Roles & Responsibilities
Purpose and Principles for Governance
Governing Circle holds regional hubs in a facilitative leadership role for the network. Its' work is “stewardship” and engagement of the network, not command and control. Governance circle members commit to being engaged.
Role & Responsibilities of GC members
GC stewards make collaborative governance decisions and delegate operational tasks to staffed support organisations.
They are responsible for the following areas:
Organisational Structure (global)
Strategic Direction
Financial Accountability & Financial Resources
Learning/Impact/Accountability
Brand/Image/Network communications
Communications and Technology to optimize global participation.
Their responsibilities include:
Play the role of a “bee”. Cross pollinating ideas and knowledge.
Be a bridge at the regional and network level
Identify priorities of regional hubs
Attendance of bi-annual GC meetings
Voting on proposals
Policy around meeting attendance
Absence is only possible under extreme circumstances. Two absences within the 2 year term may lead to cancellation of your membership in the GC.
It is especially important that new GC Stewards join the first GC meeting in their term. Therefore it is important that it is clear that when you accept to become a GC Steward, you are accepting to joining the first meeting.
If it is clear from the beginning of the election process that you cannot join it, it is proposed that this potential steward is a candidate in the following term, and leaves the space for another person for the upcoming term.
The GC commits to announcing meeting dates in a timely manner, and GC stewards are expected to inform the GC and Helper Hub as soon as possible if they cannot attend (to avoid unnecessary logistical costs).
Structure of the Governance Circle
Objective: balance continuity with being dynamic and sharing leadership
First gov circle stays 2 years and second group comes in after 12 months.
Election of new stewards
Criteria
Minimum experience in the network: 1 year
Steward cannot represent two hubs at once
Availability to participate (time, willingness to travel, online access)
Skills / experience needed for gov circle stewards
People-person, being able to listen and communicate, be sensitive and diplomatic, relationship builder.
Be able to manage expectations at the regional level.
Active engagement and necessary time
Understanding of barriers and political context
Selection Process
The Hub selects & elects in a timely fashion
The Circle accepts and has the right to block under exceptional circumstances
See more details on this process here.
Leaving
Stewards can resign at any time and must be replaced by their hub. The replacement steward will serve out the rest of the original steward’s term. If the replacement steward serves for 12 months or more, their term will end when the original steward's term end date arrives and the normal rules of election will apply. If the replacement steward serves for less than 6 months, they will continue after the end of the original steward’s term end date and wait until the next round of elections. This means a steward may end up serving more than 2 years as they wait for the election cycle to happen.
Stewards can be removed if they fail to participate or do not act in accordance with the I4C Network code of conduct.
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