I have enjoyed listening to the stories of our 26 Principals who lead our schools. They are a talented group with a wide range of skills between them. In addition to being leaders one can find the following amongst them : talented Musicians, Volunteer worker in Africa for 2 years, Excellent Sportspeople, Chinese speaker with University education in South Korea, Global Principals with wide overseas experience, Lawyer and Canberra Public Servant, Church Leaders, Business Operators, Territory Public Servants, Academics. A number have first-hand experience in Aboriginal Schools. It is a wonderful selection of important experience. Casting an eye around the conference dinner at Hanumans reinforced the significant experience our group collectively has.

Every member of this group will have the experience of working with a board and the need to do this effectively. As Principal I was always a voting member of the Board and was only asked to leave if the members were discussing my contract. A key person on the board in the early days who was also an adviser to the Board, who had been head of a big school for 27 years was of the firm opinion that the Principal was to carry out the decisions the Board made and therefore should have full involvement in making them. I know that in these times this is not normally case. However the Principal should understand fully how the Board works, should work closely with the Chair, and respect the responsibility to carry out the Board’s wishes. I had one chair for 20 years and met with him for lunch every Monday. He attended, with his wife, most Round Square International Conferences and I was able to know him further, discussing issues on long plane and train trips.

Over time in other organisation I have suffered under well meaning but unskilled chairs. One adopted the ridiculous practice at the start of each meeting of going around the Board table and ask each member whether they had read the papers. Great Trust!

Because good Principals are leaders it is likely that they will end up as Chair of a number of Boards over their life time. It is worth them developing opinions on what it is to be a good, effective chair.

Obviously one of the best Chairs I knew who was smart, highly experienced and disciplined, was our long term Patron The Honourable Austin Asche AC. QC. FACE. BA. LL.M. Above all His Honour was a great thinker. He was, by the way a judge with a great love of literature, and up until the end was a prolific reader. He was famous for his ability to recite poetry and his great love were the poems of Banjo Patterson who incidentally is my favourite poet. For 5 years he was the guest speaker at our Annual Teacher Awards Ceremony held at Parliament House. He was a great, accomplished speaker and his wife Dr Valerie Asche organised a booklet of the five “gems” that he had given with the captivating title, “Teachers on Top”.

The following is a delightful but instructive quote about the skill of chairing a board presented at the 2010 Awards ceremony.

 “In fact, with becoming modesty, I can tell you that I was an effective Chairman, mainly because I knew the difference between the directive and non-directive species. A directive chairman has a thorough knowledge of the subject. He is usually the Boss, or at least a person who knows where he is going and is going to make sure that is where the meeting is going too. If he is the Boss he will have a group of yes-men to support him and, if he is truly powerful, a number of nodders. For this we have the authority of P.G. Wodehouse, who tells us that a nodder is a trainee yes-man who must be ready to nod immediately after the yes-men have said “yes”.

A non - directive Chairman needs to know nothing of the subject. He is there to control the debate, see that each speaker gets a turn but doesn’t go on too long. And see that the topic under consideration is clearly stated. A non-directive Chairman could chair a Committee of nuclear physicists even if he firmly believed that Einstein is the name of a horse in this year’s Melbourne Cup.

So, I was a non-directive Chairman….”

To be a good Chair a person must be well prepared for the meeting, meet with Principal/CEO beforehand. It is usually the Principal’s EA who will take the minutes. The Principal should check the minutes after they are produced and before they go to the Chair before the next meeting.

The Principal should discuss the agenda with the Chair, and the EA will correctly present it from the Principal’s draft. The Principal’s report may be a wordy tome of a number of pages eloquently written in long hand. I had some board members who liked that, even though it took a heap of time to produce. Some boards were happy with reports to be presented in note form with suitable, directional headings which could be produced easily.

For years I had four Board Meetings in twelve months with sub committees meeting in between. As the school grew there was the need to have six with a possible seventh if required. Obviously, a non-gazetted board meeting could be called in special circumstances. There are some schools that have 10 to 12 a year. Personally, I think this is too many and requires the Principal to spend so much time servicing the Board rather than engaging with the school.

Back to the art of Chairing. I’m presently on a Board where the chair asks each member whether they have anything to add after an issue has been debated. He is very methodical about this knowing that the strength of a Board is found in the opinions of the individual members. I think this is a good process. Chairing the ISCA (Now ISA) board for 3 years I learnt to watch everyone closely and if I could see someone keen to speak, I would encourage them to do so. Good chairs can become familiar with non-verbal signs. Opinions are so valuable and are more likely to help produce a sound decision. What’s in a good decision - well heaps which will lead to a constructive idea.

Back to our Patron:

“After many weekend sittings, for these were all busy people, we delivered the Report and its many Recommendations to the Government; and I like to feel that the Report had some influence on teacher training methods over the next few years. But the point I wish to make is this sort of review must be renewed every now and then to keep up with developments even on familiar themes.”

It is often later that teachers receive appreciation from their students. Our Patron writes: “No teacher has ever won a Nobel Prize. Staying in the schoolroom does not allow for International recognition……. But the good teacher wins a Nobel Prize in every student who remembers and carries that memory into old age: and that is the greatest reward.”

Of course, communities who value and respect their teachers benefit so much from this. Those that don’t may undermine the welfare of their community.

Back to our AISNT Principals. What a talented and interesting group that are leading our schools who do have so much experience beyond the “chalk and the blackboard.” This becomes so evident to the staff, students and parents who benefit from them as Educational Leaders.

Written by Chris Tudor

AISNT Historian & Principal Liason