Above Photo: A number of organizations receive funding from the District of Tumbler Ridge to operate, including the museum. Council is looking at making board training for board members a requirement for these organizations before they could receive funding.
At the November 26 meeting of council, a motion was brought forth by Councillor Gulick, proposing that “District of Tumbler Ridge funds can only be given to non-profit boards where the majority of the board has had director training.”
Councillor Gulick says the reason for this motion is budgetary. “As we discuss budget and we see how much money we have going out when we’re giving away as much money as we are to non-profits, I think that there should be a sense of responsibility that they know the best way forward in running a board whether it be policies and procedures for staff, whether it be their responsibility for funds that are brought in… that kind of thing. I was fortunate to receive some training when I was on the library board and then when I was with the Geopark we had a member from the province come [who] gave a presentation that laid out quite vividly what can happen when you don’t have proper board training. Things can go sideways in a really big hurry. I witnessed that with three boards that I served on. I think it’s us doing our due diligence as council. Last year we gave over a million dollars away and we as council need to make sure that we have knowledge of how things go. I think that it’s important that we set our non-profits up for success and I think that this is one of the ways we can do that.
She says she’s not sure that people know what their responsibilities are when they sit on a board. “Do they know what they’re responsible for, legally? Do they know how to work with staff? There’s a lot of non-profit boards in Tumbler Ridge that have a staff member which is a whole other can of worms.”
Councillor Norbury asks where can non-profits get this training and what is the cost?
Councillor Gulick says in the past Community Futures offered it. “I know there’s a few different places online that you can go to. I did a quick search to make sure that I wasn’t asking for this when there’s no reasonable expectation to be able to access it. The BC Library Trustees Association has an amazing package for that. I know that would be specific to the library, but I believe there are pieces of that available. I did follow up with Community Futures and they don’t have a program right now, but they are looking at one for the spring. I don’t know what the cost is for it.”
She says board training is a transferable skill. “It’s a one-and-done kind of thing. Once you have the training because you sat on one board, then you still have that training when you move to another board. I’m not adverse to asking staff to send a list out, but I think we need to start putting some onus back on our non-profits and the people that run them to protect themselves.”
Councillor Hofman says if the District makes it a requirement without providing it or being an in-between to make sure it is done to a particular standard, it is a “tough ask. I can imagine somebody asking a friend to go on a board and then finding out that they needed to take a class and pay for it themselves. I’m worried about this causing people to not join boards because there’s a cost and time associated on top of everything else. I don’t have a problem with the concept, but I think if we want to do this, we need to have our ducks in a row so it is not a burden on people to join boards. When a board loses somebody, it’s a hard thing for these boards to find somebody to replace that person at the best of times. I would want to see how we going to manage this before I would support something like this.
Mayor Krakoka wonders if the District would cover the cost of the training. “I think the concept here is great, but my concern is usually not-for-profit groups or other organizations are coming looking for money because they need money. How do we expect them to pay for the training as an organization or as an individual to be able to sit on a volunteer board?”
He also thinks this is a little late to put into place for this year. “We’re already starting budget. For these people to scramble to go and get this and everything else? I think we put a year’s grace on it. Or maybe get a report from staff to let us know what it would look like and what our budget would need to be to, say, put on a course twice a year for the next two or three years to get enough people through. When we all ran for election in 2022, one of the biggest things that was talked about was volunteer burnout, and now what we’re saying is unless you have this on certain boards or whatever—and I believe we have quite the list that we give money to through Grant-in-Aid and Fee-for-Service—this here could strap boards and lose volunteers. I think we need to get some more information. Is it something we can put on? Can we do a partnership with Community Futures or another group? Maybe there are grants out there for not-for-profits to get board training, but also open it up to other boards within the Peace Region. Maybe we take and send a letter to the PRRD. Maybe they’ll throw some funds into it, too, because there are other groups out there that we fund through the PRRD as well.”
He says he doesn’t want to see these groups go away. “Our community has been built on all the volunteering. You can’t put a dollar figure to it. So my only concern there is I think we need to get a bit more information before we put the hammer down and have a grace period so that it doesn’t affect the volunteers and the organizations.”
Councillor Gulick says she wasn’t thinking it would be right away. “Why I think it’s important—and I understand the concern around the fact that we might lose volunteers—is that we have people volunteering and taking on a role where they don’t understand their full responsibility, because we don’t have this type of training. Because we don’t talk about it. We don’t talk about the fact that if your non-profit decides to take a loan, then you as a director are responsible for that loan. So often when we’re just trying to fill a seat, it’s not the safest thing to do. Does everybody that sits on the board understand the risks when there’s a theft because there’s not proper policies developed? I think that it’s important to move forward. Part of the reason we have volunteer burnout is because people don’t understand that they’re either on a governance board or they’re on a working board. If you don’t have any training to distinguish those two things, then all of a sudden you have an executive director that’s supposed to be doing work but you don’t understand that they’re actually supposed to be doing the work because you’re a governance board not a working board.”
She says she’s willing to defer the motion and ask staff to look into what it would cost to offer training for a couple years. “We’re only asking for the majority of the board to have the training. Some boards are 12 members, so that’s six people. Some boards are four so that’s only two people. We’re just asking for the majority of the board to have the training so that they’re setting the rest of them up for success. Then we’re not going to be hearing some nasty story down the way because we haven’t prepared them for their responsibilities. We give over $200,000 to one of our non-profits, and $40,000 plus to others. It’s just there’s big chunks of change going out there and I think it’s our responsibility to make sure we set them up for success.”
Councillor Norbury says he agrees that non-profits having board training is a good idea, but he’s worried that it would put too much stress on the organization. “Putting this barrier in front of them to receive funding? I think that would create a lot of challenges and issues. Right now we see a lot of AGMs are happening and sometimes there’s a lot of new people on boards, because you know volunteer burn out happens. I look at minor soccer. Every year it’s almost a whole new board. What if they want to come in for jerseys in one year or they need help for a capital purchase and they can’t check this administrative box. I would be concerned that we can apply that to a lot of other organizations. They’ve just had their AGMs and over half of the board members are new, and they aren’t able to meet this requirement, that is far as I’m aware of is new. I haven’t heard of this before. I’m on the South Peace Health Services Society. We receive hundreds of thousands of dollars from the BC government and I don’t have this requirement of training.
“I have reporting to make sure that I’m being responsible with the funding. We receive funds from the PRRD, and that’s not a requirement from them, either. I think this would hurt them. It will make it harder for them to operate.
He says the role of the District is to help the volunteer organizations. “Our role is assisting them to do what they want to do. It is to make it easier, not make it harder and that’s the concern. I can appreciate the intent, that we want to empower them, but how many people will decide: ‘maybe I’ll just stay home and watch Netflix instead.’”
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
