Rose Cavaliere, President
RIBO’s board of directors, or “Council”, is responsible for ensuring that RIBO meets its consumer protection mandate. Their key activities include setting the strategic direction of the organization, establishing qualification standards and policy, ensuring the financial health of the organization, and otherwise providing oversight over RIBO operations.
Just as there has been modernization in regulatory practices, the use of technology, and service standards, there are also new ways of thinking about corporate governance.
Consistent with our strategic goal of seeking opportunities to modernize, Council commenced a governance review in March of this year, specifically focusing on the composition of our Council and committees.
While that review is on-going, one opportunity that has been identified is to find ways to be more intentional about matching the skills and experiences that Council members bring to the table with what Council requires to best fulfil its role.
An emerging governance best practice amongst other self-regulatory organizations, not-for-profits, and the private sector is that of a ‘skills matrix’ which aims to identify the complete set of skills and characteristics Council members should, ideally, collectively reflect. This matrix may be used to identify the overall needs of the organization, and to help identify potential Council or committee candidates whose skills align with those needs.
We believe that this is an appropriate and timely consideration, with a view to helping ensure Council reflects the skills and experience necessary to support both our regulatory mandate and principles of modern governance. Council will continue our discussions through the Summer and Fall of this year. We will continue to keep you updated, and any material recommendations will be brought forward for consultation and approval.
“Finding different ways to do governance work doesn’t mean your current governance is broken and needs to be fixed; it’s about grabbing hold of the opportunity to create better, or more intentional ways of working”. –Ontario Not for Profit Network