Revitalise SSA - Organisational structure

Action:

Transition:

On 23 June 2013 was the last time the National Scout Council met. On this occasion the new Constitution, Organisational Rules and Transition document was approved unanimously.

Board:

A transitional Board was appointed by the last National Scout Council and met on 6 December 2013 for the first time.
During the latter part of 2017 the first Board elected in terms of the Constitution was put into place: 2 by Scout groups, 2 by Alumni and 2 by the Exco. There is currently one vacancy on the Board.
For the first Board an induction pack was developed.
With the new Board in 2017 the training given at the World Scout Conference on governance was used and the Africa office assisted to give us access to some of the material before it was freely available. The CEO is also involved with a training programme for NGOs in South Africa and as part of the lectures, governance is discussed and the Board pack is a topic. Lessons learnt from that was also incorporated. A new Introduction Pack was developed and at the first meeting training was also given. One of the Board members that were previously on the Board congratulated the team with the training pack.
During 2017 a Conflict of Interest Policy was developed and implemented in the beginning of 2018, once again with the assistance of the WSB.
When the SGS certification was done in 2012 there were 2 aspects that the organisation did not score well – the one was the Board introductory pack. We have that now in place.

National and regional teams

The whole structure needed to be filled, thus from Chief Scout, Chairs of the various portfolios, and the regional structures. It was as if starting with a new organisation. From the appointment of the Chief Scout and Chief Commissioner in December 2013 to May 2014 more than 15 national and regional positions were filled. 44 job descriptions were written by the Chief Commissioner and CEO.
A new appointment process was put in place. In the past a person was just asked to fill a position. A person now needs to apply for the position or be nominated. This is taking time for the mind shift to be realised, but is starting to work.
In 2017 and 2018 the Job descriptions were reviewed by the National Adult Support team.
The Young Leader Representative started to implement the Youth networks in his home region, Mpumalanga during 2014, which worked well. With restricted funding the roll-out in other regions did not work well.

Meetings with National and regional teams

In March 2015 a national workshop was held. This was attended by all the national chairs and regional teams in the various portfolios. This gave an opportunity to communicate what was done the previous 18 months and concentrated on the strategic plan for the next 12 months.
In July 2016 a meeting was held with Regional Commissioners and Managers over a weekend.
In May 2017 the Regional Commissioners had a meeting over a weekend.
Every 2 months a Skype for Business call is used to increase communication with the Regional Commissioners.
The meetings with the Regional Commissioners and Managers assist to get a consistent message across regarding policies, strategies and programmes. With all the changes in the organisation these meetings are crucial.

Social Partnership Agreement

The Social Partnership Agreements were finalised and all groups are signing it (it was scaled down from a 15 page document to 3 pages, thanks to the assistance of the BSA). There has been a resistance in one region, but it has been resolved.
The first Lekgotla was held in October 2017. This gave an ideal opportunities to train Scout Group Leaders from various regions and educate on the new structures and processes and gather strategic input. The most valuable were feedback from the members on the strategic plan and the members’ understanding of the financial sustainability of the organisation.
A presentation on the outcomes of the Lekgotla was distributed to the membership in 2018.
Currently a presentation is being developed around the strategic plan and how groups are needed to partake to make the plan a reality.

Strategic plan

The first strategic plan developed in 2013 was very lengthy and difficult to communicate to the membership.
A Strategic intent 1 pager document was developed in 2014 that made the communication on it much simpler.
With the current strategic plan it has the objectives on the first page and the metrics on the 2nd page. It is then followed by a lengthier document setting out the activities for the 6 goals. This is further broken down to national, regional and group level.
Currently a presentation is being put together to assist with the communication to the groups.

Policies

A new Constitution was developed in 2013. The Constitution was reviewed and accepted on 30 August 2018. The World Constitutions Committee was involved in the final version.
A number of policies were developed over the period – see outputs.
In some cases info graphics were developed to assist with the explanation of process. The first one that was done was for the Child Protection Policy.
The 2nd aspect we did not do well with the SGS certification was the lack of HR Policies for staff. All policies were developed and implemented in the organisation in January 2014.

Staff

This project made it possible to appoint a PR Manager, Account and Administration Manager, Project Assistant and Funding Administrator, two Assistant accountants and other temporary staff and consultants over a period of time. It further supported the salaries of staff for the change process.
During November 2017 we had to retrench the Project assistant and one Assistant Accountant and half the time of the PR Manager. All the other staff we have managed to maintain despite the funding of the staff ended in 2017.

General comment

It has become easier to implement changes in programmes etc. A Water Champ badge was developed to address the drought in the Western Cape in April 2018 and approved within 2 weeks - this process use to take more than a year.

Outputs:

StartedThursday, March 1, 2012 EndedWednesday, November 21, 2018

Number of participants

Service hours

41088

Location

South Africa

Topics

Good Governance

SDGS

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