From the Chairman, 22 May 2019

By Steve Baker, Radford College Board Chairman

 

I trust the first semester of 2019 is going well for all our families and I’m delighted to share the Board’s continuing areas of focus for this year.

You might remember that I wrote to you in August 2018 about the Board’s focus and intention to review our governance.

The key question was whether our governance was delivering best practice and alignment with key stakeholders, which in our case includes our community members and the Canberra and Goulburn Diocese.

This review has led to several changes to the Radford Limited constitution being proposed and passed at the recent Annual General Meeting.  The most relevant change was to the makeup of the Radford Board.

Previously the Board included the following (in addition to Directors appointed by the Bishop-in-Council and elected by Radford Limited):

•          The Principal

•          A nominee of staff

•          A nominee of Collegians

•          A nominee of the P&F.

The constitutional change means these four “nominee” Board positions are no longer included in our board composition.

These changes had been requested by The Bishop of the Canberra and Goulburn Diocese, who considered our prior arrangements to be outdated, inappropriate for a modern school, and out of step with the two other Anglican company schools in the Diocese - Canberra Grammar and Canberra Girls’ Grammar. They were passed by the Bishop-in-Council before being considered and voted on at the Radford Limited Annual General Meeting.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all those who have served in these nominee positions over the years for their dedication, service and commitment to the Radford College community.

Linked to the above and importantly a further constitutional change was passed at the AGM to ensures that the Radford Board still retains its close connection with the Collegians, the P&F and now the Radford Foundation. Wording within the revised Constitution notes:

This may include the Board either a) appointing some Directors who are members of these bodies or b) giving particular Board members the task of liaising with these bodies.

Now that we do not have the former single “nominee position”, with the potential conflicts that can arise due to such a structure, I can assure all members of our community that the Board and I are determined that your Board and our community groups will continue to work together. Of course, our Board and all associated Committees, including the Finance Committee, the Buildings and Grounds Committee and the Education and Well Being Committee are already very well populated with passionate and skilled parents and friends (both current, former and future) as well as Collegians and Diocese members all contributing greatly to the College in a volunteer capacity. However even though we have this current mix, we will continue to challenge if we have the best composition and the next steps will be to better define possible additional formal mechanisms to be put in place to ensure we all communicate regularly. I have formally sought feedback from various community groups for their thoughts on the best avenues for this to occur.  These changes to our Constitution will continue to modernise and strengthen the Radford Board’s governance and allow us to serve you, our community, better.

I look forward to updating you later in the year. Until then, best wishes to all students, staff and families and I hope to see many of you at the P&F Art Show next weekend.

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