Cracker 2020 calendar for directors built on community insights

The festival, now in its second year, provides dozens of ways for community board members and staff to boost their skills, and this year’s events are more accessible, affordable and timely than ever.

Almost every week of the year has a theme reflecting a top priority for not-for-profits.

All the events are aimed at enabling organisations to tackle the biggest challenges identified by the Institute of Community Directors Australia in its landmark Not-for-profit Governance Roadmap study, which highlights the fact that 97% of organisations say they need training.

In a Facebook Live address to launch the 2020 festival, Our Community group managing director Denis Moriarty said this year’s program featured more training and inspiration for community leaders, in response to high demand.

“The community sector needs more education and more help and that’s exactly what the Festival of Community Directors is going to do this year,” he told ICDA members and Facebook followers.

“Whatever information you need to improve your board … you’ll get in 2020.”

Mr Moriarty said the program had grown in response to the strong uptake of courses and webinars in 2019, with thousands of individuals and organisations flocking to training events in person and online.

“We wanted to build on last year’s momentum, so we’re back in 2020 with a program of amazing professional development opportunities for community sector leaders.”

The festival program features 38 webinars, many of them free, with others available for the lowest fees possible.

“One thing we learned from the inaugural festival was that people today love learning on the internet. We get it. People are busy, especially those who volunteer their time to be on community boards. Often, getting to the city for a one-day training session isn’t seen as a priority with so much to do.

“So this year we’ve increased the number of webinars we will be running to reach more people with training to improve their organisations and the sector.”

The larger festival enables the Institute of Community Directors Australia (ICDA) to tackle more areas of interest to board members.

“Our survey results highlighted areas that not-for-profit boards should focus on for good governance, and the festival program is tailored to help upskill board members in all of these areas.”

Community Directors Council chair Susan Pascoe – who leads ICDA’s advisory body – supported the wide focus of the calendar of events.

“What I like about the 2020 program is that in each week there is a new focus. There’s pretty much something for everyone.”

Ms Pascoe also praised the revamped program for highlighting the governance areas community directors need to address at different times of year.