Over the years, various CBRA committees have sprung up to deal with a host of issues. Although the intentions behind these were good, with no ground rules, proper oversight or planning, the situation has fallen into some disarray. Of fourteen supposed “Committees“ –
- five (SCAN, Traffic, UVic Liaison, Website, Membership) are in fact no more than individual board members in charge of that issue and so should really be called Portfolios;
- two (Governance and Land Use) are not active at present
- the status of another (Emergency Preparedness) is unclear
- two (Newsletter and BIA Liaison) consisted of the same three board members and had largely overlapping briefs;
- another (WeedWhackers) is doing sterling duty but is largely unknown.
To bring in some order into this confusion, we henceforth distinguish between:
- Portfolios – held by individual board members (SCAN, Traffic, UVic Liaison, and Website)
- Board Sub-Committees (Membership, Governance, Newsletter/BIA Liaison) – each comprising three or four board members
- Standing Committees (currently: Parks, Queenswood, and Haro Woods) ; and
- Taskforces (Emergency Preparedness and WeedWhackers).
In addition, official Standing Committee Guidelines are being introduced, to ensure that Standing Committees and their members are subject to the same code of conduct as directors of the Board itself.
(Portfolios and Sub-Committees, which comprise only Board members, are already subject to the Code of Conduct adopted for Board members under the new constitution passed last year, which has done much to help the current Board function more smoothly and effectively).
We trust this reform will bring clarity, efficiency, and greater accountability to this vital aspect of CBRA operations. The new lineup will be announced shortly in the CBRA News section of the website, where it can be viewed and commented on.