On Board August 2008

E-newsletter of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs Nominations Service

Nga mihi mahana ki a koutou katoa. Welcome to the tenth edition of On Board.

In this edition:

• Message from the new Nominations Service Director
• Period of restraint
• Being contacted by the Service
• Furthering your career on boards and committees
• Appointments of women to state sector boards and committees

Click here for a .pdf version.

Message from the new Nominations Service Director

After four months as Director of MWA’s Nominations Service, I’ve come to appreciate the Service’s role as both a contributor to effective governance in the state sector, and as an agency charged with stimulating progress towards government’s goal of equal participation of women on state sector boards and committees.

The Institute of Directors in New Zealand notes in a recent publication that effective governance is characterised by debate, thoughtful challenge and dissent, commitment, candour and trust. I see the women registered with our database as well-placed to contribute in those areas. Collectively you hold a wealth of expertise for government to draw on in ensuring a high-performance governance culture across the state sector.

The Service works to ensure that suitably qualified women are considered for positions as they arise across the state sector’s 412 boards and committees. For those of you who are eager to develop your governance careers, we encourage you to seek out positions for yourselves. Some ideas of how this might best be achieved are included in this issue of On Board.

Thank you to those of you who have sent me messages of welcome. I’d like to acknowledge the efforts of my predecessor, Joan Isaac, whose successful work with the Service over the past four years is apparent in the positive feedback I’ve received from many of you. 

Pamela Cohen
Director, Nominations Service
 

Period of restraint

There is a slowdown in appointments activity at this time because Ministers avoid making significant appointments decisions in the three months before a general election.  This is known as the ‘period of restraint’. 

What this means for you

We’re unlikely to contact you about state sector board roles before the election.  We may still contact you about community/private sector roles.

This is an excellent time to ‘regroup’.  You may want to update your CV with us (particularly if it is over a year old), or update us on any achievements since we were last in contact.

What this means for the Service

The downturn in requests does not mean downtime for us!  The period of restraint gives the Service a welcome opportunity to:

• review its systems
• develop new strategies to help increase the participation rates of women in board roles
• target suitable women to fill identified gaps in our database.

Being contacted by the Service

Occasionally the Service hears from women who are registered with our database, but have not been approached by us as often as they would like to be about opportunities on boards and committees.

Last year, the Service was asked by government agencies to nominate women for positions on 246 state sector boards and committees. More than 2700 women are registered with the Nominations Service database.

We receive specific criteria for each vacancy.  We only contact the women registered with us that we believe best fit those criteria. 

As you can see, the probability of being contacted about any given vacancy is not high.  However, over time there is more chance you will be contacted, as vacancies emerge that best match your skills and experience.

In addition, increasingly the Service informs the women on our database about governance opportunities outside the state sector, for which they can choose to apply. Board roles with Gymsports NZ and the Wellington Housing Trust are two recent examples.

What can you do to increase your chances of being contacted?

Please keep in mind we can only work with the information you have provided us.

Once again, updating your CV is a good idea – that way we can take into account your recent achievements and roles when searching for suitable candidates.

You can email us an updated CV, or we can send you the CV we have on file here for your amendments.  If you’re making changes to an earlier CV, it’s helpful if you use the Track Changes function so we can quickly tell what has changed.

It’s also useful for us to know the areas you’re interested in.  If, for example, you’re interested in conservation roles, but this isn’t on your CV, your name won’t come up when we search for candidates.
 

Furthering your career on boards and committees

Another question we are often asked is “what can I do to further my governance career?”

This is a great question.  We encourage you to be as proactive as possible in advancing your career on boards and committees.  Your own efforts and drive will be the deciding factor in your successes in this area.

Some things you can do 

• Signal your interest through your networks and build your profile.
• If you are in paid employment, stand out in your day job. 
• Making an impact in your work roles is often the first step towards being noticed for boards and committees. 
• Experience in senior management roles is often sought.
• Look out for advertised opportunities in the Public Notices or Job Vacancies section of the paper.
• Members of the Institute of Directors in New Zealand can take advantage of the institute’s Not For Profit Director Recruitment service (www.iod.org.nz)
• There are many opportunities to take on a board or committee role in your community or on professional associations.  For example, you might consider standing for a school Board of Trustees or the presidency of a local branch of your professional association.

We’re keen to hear any other suggestions from registered women as to what has worked for them!
 

Appointments of women to state sector boards and committees

Congratulations to all the women recently appointed to state sector boards and committees.  They include:

Keeping in touch

We’re always happy to talk with you either by phone or in person about your CV and your potential for nomination.  If you are going to be in Wellington and would like to meet, then give us a call on (04) 916-5814.

The Team

Pamela Cohen
Director, Nominations Service
(04) 916 5849, email cohen@mwa.govt.nz

Sean Molloy
Nominations Advisor
(04) 916 5814, email molloy@mwa.govt.nz

Chris Gilman
Nominations Assistant
(04) 916 5824, email gilman@mwa.govt.nz

Joy Aberdein, and
Steve Hickey
Executive Assistants
(04) 916 5820, email noms@mwa.govt.nz

If you have any queries about the information in this newsletter, or the Nominations Service in general, please contact Sean or Pamela.

If you do not wish to receive On Board in future please email molloy@mwa.govt.nz  with ‘No thanks’ in the subject line
and we will take you off our mailing list.