Trustee Recruitment and Induction
Nominations for potential new Trustees are put to the Chairman and Board of Trustees and once the Board has approved the nomination, the candidate is interviewed by the Chairman and any other members of the Board as appropriate. With the successful completion of the interview, the new member is put forward for election by democratic vote of the whole Board.
If the election is successful, the new Board member takes part in an induction process which gives them information about the internal workings and objects of the charity, and their role as trustee, enabling them to become an active member of the board. This comprises:
- A half day visit to the Earthwatch office in Oxford during which the agenda is to meet the Executive Team and Heads of Department who present on the activities of their department, attend a Mission Meeting (an all staff meeting at which presentations are given by staff reporting back on their site visits to one of Earthwatch's research projects) and have an informal lunch with staff.
- A comprehensive induction pack of information regarding the history of the organisation, current staffing and organisation chart, newsletters and recent publicity as well as a more formal set of papers which includes a copy of the Memorandum and Articles of Association, official forms for completion, a formal code of conduct, annual report and accounts and the Charity Commission's publication "The Essential Trustees: What you need to know".
All Trustees are encouraged to take part in one of Earthwatch's research projects as soon after they are elected to our Board as possible, in order to experience field research at first hand and therefore understand more fully the importance of the scientific field work the charity supports.
Trustees are offered training as appropriate and a small budget is set aside for this purpose.