If there is one criticism I could make of Robin Hood it’s that if something ever happened to him there was no one else who could have stepped up to take over. Sherwood Forest would have been left hiding a motley crew of misfits with no direction. You can’t lead on personality alone.

The succession plan for committees of management is often overlooked.

It may only become an issue when the term of existing committee of management members expire and they don’t seek reappointment or when they simply resign. If this occurs unexpectedly it can make it very difficult for the committee of management to govern. The constitution of your organisation should detail how many committee of management members you must have but poor succession planning may leave you in breach of your own constitution.

The reason you want to have a good succession plan is that it allows the organisation to retain the expertise that the committee of management and the organisation requires.

For example, if you know your Treasurer may not seek reappointment at the end of the term then you can use this time to train a successor. This may be a designated person the committee of management has agreed will become the new Treasurer.

In addition, a well-structured succession plan will also take into account the future direction of the organisation and the strategic objectives it is trying to achieve. The skills and experiences you need today may be different from what you may need in 6 to 12 months time. This is especially relevant if your organisation is growing or expanding its operations and you have identified the need to have specific skills and experience.

Here is another important aspect of succession planning: the committee of management should also maintain a list or register of potential committee of management members. This list may include people who were not successful as part of a recruitment process. It may be contacts that committee of management members may have or may even be people associated with the organisation as volunteers. The important issue is to simply keep a list of what skills the person may offer so that next time there is a need, the person may be contacted. This can potentially save a lot of time and effort when you are recruiting new committee of management members.

Succession planning is important and, with a bit of thought, it can be made easy so any transition within the committee of management members is smooth and not disruptive to the organisation.