Before conducting a skills audit of your Board, it is worth thinking about the types of skills that you feel a Board in the sport and recreation sector should have.  A wish list of skills for the perfect sports board is worth creating as a template to mark your own Board against.  The list of skills will include professional skills that are desired on charity sector Boards and/or Boards in the corporate world, however there may also be skills and experience that you would find useful specifically related to the sports sector. At the Finance and Governance forum held in October 2011 several sports brainstormed the skills needed for a perfect sports Board and they are listed below:

• Experience of setting strategy
• Experience of estbalishing visionary outlook
• Sport experience
• Finance
• Health and safety
• Risk
• Media
• International and European context
• Commercial development
• Experience on other Boards
• Funding knowledge
• Income generation
• Credibility in and knowledge of the sports setor
• Legal knowledge
• Corporate governance knowledge
• Parterhsip working
• Safeguarding and equality knowledge

This list is not exhaustive and it would be a good exercise to think of what your perfect Board would look like and build your own list of the experience and skill set you want your Board to have.  It might be useful to think of the skills in three separate categories:

1. Hard skills (such as legal or financial knowledge)
2. Soft skills (such as teamwork, partnership working or negotiating) 
3. Knowledge of sport and or your own organisation

Once you have your perfect list of skills you should ask Board members to either tick or rate their level of competence against each one.  This will help you identify the skills where you need more expertise and where there are gaps to fill.  You should remember that the individual members will complement each other and as you assess how each individual measures up and what skills they bring, they don't all need to to have everything and in most cases bringing a skill or experience in one or two sections that complements the rest of the Board is fine.

The skills matrix should be updated regularly to reflect personnel changes on the Board and there may also be a need for specific expertise as a result of legislation or policy changes in the sector.  It should be a dynamic document to help you identify where the gaps are on your Board and also work as a recruitment tool to identify what potential Board members would fill out the blanks for you.

You can find examples of Board skills audits below in the downloads.

Downloads:

Board Matrix Template.docx

Easy usable skills matrix template for evaluating the skills possed by the board.

Rounders England Board Skills Matrix 2010.doc

Exampe of the use of skills matrix to evaluate skills on once board by Rounders England.

Simple Trustee Skills Audit.pdf

Example of a skills audit for trustees in a charitable organisation.

CCPR Board Skills Audit Process.pdf

Example: CCPR process of running a Board skills audit outlined.

CCPR Board Skills Audit Form.pdf

Example: CCPR skills audit form that is distributed to Board members to fill in and evaluate their own individual skills and experiences.

Activity Board Skills Audit.docx

Activity: Board Skills Audit tool developed by NCVO and the Sport and Recreation Alliance