Your MAT is all signed up to GovernorHub (great news!).
Putting in a little time to get it all set up correctly from the start will enable things to run smoothly, and ultimately mean great engagement from trustees and governors in embracing a new way of doing things.
1. Setting up the Trust Board constitution
Let's start with a firm foundation, by setting up the overall structure of the board, via the Constitution tab (see here for instructions for how to do this).
2. Adding the board members
Once you've set up the board's constitution, you can add the people who sit on the Trust Board.
When you add each person, it will automatically send them a registration email to set up their accounts on GovernorHub - see here for how to add them to the board.
3. Setting up appointment information
You can now add an appointment for each person - this is to track which category they sit under (e.g. Trustee or Member) and their terms of office. See here for how to add appointments.
Note: you can also set up appointment information when you're adding someone to the board, so you might be able to skip this step if you did that in the previous step.
4. Allocating roles
Next, you can assign roles. Under the Roles tab, you'll already have a role for the Chair, Vice-Chair and Clerk, and you can also add your own roles if needed. Read how to do this here.
5. Setting up committees
With all the board members added, it's a good time to think about setting up your committees (instructions here). Once these are set up, you can then send targeted notifications to members of those committees via the Noticeboard.
6. Setting up a folder structure
Let's get your filing system in order in the Documents section - even if you aren't ready to upload anything yet, getting your folders set up can make life easier further down the line. We have a recommended way of organising the documents section here.
If you do have any committee groups already set up, you can restrict access to folders in the document area if required.
Note: if you have been using an alternative document storage system to store all of your governance papers, it makes life easier if you can download it all into a zip folder. You can then simply upload the zip folder to the documents section on GovernorHub.
7. Getting around
To easily navigate between accounts, members of the Trust Board account can access all of the school boards via the 'Your Local Boards' list. They don't need to be added to every school board as a member.
8. Assigning admins to the school boards
If you have a clerk assigned to each board, you could at this point add the clerk to each school board and give them admin rights so they can now set up their boards in the same way.
You can also share our training webinar with your clerks to help them get started - GovernorHub Training for Board Admins
You're good to go!
Now that you have the foundations in place, you are ready to go! You can start to set up meetings in the Calendar and use the Noticeboard to communicate.
If you want to communicate across all your schools and share resources centrally, you can use your Trust Resources area, and if you are an admin, also your My Hub tab.
There are many more tools within GovernorHub that can help you get organised, collaborate and deliver great governance across your MAT - head over to our help centre or watch our training webinar for more guidance.
Don't forget that if you ever have a question, just contact support@governorhub.com