Review of the Registered Clubs Industry in NSW - Clubs NSW

9 Improving corporate governance
improving management effectiveness by encouraging a more rigorous approach
to recruiting club managers and assessing their performance, and providing
greater clarity about the respective roles of the club’s board and management
enhancing ClubsNSW’s role in encouraging better corporate governance in clubs
and assisting smaller clubs with their compliance obligations
improving the existing club-specific training available to directors and managers.
IPART’s recommendations in relation to these initiatives are discussed below. In
formulating these recommendations, IPART took the view that government
intervention should be reserved for dealing with the most critical corporate
governance issues. Where possible, IPART’s recommendations use non-coercive
devices, such as the Code of Practice and Best Practice Guidelines, rather than
imposing new legislative requirements.
9.3.1 Improving the skills of directors through core training and performance
assessments
During this review, stakeholders expressed concern about deficiencies in the skills of
board directors, including that some directors:
do not have a strong grasp of financial concepts and lack business acumen 146
do not clearly understand their role and responsibilities 147
do not have a strategic focus, and instead opt to deal with more minor operational
matters. 148
To address these deficiencies, many stakeholders suggested that directors should be
required to complete appropriate training. Some also suggested that boards should
be encouraged to use performance assessments, as clubs such as Wagga RSL Club do
(see Box 9.3).
In line with stakeholders’ views, IPART considers that to improve directors’ skills,
they should be required to undertake a certain level of training, both when they
nominate themselves for election and after they are elected to the board. It also
considers that directors should be encouraged to use performance assessments to
identify areas of their skills that they need to improve.
146 Dubbo roundtable, 12 October 2007, p 39, Wagga Wagga roundtable, 14 September 2007, p 24 and
RSL & Services Clubs Association submission, 27 July 2007, p 14.
147 ClubsNSW submission, 31 July 2007, p 157.
148 Dubbo roundtable, 12 October 2007, p 35.
146 IPART Review of the Registered Clubs Industry in NSW