Roles and responsibilities

In this section, we examine specific roles and responsibilities of board members relevant to sports organisations. Roles and responsibilities should be clearly defined for all stakeholders. Consultation with stakeholders on their role or if you want to make changes to a role or responsibility can actually be very helpful and can avoid unnecessary conflict later due to overlapping responsibilities or lack of clarity on who is responsible for what.

Roles and responsibilities discussed in this section include:

• board members – directors/trustees/officers
• the chair
• members

For many sports organisations, a place on the board – as a director or trustee – is one of the most important and central roles in the organisation and so we cover a variety of topics related to this position in this section, including:

• the benefits of being a board member
• responsibilities often associated with board members
• liabilities
• eligibility (can I serve on the board?) and recruitment
• due diligence

In this section, we have used the term ‘board member’ as a generic term covering those with the legal responsibility for the governance and oversight of an organisation. Where circumstances relate to a company or a charity specifically, the terms ‘director’ and ‘trustee’ are used respectively.