a year seeks to be the platform for Board members and Senior Management of charities to discuss and explore practical solutions to address common challenges faced by the sector./PublishingImages/News-and-Resources/Events-and-Speeches/Documents/2019/
The sixth Town Hall meeting was themed ‘Charity Governance in Singapore’. It is co-organised by Charity Council and the Centre for Social Development Asia (CSDA), supported by Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).
The programme included a sharing of research findings on governance landscape, followed by a panel discussion that revolved around the topic of charity governance. Town Hall VI had a total attendance of 165 people, out of which 134 were representatives from the charity sector from 85 unique organisations.
Professor Isabel Sim, Director (Projects), Centre for Social Development Asia; and Senior Research Fellow, Department of Social Work, Faculty of Arts & Social Science, National University of Singapore started off the Town Hall with a presentation on the research findings titled “Exploratory Studies on Charity Governance in Singapore”. Acknowledgments were given to CIMA for their funding throughout the three-year collaboration between CIMA, CSDA and Department of Social Work, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore (NUS).
A Town Hall meeting will not be complete without a panel conversation segment. The session was moderated by Mr Chris Ong, Chief Executive Officer of Shared Services for Charities Limited.
The panellists were:
- Mr Gerard Ee, Chairman, Charity Council
- Ms Christine Wong, Executive Director of Samaritans of Singapore
- Dr William Wan, Chairman of Prison Fellowship Singapore
- Mr Yap Wai Ming, Board Member of Ren Ci Hospital
The panel had a robust discussion which revolved around the theme of Charity Governance. Below are some takeaways from the panel session:
-
Board Meetings: While Board meetings can be conducted remotely, face-to-face meetings are better as it allows for relationship-building between the Board and the Executive Director, thereby allowing trust to be gained. Meeting minutes should circulated as soon as possible.
-
Need for Transparency and Disclosure: Having good disclosure practices will help charities to build up relations with stakeholders and potential donors. High transparency is possible and charities should not perceive it as an enormous increase in additional effort to achieve it.
-
Board Renewal and Succession Planning: Charities should have a diverse and good mix of people with different expertise to fulfil the sector’s needs. It will be beneficial to have nominating subcommittees to source and select appropriate Board members. It is also encouraged to place potential Board members in committees to allow for a proper assessment of their capabilities, before being appointed as Board members.
-
Sourcing for potential Board members: The BoardMatch programme by the Centre for Non-Profit Leadership (CNPL), under the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC), is a potential avenue.
To learn more about what was covered during the Town Hall meeting, please see below for the materials that were presented:
- Read the
Welcome Address by Dr Gerard Ee, Chairman of Charity Council
- Download
Slides presented by Professor Isabel Sim during the TownHall
- Read the
Closing Address by Dr Noel Tagoe, Executive Vice President - Academics, Management Accounting at the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants
Download e-book publications by CSDA:
