BECHA IS LOOKING FOR A NEW BOARD MEMBER
Bexley Community Housing Association is a small, independent housing association which provides general needs rented housing in the London Borough of Bexley. Although we are small, we are very active. We believe passionately that small housing associations have a vital part to play in providing housing and other services within our communities. Although we provide housing for general needs renting, a number of our residents are very vulnerable and the majority are on low incomes.
We have a very active asset management strategy and have recently improved a number of our properties and disposed of a small number that are no longer suitable. We are entering into a development partnership with a larger association and we will be investing the proceeds from these disposals into new homes.
BECHA has six paid staff and has seven board members. Most of our board have been with us for around five years, but one of our longer-serving members is retiring from the board at the Annual General Meeting in September, and so we have a vacancy. We recruit our board members based on the skills they can bring to the board.
We are also looking ahead, as a number of our board members will be retiring in about four years and we wish to start to recruit a number of members in advance in the interests of good succession planning and so that there will be a crossover. We are therefore looking to appoint more than one new board member
We are particularly interested in finding someone who has skills in Finance, Law, human resources or housing for people with support needs. We will also consider expressions of interest from anyone who has an interest in social housing and other relevant skills.
A board member profile is attached. The board meets six times a year, at 6pm on a week day evening, plus an AGM an ‘awayday’ on a Saturday morning during the year, usually in January or February. We are a small, friendly, business focused board with a commitment to the work and principles of the organisation.
Board members are not paid, but can claim reasonable expenses.
If you are interested in knowing more about this opportunity, please read the board member profile and send a letter expressing your interest, with a short CV, setting out the skills and experience you would bring to the board, to our Chief Executive at by 31st May.
For more information about BECHA go to our website
Board member role profile
Essential Criteria
The ability to:
- Commit to the guiding principles of the organisation
- devote sufficient time to Board work, including preparing for and attending meetings, training sessions and other events as required
- take personal responsibility for learning and personal development
- consider and understand documents, tables and statistics
- contribute to discussion and challenge and ask questions
- work as part of a group, listening to and respecting the contribution of others
- be flexible and support collective decisions
- act professionally, with integrity
- commit to involving and consulting customers and stakeholders and commit to upholding principles and practice of equality and diversity
- think beyond your own concerns and see the bigger picture
- be able to respect boundaries between executive (staff or day to day) and governance functions
Our recent skills audit has identified that the board would benefit from recruiting a board member with a background in finance, law, human resources or housing for people with support needs.