Learning the ropes: The British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV)

The British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV) is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee. BTCV is governed by 18 trustees who are elected by, and from, the working volunteers. Its remit is to enable people to come together for voluntary environmental conservation work to benefit their communities. It employs 500 paid staff supported by 500 unpaid volunteer staff from 130 locations across the UK.

Andrew Brown, Chairman of BTCV, takes up the story:

BTCV never went through a small charity phase. It started in 1959 as part of another charity with a small team of staff under a chief executive. It was answerable to a committee consisting of people whose interests largely lay elsewhere. In 1970 it became independent. It had an established culture - staff were in charge and volunteers did as they were told! Most of its trustees had been inherited from the parent charity and there was little understanding of the organisation they had undertaken to govern.

It took another decade for committed volunteers to occupy a majority of seats on the board and start to take charge of the organisation. The process was constrained by the lack of support for charity trustees at that time. Our trustees were inexperienced, it was a 'young people's' organisation.

The cultural shift

The changing balance of power was a slow process as the organisation was growing rapidly and nobody wanted to seriously rock the boat. Senior staff resisted incursions into what had been 'their bailiwick'. Young trustees were unsure of their power as they extended their territory. This situation continued for two years, though we both knew this state of affairs could not continue indefinitely. Towards the end of the 1980's a showdown took place amidst allegations of ballot rigging in the trustees' election.

The situation now

Since then, we have been fairly successful at operating a corporate style of management in which the trustees consciously choose not to interfere in management, but determine strategy and set performance standards. This works, because we have a chief executive who is committed to empowering volunteers and who has worked with the trustees to change the organisation's culture.

Everyone understands how the power is distributed and the rationale behind this. Sometimes, I confess, the trustees will let their hair down and enjoy digging into some minor issue which has been allowed to slide. But, importantly, there is a strong sense of consensus that when all the steam has been dispersed, they will pull back from interfering in the line management function and let the chief executive sort out the problem.

Developing the board

At about the same time as our revolution, the world of charity was being shaken up. The 1992 Charities Act shook up charity infrastructure and now there is a plethora of books, magazines and training courses to tell trustees how to do it. NCVO set up its Trustee Services Unit and trustees began to realise the importance of the role they had taken on.

The support to trustees has been an important factor in BTCV's success. Our trustees still tend to be young compared to many charities - typically 25-55 years old - and take their development very seriously. All trustees receive an induction and background information together with a copy of NCVO's 'Good Trustee Guide'. Trustees are encouraged to subscribe to relevant magazines and attend suitable training courses. They come with different needs and each year every trustee spends time with the training manager to review their personal development plan and write a new one for the next year.

After settling in, trustees are encouraged to buy their own copy of Mike Hudson's 'Managing Without Profit' and Andrew Hind's 'The Governance and Management of Charities'. All expenses in connection with the development of trustees are paid by the organisation. Trustee meetings commonly have presentations of background information and at least once each year the trustees spend a weekend together when they build their relationships with each other and senior staff. The trustees are rather proud to have been assessed alongside staff for the 'Investor in People' award. BTCV volunteers, staff and trustees passed with flying colours.

The final word...

Running a large charity like BTCV is more complex than running little charities like our community groups. But if BCTV's experience teaches anything, it is that running a charity, which is going through the intermediate stage, is more difficult than either of the other two. This is not a case study of how to address the complex issues often faced by voluntary organisations. What it is, is an admission that we did not do it very well.

Trustees today who are going through the intermediate stage may not have done it before, but they cannot get away with not knowing any better. There is a wealth of information on how to govern, the roles, the responsibilities, managing difficult situations, and how to bring about change. All you need to do is to look, explore your options and find out where to go for help!

The BTCV case study is published with the permission of NCVO. For more information on all aspects of trusteeship and governance, go to:
www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/main/about/does/
trustee_governance/briefings.htm