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Transferring your crisis comms skills to a trustee board
In the second of our daily blogs for Trustees' Week, a Chartered PR explains how lessons learnt in crisis communications help in her new role as a RSPCA branch trustee – but not necessarily in the ways you may think
After many years of working in-house, going it alone was a chance to try something new. The change brought lots of benefits, but I was suddenly on my own and not part of any team. I started to miss feeling part of something bigger and working with other people to achieve a common goal. It is what led me to look for an opportunity as a trustee.
My knowledge of what a trustee was expected to do was quite limited so after a lot of research looking through the Charity Commission information it was then waiting for the right opportunity to appear.
I was scrolling through Facebook and found a post looking for a trustee to work with the RSPCA Manchester and Salford branch. Animal welfare is something that I am very passionate about and being able to make a difference locally really appealed to me.
After sitting in on some meetings, talking to other trustees and researching the branch and what they do, I applied and was lucky enough to join the team of trustees. I am still in the first few months, and it is as rewarding as it is challenging. There is so much to do just to keep the charity able to operate and I am learning all the time.
One of the key steps in these early stages of my trustee journey was for me to really see how the charity operated on a local level. This included visiting the rescue centre (and surprising myself by not coming home with a whole range of animals) and visiting every one of the charity shops that provide a vital source of income.
It helped me to see the reality of the day to day activity; something that I felt I needed before diving into the trustee role and considering governance, legal issues and the financial operation.
Trustees and governance
I was concerned that I would slip into trying to sort the PR and communication rather than take a step back and look at the governance and operational issues. But that hasn’t been the case. My work in risk and crisis management has given me a whole range of skills that have been able to ensure the right systems and policies are in place. It has also been clear that the two key PR and communication skills of getting to the heart of an issue and problem solving have equipped me well for the trustee role.
There was a lot about the work that was comfortable including working alongside others, sharing the problems, discussing solutions and being part of a team. But I have a lot to learn about the role and what I can bring to it.
One thing that was identified early on was my love of lists and getting organised. I have chaired groups before and have been running my own business for almost five years. It has made me get organised and understand finances in a way I haven’t had to before. I offered to take the minutes at the meetings to really get to understand the details and the discussions. I was doing this at the AGM when I suddenly realised, I had been voted into the secretary role.
It felt way too soon to be taking up a specific position, but I grabbed the opportunity. So far it has been about trying to streamline the systems of agendas and minutes to free up time for the trustee to discuss pressing issues. I wanted to make sure I could build on the previous work, but I have realised that I also need to bring my own approach to the secretary role. That has taken a bit of bravery in this new world.
Negotiation and collaboration
Being a trustee is a journey that I am on. There is so much to learn and so much that I can gain from the work and from the other trustees. It is flexing my negotiating and collaboration skills that have been pretty much dormant for the past five years working alone. It is encouraging me to ask probing questions and to not be afraid to seek clarification when I don’t know something. It has also opened a whole new world of those working as trustees. People are always happy to share their knowledge and experiences to help others.
I am not sure what this journey will bring as I am still in the early stages of it. But I know that it is both making use of my knowledge and experiences and expanding them. There is still a lot of work to be done and the pressures on the charity are growing. I am determined that whatever happens I will have played my part in helping them to weather the storms and hopefully build a future where animals are supported, helped and ultimately find loving new homes.
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Amanda Coleman is a PR consultant whose blogs on crisis communications are often published on Influence. She is the founder of Amanda Coleman Communication and the author of Crisis Communication Strategies. Read a review of Amanda's latest book, Strategic Reputation Management.