WOB enews: March 2008

National Diversity on Boards Conference - 28 & 29 May 2008

The Conference is shaping up to be a premier networking and professional development event, with more than 100 people registered to attend to date. Our thanks to Mallesons Stephen Jaques for sponsoring the conference and our corporate members for their support.

Early Bird Registration has closed and Day Registration is now available. Catherine Brenner, newly appointed director of Coca-Cola Amatil, is the guest speaker for the dinner, which will support the charity NAPCAN. Individual and group tickets are now available for the dinner. If you cannot make the conference, why not organise a corporate table?

For all registration and program details visit the website: http://www.womenonboards.org.au/events/diversity2008/index.htm

 

Office for Women Scholarships
The NSW Office for Women are supporting four women to attend the Conference. The scholarships will cover the registration fee BUT recipients will need to cover their travel and accommodation costs.

To be eligible you must meet the following criteria.

  • Be a current WOB Subscriber.
  • Have a demonstrated need for the scholarship.
  • Be on boards or actively looking for board positions.
  • Have an up to date resume on the WOB website.
  • Be prepared to attend for the full two days of the conference.

WOB will be assessing the applications on the basis of need plus the applicants potential to get onto a board. We are looking for at least two people from outside the Sydney metropolitan region. People who should consider applying include those working in the not-for-profit or community sectors, small business owners and rural women.

How to apply
All applications are to be sent as MS Word documents by email to ruth.medd@womenonboards.org.au and include:

  • Applicant name and contact details.
  • Why you want to attend the Conference and expected benefits.
  • Reasons for needing a scholarship.
  • An up to date copy of your WOB My Resume.

The closing date for applications is 10 April 2008. Inquiries email Ruth Medd or call 0419 407 231.

About the NSW Office for Women
The NSW Office for Women is a small, strategic unit that develops policies, programs and projects to the benefit of all women in NSW. It is the key advisor to the State Government on policies which impact directly on women, and contributes to discussion on important social and economic issues relevant to women. Kerrie Bigsworth is the Director.

2. Getting the most out of your WOB membership

Tip 12 - My Resume skills list - select a maximum of 15 ONLY

When you complete the online My Resume, one of the sections is Skills and Experience. You are asked to select your most relevant skills and experience. There are 70 to chose from.

A few WOBers are ticking all the boxes and others a large number. While we recognise you are a very talented group, we recommend restraint by selecting up a maximum of 15 ONLY.

3. WOB Happenings

3.1 WOB 2020 Campaign

The morning of 26 February dawned quietly - until the news of the 2020 Summit Steering Committee (nine men and one woman) hit the airwaves. WOB launched a campaign which was strongly supported by WOBers - thank you to all who sent emails  and nominated for the Summit. Our website was overwhelmed with its largest number of hits. The media release (Australia's 1001 Summit Steering Committee) is at: www.womenonboards.org.au/news/

Since then we have been active with media interviews, commenting on, and offering solutions to, women's under representation at the Summit and more widely.  The next step for the Government is to select the 1000 from the 10,000 who nominated. The selection process will be a challenge and we will be watching.

Aptly, Prof Lyn Carson of Sydney University has submitted a paper to our Conference titled "Appointments to boards and committees, avoiding nepotism through lotteries, " with the summary:  Public appointments for committees or boards can be controversial. One relatively unexplored method for selecting members is random selection. This paper canvasses the strengths and weaknesses of an unusual selection method and makes a case for the use of a lottery as a robust process that will lend legitimacy and credibility to committee or board governance.

On another front WOB has been in contact with the Office of the Minister for Infrastructure to put the case for qualified women being appointed to the Infrastructure Australia Council. See 4.4 below.

3.2 Lunch with Paula Dwyer and invited directors at Clayton Utz Melbourne

Paula spoke about the need for directors to take account of :

  • the changing role of boards
  • discerning capital
  • sustainability

Other attending directors (Cathy Walter, Leon L'Huillier, Jane Harvey ) contributed to the discussion. WOB thanks Diane Jacobs of The Talent advisors who wrote the lunch report which is at http://www.womenonboards.org.au/events/melbourne/080214_dwyer.htm

3.3 Website loading times - a message from our service provider

The WOB website is supported by www.regional.org.au They are continually upgrading their offerings. For WOB they provide  the full range of our website services as well as ecommerce and back end administrative functions (which you do not see).

During the past few months they have reduced load times on the website by up to 40 per cent, making it faster to carry out functions such as Board Searches. When they conducted a performance analysis, Regional websites are getting a rating of A or a B which compares very favorably with the likes of Google, the Australian Government Information Management Office and Telstra.

4. The Boardroom

All of the services and information connected with boards is at The Boardroom - accessible from the top navigation bar.

4.1 Success stories this month are Ro Coroneus and Helen Robinett

Success Stories are at http://www.womenonboards.org.au/boardroom/onboard.htm In addition two searches were conducted this month. Those put forward have been notified.

 

4.2 Focus on a WOB member

March's featured WOBer is NSW based Fiona Davies who runs a successful business as an independent carpet consultant and is also an exhibited artist. Her profile is at http://www.womenonboards.org.au/subscribe/profiles/davies.htm

For future editions of Focus we are looking to feature women who should be suitable for paid boards who are successful business owners/operators and CEOs and CFOs (or equivalent ) of business not for profits. So please be in touch if you would like to be featured.

4.3 Vacancy postings

There have been an interesting group of not for profits this month and two paid opportunities. One of these was an advisory board. The advisory board is a proven way for a small company that to develop its governance and add expertise. A paid opportunity in the nfp sector in Victoria has most recently been listed. 

Go to http://www.womenonboards.org.au/my/resume/position_search.html to see current and past vacancies.

To access board positions you need to have a paid a subscription to WOB.

4.4 Infrastructre Council

WOB has been in contact with the Minister for Infrastructure to put the case for qualified women being appointed to the Infrastructure Australia Council - chair Sir Rod Eddington. Following a website posting we submited a list of names. This is about "WOB offers transparency via advertising". When WOB initially spoke with the MInisters office they were relying on word of mouth. The usual suspects were flooding in. Back to the lottery sustem, we say!!