WOB eNews: January 2009

Welcome to the New Year. In January eNews we have:

1. Women in Sport

WOBs first forays into improving womens representation on boards focused on sports boards.  With the heady days of summer and surf WOB asked WOBer Janice Crosswhite  who is President of Australian Womensport and Recreation Association to update us all on how women are doing; after yet another successful gold medal performance at the Beijing Olympics.  In summary women in  Beijing outdid the men yin medal count yet sports administration is still controlled by the boys club, with the media and sponsors as willing accomplices.   So see what Janice has to say at http://www.womenonboards.org.au/pubs/2008/index.htm

2. Advisory Boards

Advisory boards are a category that we mention in passing in the WOB WAY Workshops. Many WOBers run SMEs which is an area that can benefit from having an advisory board.  Professional services organisations have them to assist the partners group and for business development.  WOBer Denise Aldous, who regularly assists on WOB WAY workshops, has written the definitive  guide to Advisory Boards. See it at  www.womenonboards.org.au/pubs

3. Maximise your WOB membership 

Tip 31 Corporate Subscription

The 2009 Corporate Subscription package is now available at http://www.womenonboards.org.au/subscribe/corporate.htm    Further info from Kate Alden at kate@womenonboards.org.au

Tip 30  Email a friend  

Take the opportunity to email a friend and encourage then to join Women on Boards. You could tell them that WOB offers an integrated program of information, networking and professional development. In addition Subscribers receive substantial discounts to events, get access to vacancies. WOB is also about encouraging members and subscribers to take up the challenge and put the effort into getting the first or additional board gigs. 

Tip 29 Update your My Resume

There are a number of new fields which will assist you with your elevator pitch. We are doing more searches so unless you have a My Resume you will not be found in a search. 

4. Publications this month

Keeping Good Companies

The WOB Roadmap for Diversity was released in conjunction with the 2008 EOWA Census of Women in Leadership.  Ruth Medd and Claire Braund have written an article about the Roadmap for the December 2008 edition of Keeping Good Companies, the journal of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries titled  ‘Parity of women’s board remuneration still a long way off’ can be seen at http://www.womenonboards.org.au/my/pubs/2009

How WOB communicates with you

We do not want to flood you with emails.  So the more ordered regime is:

  • Enews in the last week of the month
  • WOB vacancies - each Wednesday; unless eoi date is tight
  • WOB events - three emails, first is 3 or so  weeks out, then 2 weeks out plus a final reminder in the week of the event 
  • We will aslo alert you to media releases that we issue

Remuneration for female NFP CEO's down to only 79% of male earnings

Damien Smith, Managing Director of Enterprise Care, recently released the Enterprise Care Not for Profit Remuneration Report which shows that remuneration rates for women in Chief Executive Officer positions in the Not for Profit sector have declined significantly since 2007. The average remuneration fell to only 79% of male average earnings in 2008, down 6% since 2007. This figure is the lowest percentage since 2001, when female earnings began a steady rise to within 85% of male earnings last year.

5. The Boardroom   

The Boardroom is accessible from the top navigation bar.  

5.1 Success stories   

January has seen a wide range of vacancies posted. This is very pleasing.  A driver of WOBs success is how many of you apply for and get offered vacancies. In addition to board vacancies we have posted the first 'speaking opportunity'.  WOB regularly gets asked for speakers.  To date we have done this ad hoc but in the spirit of transparency we are now advertising them using the board vacancy form for the time being. Speaking in public is an important component of building your profile.

5.2 Board Report 2008

In 2008 when more than 250 vacancies were posted using "Need a Director".  WOB members joined boards of a range of not for profits, government trading enterprises and publicly listed companies including Athletics Queensland, Black Hole Theatre, Citrus Australia, Clough Limited, Ergon Energy Corporation, Service One Credit Union, Swimming Australia, UniSuper, Vita Group etc.

Read more of these stories at On-Board Success Stories at http://www.womenonboards.org.au/boardroom/onboard.htm   

5.3 Focus on a WOB member

Vivienne Corcoran is a successful SME owner who has recently launched "Growing your Professional Practice".  Vivienne's profile is at http://www.womenonboards.org.au/subscribe/profiles/index.htm 

6. External Invitations to WOBers

Entries under External Events are activities that we think will be of interest to WOBers.  All of these events are booked directly with the organisation involved. Link is www.womenonboards.org.au/events/external/index.htm

5.1 Advance notice of 5th Mergers & Acquisitions Conference

WOB will have a free registration to give to a WOBer.  Also we will are looking for potential speakers to suggest to the organiser. WOB is just about the sole source of suggestions of females for this conference. So if you are interested in speaking, chairing a session contact ruth.medd@womenonboards.org.au