When Three Became Five: Amber’s Reflections on SIDCN's Trustee Recruitment - Part Two

By Amber Shotton, SIDCN Chair of Trustees

So, we’re a month on from my first blog on our recent trustee recruitment, which you can read here if haven’t already. At that point we had received 57 applications, invited 23 to interview, and carried out first and second stage interviews. By then, we had a shortlist of five.

Five people who we felt would not only bring a different dimension and skill/expertise to the board, but would also be a great fit with the board and culture.

However, the plan was to recruit three new trustees, including a vice chair.

We had multiple conversations as a board and staff team, and still we were struggling to decide. Who should we invite to join the board? Who would be an amazing volunteer within one of our working groups? And so it went, round and around in circles.

Finally, one trustee raised their voice and queried one simple point: “How many can we have?” and “does it have to be three?” Good point, whilst we were interviewing for three trustees we had the capacity to recruit up to five.

And with that - you guessed it - five shiny and spangly new trustees were recruited!

Who's Interviewing Who?

We understood that the candidates were interviewing us, as much as we were interviewing them! So, before prospective trustees confirmed that they wanted to take on the role, we asked them to attend a Working Group meeting as well as a Board meeting. How else would they know who we are and how we work?

When you offer someone a 'realistic job preview', they’re better able to make an informed decision about joining your organisation.

They’re also more likely to stay with you for the long-term, which means all that time you’ve spent on recruiting was worth it.

We were all so pleased that, after joining us for both meetings, all five trustees confirmed they wanted to take up trustee roles! So, my advice is...

...don’t be afraid to show them how you work.

How Do We Maintain the Voice of Members?

We recognised that, whilst our five new trustees have great experience - with some already working with or volunteering for smalls, none were existing members.

Why is this the case? Our reflections are that it can be very difficult for small charity leaders to take on additional voluntary trustee roles, when they are already working more hours than they are probably paid for.

We have learnt over the past 18 months that making small contributions to members when speaking at our events or podcast has had a positive impact on the breath of voices engaging. Why should trying to tap into a group with limited resources to be a trustee be any different.

So, what can we do ensure that we continue to listen to our members voices at governance level?

Well, it is our intention to develop a small advisory board that can feed into our board, and more importantly receive a small contribution for recognition of their time. So keep your eye out SIDCN members, because 2026 will hopefully be the year, especially as it is our strategy review too.

Selecting a Vice Chair Did Not Go As Planned

To me, SIDCN is a network of smalls that see a need and are compelled to help and, where possible, do something about it. It has always therefore felt a natural position for the SIDCN Board to use SIDCN trusteeship as an opportunity to develop new trustees for the sector. 

We always hear of smalls struggling to recruit trustees, so we wanted to play our part in developing a pipeline of new trustees. Let’s make the pool bigger.

From recruiting our first set of new trustees in 2022 through to supporting the BRDUK pilot of young Black and Asian trustee internships, SIDCN has always felt like a good place to ‘cut your teeth’.

So, whilst we had assumed that the vice Chair role should be someone who had past board experience, a niggle all the way through the selection process for the board was “but did that take precedence?”. And what if we found someone who clearly understands who we are and what we’re trying to do, has relevant experience, and has the characteristics of a Vice Chair?  Should we preclude them just because they don’t have past board experience?

Fortunately, every board member responded with a unanimous "No." If we think that this person could fit and work well with the existing team, then that’s what the priority is. Everything else that might be needed could be developed through learning and training. We’d already agreed to invest in the Association of Chair’s organisation membership for new trustees, so why not use it for a new vice chair as well!

My biggest reflections and takeaways from this part of the recruitment process have been to be flexible and honest about who you are, and to stick to your principles – which for us is ‘let’s use SIDCN to develop good development’.

The result… five wonderful new Trustees, who you can read more about here, and meet at our AGM here.