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Board News

Alan Aitken —

RHS is looking to co-opt new members to the Board of Trustees. Alan Aitken, our Board Chair, tells of the qualities we are looking for...

I love superheroes, I always have. It goes back to my childhood when I used to read comic books. Perhaps my current enthusiasm for superheroes is an echo of a simpler, more innocent time when I hadn’t yet confronted the gritty reality of adulthood. On the other hand, maybe I just like movies with big explosions and lots of fighting!

One thing I do know about superheroes is that if that one of them is good, a team of them is a whole lot better. My favourite superhero team is the Justice League, that’s the team with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and a few others. I do have an affection for the Avengers since they have epic movies but I am at heart a fan of the Justice League. The essence of every Justice League story is that they need to work to together to win. Together they have strength, brains, speed, power, technology and most importantly good looks. This combination brings victory against superior odds time and again.

It’s a bit like a school board really except that there isn’t much is the way of super powers. But the truth is that the team must work together to achieve against the odds and that different people with different gifts are needed to build an effective team. As a board, we are often looking for people to add to our team and we don’t need everyone to be the same. In fact, we look for variety.

We know that people from diverse cultures tend to be under-represented on school boards but they add a lot to the team especially in a school like ours with students from so many different ethnic backgrounds. A multi-cultural context is challenging and we need all the help we can get.

The general qualities I look for in potential board members can be summarised as:

1. Heart

You need to care. As parents, we care deeply about the education our own children. As a board member, you must care about the education of everyone’s children.

2. Head

Sometimes we face difficult decisions so clear thinking needs to be added to compassion.

3. Team

We won’t always think the same but the board is team environment where we have to work together so have to be able to see past differences to get the big stuff done.

4. Resilience

Things go well in our school but no organisation has a guarantee that life will always be smooth sailing. When you are in governance you need the inner durability to cope if organisation faces a significant problem.

5. Strengths

This is about the personal qualities and experiences we all have. For example, if we are a parent that parental experience is a strength we bring. We may have professional training and experience would be helpful or we might represent an ethnic community in our school.

One thing I’ve found is that most people underrate themselves and what they might have to offer to a leadership group like a school board. Remember it’s about the power of the team. Together we multiply each other’s strengths and compensate for our weaknesses. Together we actually can be super.

Anyone interested in finding out more about being a trustee on the Riccarton High School Board should contact Alan Aitken on 021 673 771 or Neil Haywood on 348 5073.