Q1. Regarding Proposed Motion 1, if the World Board term of office changes to be two three-year terms, how do we ensure continuity and mitigate the risk of a complete turnover of Board members?
A1. Whilst this is a highly unlikely scenario, it is possible. As Trustees can still decide to run for re-election and serve up to six years if re‑elected, we believe this will preserve continuity, create stability and ensure institutional memory while allowing for agility, dynamism and new perspectives.
Strong onboarding and induction, robust handover processes especially for Chairs of Committee and the Chair of the World Board, our longer six-year WAGGGS Strategy and the continuity of leadership and management from the Chief Executive and Senior Management Team further ensure stability.
Therefore, on balance, we believe it is better to make this change as it will open the door to a wider and more diverse pool of candidates, and we already have experience of successfully running a similar model at regional level. Based on our Governance Review findings and other research, there is strong evidence that it will facilitate the increased participation of young women in governance and help to ensure that trustees are more accountable to our Members.