Entry points for governance innovation | Australia's cultural workforce crisis | Jolabokaflod recommendations
Plus Victoria's cultural industries inquiry and some thoughts on the changing of the year
Entry points for governance innovation
I was delighted to be part of Arts NT’s Meeting of Arts Professionals in Mparntwe/Alice Springs last month, and to share a stage with Desart’s Philip Watkins to talk about trends, strategies and entry points for governance innovation.
Our conversation acknowledged that, until we decide on a better way forward and can campaign for legislative change, we need to make the best of the governance model we’ve got. And while the issues our sector is experiencing are many, varied and overwhelming, we don’t have to approach them all at once. There are lots of possible entry points for innovation, including small, low-cost or no-cost innovations that can help us reduce the work and increase the effectiveness of our boards. These could include:
Co-designing and tailoring board structures, meeting schedules and procedures that work for your specific context or organisation, including:
Fewer board meetings.
Fewer and simpler board papers.
Given the average literacy (44%) and numeracy skills (55%) of most Australian adults are at a late primary or early high school level, board papers should really be in Plain English/language and/or Easy Read with visuals (including financial reports with graphs, etc.).
More flexible meeting locations and procedures, including: throwing out the completely unnecessary (and actively re-colonising) motions, proposals and secondings of Roberts’ Rules of Order; seeing every board meeting as a professional development opportunity; or stopping meetings to define governance concepts and terms, etc.
Making sure you have a comprehensive but accessible governance policy or manual (including a list of key terms), induction process, and budget (for board travel, access, cultural support or interpretation, and professional development).
Bringing more and/or different people into your board meetings or decision-making processes, including:
Taking your meetings to the people you serve, represent or need to hear from (your governance ecology, of which your board is just one part).
Introducing independent board supporters or friends of the board, such as Desart’s paid ‘malpas’ (or mentors) who can act as travel companions, cultural support or interpreters. Everyone in Desart’s board meetings also wears a different hat (labelled ‘board member’, ‘friend’, ‘family’, etc.) to make it clear who is there and in what capacity.
Checking in during and after board meetings on what’s working, what’s not, and what’s not being said.
Investigating alternative board structures, such as: paid boards (as per TNA or NAVA); non-hierarchical boards; micro- or minimally-viable boards (that reduce the number and workloads of board members to the minimum required for compliance); and ‘pick and mix’ the rest of your governance needs through a combination of advisory groups, cultural councils, task- or time-based working groups, individual advisors or champions, outsourced governance services, etc.
Much of this will need to start with:
Unlearning, including finding out what your legislation actually requires, realising how different it is from your organisation’s Rules, Constitution or governance expectations, and how much space you have to play with.
Then asking, including boards asking their CEOs what they need and giving it to them (which 58% of organisations don’t do), or beginning a bigger conversation about what your organisation means by and needs from governance (without assuming those needs should be met by a ‘board’).
And finally, remembering #LessIsNecessary and actively reducing your board and organisation’s workloads to free up the time you need to make governance work for you (and save wasting time on unnecessary busywork into the future).
Watch this space for more governance ideas and innovations next year.
And another thing… on Australia’s cultural workforce crisis
For those living (or leaving) the national cultural workforce crisis currently being experienced – deeply and distinctively – across Australia's arts, cultural and for-purpose organisations and sectors, the language of 'crisis' isn't hyperbole, nor something that's up for debate.
But the last few weeks have reminded me that there are some gaps in this understanding – unfortunately (though not unsurprisingly) from some of the people with the most power to affect change, including board members who aren't meeting either their fiduciary duties or their duty of care.
Ignorance is never an excuse when it comes to discharging our governance duties, but particularly not at a time when we have so much access to quality data (even if the story those stats tell is pretty grim).
So for them, and anyone else who needs it, my final 'and another thing' for 2024 provides a quick summary of four significant cultural workforce studies published this year.
Read the full reports at:
These vlogs are usually exclusively for my Patreon followers. If they have been of value to you, you can access the full versions and archive by joining me as an advocate, ally or accomplice from just $2.50/month). With huge thanks to Katherine and Bernadette for joining my Patreon crew this month.
Thanks also and welcome to the 72 people (!!!) who subscribed to my enews in November, and congrats to Simone, who won the prize draw and a copy of The Relationship is the Project: a guide to working with communities.
Inquiry into the cultural and creative industries in Victoria
The Parliament of Victoria’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee has opened an inquiry into (some of the) funding and supports available to Victoria's cultural and creative industries. This includes: the economic and social impact of the Australian Government’s cultural policy, Revive, on Victoria’s arts and cultural industries; representation of Victorian spending and stories on ABC and SBS; examining Victoria's share of national arts and cultural spending (including in regional Victoria); the ongoing financial sustainability of arts training organisations; and whether state and federal policies and spending are sufficient to support the industries following the impact of COVID-19.
Unfortunately, the Inquiry not only asked the sector to do the legwork around this comparative data (rather than providing us with a discussion paper to comment on), but tabled the inquiry over the summer shut-down period at a time of unprecedented overwhelm and burnout (though their initial deadline has since been extended).
These flaws in its framing and timing have meant the Inquiry has been met disappointment, disdain and a call for the sector to down tools rather than respond - including from Theatre Network Australia, which said it was “confident that the relevant Federal and Victorian public servants are well equipped and resourced to respond to the inquiry and provide the information it seeks to obtain. We do not believe that making submissions is the best use of the sector’s time and energy, particularly over the end of year shut down period, and are not encouraging the sector to make submissions. TNA also does not believe that the information the inquiry obtains will lead to better Federal funding outcomes."
Should you still wish to respond to the Inquiry, submissions now close Friday 31 January 2025 on the Parliament of Victoria website. Queries can be emailed to Committee Manager Michael Baker.
Or you are welcome to copy and paste anything you find useful from my own (deliberately incomplete) response. Made in an unpaid advocacy capacity (with direct personal costs exceeding $1,400), I look forward to the Committee’s advice on who we should all be invoicing for this valuable cultural labour.
Jólabókaflóð recommendations
I’m not big on Christmas. The only decoration in my home is a Die Hard advent calendar. But I adore the endearing and eminently sensible Icelandic tradition of Jólabókaflóð (Jolabokaflod) or Christmas book flood, in which Icelanders spend Christmas Eve gifting, receiving and reading books.
So, to support your book buying this Jólabókaflóð season, here are some of my reading highlights and recommendations from 2024:
Fiction
Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa
Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran
Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld
Greater City Shadows by my pal Laurie Steed
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
Kind Of, Sort Of, Maybe, But Probably Not by my pal Imbi Neeme
Mead Mishaps series by Kimberly Lemming
Mind Breaker by my pal Kate Dylan
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli
The Brown Sisters’ series by Talia Hibbert
The Visitors by my pal Jane Harrison
The Will Darling Adventures by KJ Charles
Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang
Non-Fiction
A Clear Flowing Yarra by my pal Harry Saddler
Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon
Disability Viability: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century edited by Alice Wong
Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob
How to Lose Friends and Influence White People by Antoinette Lattouf
Meshi: A Personal History of Japanese Food by my pal Katherine Tamiko Arguile
On Freedom by Tory Shepherd
Stand Up and Speak Out Against Racism by Yassmin Abdel-Magied
The Future Is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes and Mourning Songs by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
The Very Short History of the Israel-Palestine Conflict by Ilan Pappé
This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work by Tiffany Jewell with Aurélia Durand
Unicorns on Fire: A Collection of NonprofitAF Posts, Finally Edited for Spelling and Grammar by Vu Le
White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Colour by Ruby Hamad
Poetry
Before the Next Bomb Drops: Rising Up from Brooklyn to Palestine by Remi Kanazi
Mark the Dawn by Jazz Money
Paradise (point of transmission) by Andrew Sutherland
The Flirtation of Girls / Ghazal el-Banat by Sara M Saleh
The Rocks Remain: Blak poetry and story edited by Karen Wyld and Dominic Guerrera
Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza by Mosab Abu Toha
Tomorrow Someone Will Arrest You by Meena Kandasamy
Children’s books
Big Trouble with Angry Chairs by my pal Lachlann Carter
Noongar Boodja Waangkan: Noongar First Words by Jayden Boundry and Tyrown Waigana
And, of course, my own books - The Relationship is the Project and Public. Open. Space., look pretty good under a tree too. 😉
Some thoughts on the changing of the year
Whether due to the polycrisis or just middle-age, each year that passes seems harder, faster and less well-defined. And here we are, heading towards another arbitrary date change with little sense of newness or prospect of renewal or rest.
In November, I shared a delicious creative development day with a colleague exploring lost and endangered creatures, people and ideas, where it occurred to me that the concepts of deep rest, hopefulness and peace of mind all seem to come from another planet, let alone another time.
From a place of deep grief, wishes for a ‘happy’ new year seem both impossible and impossibly naive. The grief of our global community after another year of horrors on our screens, feeds and streets. Professional grief, at a time when I have never been more concerned about the state of the for-purpose sector, nor the people within it. And personal grief, through the loss of a family member that has broken our hearts, on top of much-loved colleague Kate Callingham earlier this year, and this month’s ten-year anniversary of my darling Stella Young.
But mourning these three fiercely com/passionate, phenomenally smart and talented artists, arts and human rights activists has only made me more aware of the solace to be found in community and advocacy, and of the responsibility of finding a path through overwhelm into action - for their sake, for the sake of the 95 96 97 98 women murdered by Aussie men so far this year (the number of which has increased just in the time it’s taken to write this enews), for what is now more than 160 journalists and many more writers and poets unlawfully killed by Israel’s genocide in Palestine, for the 10-year-olds we’re shoving into Australian prisons and spit-hoods, for all of the political prisoners and whistleblowers being held hostage without crime or charge, for all those fleeing or being forced to leave their homes, or forced to hide their true selves, for those who still believe in the power of evidence, equity, discourse and art to make positive change in spite of it all, and for so many more.
We may have lost our loved ones, but not their impact on our lives - nor their influence on the world that’s still to come. We cannot relegate their legacy to memory. We have a responsibility to ensure that it endures, if we can. The responsibility of privilege. The responsibility of safety, humanity and voice. The responsibility of being in a position to say when something’s wrong and to put our energies (however small or exhausted) to make sure those things aren’t being done in our names, or in theirs. The responsibility of still being here.
So, Happy New Arbitrary Date Change, friends. Go as gently as you can during these impossible times. You are seen. You are needed - as whole and as well as you can contextually be right now. I am so very grateful for you.