Social Landlords in Scotland: Shaping up for improvement

Social Landlords in Scotland: Shaping up for improvement.the passion and commitment of people within their local communities with thebroader set of skills and experience they may need to run an effectiveorganisation and set a strategic direction.Profile of governing body members7.6 We have seen a sharp drop over the last decade in the proportion ofgoverning body members in work. Private sector backgrounds have becomeless common. Governing body membership, by and large, is fairly stable,with a degree of flux around the edges. More than half are recruited throughpersonal approaches by other members or staff. Some other key statisticsare outlined in box 2.Box 2: Vital Statistics of Governing Bodies:• 2,072 volunteers work on RSL governing bodies; 45% are tenants;• 52% women; 48% men;• 1.7% are from black and minority ethnic backgrounds;• two-thirds are aged over 55;• one in five have long standing illness or disability;• 31% are in employment;• 53% were recruited by personal contact; 8% through advert; and• tenants joined with a clear community focus and 47% of tenants joined togain skills and experience.Baseline survey 20057.7 When we surveyed the sector four years ago, nearly half of RSLs told us theyhad difficulties recruiting new governing body members and 35% of chiefexecutives felt members lacked a broad enough range of skills or experience(only 18% of members felt the same). This is fairly typical of other voluntaryor charitable sectors. Determining the right blend of governing bodymembership will depend on the type of RSL in question and what it is trying todo. What matters is that the governing body is appropriate for theorganisation it governs and the issues it is facing. For some organisations theright people are simply not round the table. The sector could be doing moreto generate different networks and encourage a more diverse pool of potentialgoverning body members for the future.45