On World NGO Day,  27^th February 2020, Phambano Technology Development Centre NPC hosted an NGO Meet & Greet Networking event at the beautiful Imibala Precinct (and new home to Phambano Cape Town Office) garden, in Somerset West. 

The event was attended by 34 individuals from 24 NGO’s, mainly based in the Winelands and Somerset West Basin area. 

The topic for the day was the “Importance of Good Governance & Board Roles”. Samantha Barnard, our Deputy Director at Phambano, highlighted the need for Boards to be involved on all levels of governance around the organisations they serve, especially from an online safety point of view. She also highlighted that all staff and beneficiaries within nonprofit organisations understand the community standards for each online platform being used.

Conversations went around the fact that many organisations do not have Social Media or IT Policies in place and this was a Role and Responsibility of the Board as far as their governance goes. Another area of Board Governance that was addressed was that of Finance.

The morning ended with a time of open networking, lovely muffins and tea / coffee supplied by Col’cacchio Somerset west. Two delegates in attendance were also fortunate to win prizes from our lucky draw:  

Debbie Bell from Help-Me-Network CSP and Thabile Molapisane from Spirit Dominion.

Special thank you to H18 Foundation for donating the beautiful bathmat made by the women in your skills development project for the luck draw.

Below are links to the governance areas discussed on the day to not only help delegates in attendance but also those of you that could not be with us on the day:

• Roles and Responsibilities of Board Members: https://www.nonprofitsinsouthafrica.co.za/2019/06/20/roles-and-responsibilities-of-office-bearers
• The Independent Code of Governance is a set of values and principles intended to guide and inform the way organisations are managed and conduct their affairs. To serve as a measure of performance to guide members of governing boards, and those who carry responsibility for governance. More about this can be found on the following link: http://www.inyathelo.org.za/resources/item/the-independent-code.html
• Model Codes of Good Practice: click for PDF download
• GDPR vs POPIA – https://www.michalsons.com/blog/gdpr-mean-popi-act/19959
• Use of Children’s Images online: http://valcare.org.za/site/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Recommended-protocol-for-use-of-photos.pdf
• King IV principles and examples of leading practices for nonprofit organisations – click for PDF download
• Keeping comprehensive financial records for NPO’s – click for PDF download