by Fiona Woods
I was appointed President of BCA in December 2021. Having previously been Vice-President, I had been given the chance of acting in the role for a few months earlier that year. The role of President of a member-based organisation, such as BCA, is a challenging, complex and rewarding one. You are on the board of directors; you are the board Chair, and you represent and lead the members.
All directors owe their company a duty of due care and diligence. Discharging this duty has become increasingly onerous over the past ten years, although I surmise that many previous directors have made similar observations. Following recent legislation and case law, discharging this duty now extends to requiring a high degree of financial literacy, including reading, understanding and questioning financial documents and accounting standards, plus comprehension of risk as a concept that permeates all governance and cyber resilience. In addition to the customary personal liability if the company trades while insolvent, directors can now be personally penalised for failing to meet their positive duty to ensure a fair, safe and healthy workplace. The board is responsible for cultivating a socially responsible, sustainable and accountable corporate culture and much more. All these things are desirable, but the systems and processes that support them require knowledge, oversight and effective monitoring. Directors are entitled to seek advice from qualified third parties and to rely on it if they assess it as reasonable.
In addition to acting as a director, the President’s role is to chair meetings, facilitating collective decision-making, and to approve minutes. One of my aims has been to develop a board where each director feels free to exercise their own judgment and to express their opinion so that a range of perspectives are considered before decisions are made. Perhaps all chairs aim for this, but it is easier said than achieved, given the range of information, personalities, emotions and issues involved and the time available at monthly meetings. It has been a source of delight to me to observe the increasing confidence and outspokenness of individual directors and the respect and curiosity with which alternative views have been received and considered by the board. As part of ensuring a cohesive relationship between the board and staff, the chair has a significant role in supporting and acting as a sounding-board for the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Sally Karandrews and I took office at around the same time and learned a lot of hard and rewarding lessons together. When Sally resigned as CEO to pursue her studies, it became my task to lead the search for a new CEO. After appointing Deb Deshayes, I had the pleasure of working with her as she familiarised herself with the role and developed her style as a CEO. In helping directors and CEOS to give their best, there is a delicate balance to be struck between encouragement, empowerment and constructive challenge.
BCA’s board is rare, even among disability organisations, in that all directors must be people who are blind or vision impaired. It is often assumed that people with leadership potential will acquire the necessary skills through experience or osmosis – through spending time with other leaders, but learning, often through mistakes, is a slow, painful and random way of gaining knowledge. This is why BCA developed its Executive Leadership Program, from which I had the pleasure of graduating. Australian Disability Network, together with Australian Institute of Company Directors, also realised that lived experience does not automatically impart the required skills and offered scholarships and mentoring for leaders with disability. I was one of several winners from among BCA members. This helped me to gain and share a deeper understanding of our board’s role and obligations. It reassured me that BCA’s governance is in good shape. With continuous learning and ingenuity among BCA’s core values, I am confident the board will continue to strive to develop. I encourage all aspiring leaders reading this to seek out programs which can enhance their skills and understanding and expand the resources and networks available to them.
Beyond governance responsibilities, BCA’s President’s main role and the one which provided the most highlights for me, is to represent the members. Due to COVID lockdowns and subsequent caution, plus the board’s commitment to directing dwindling resources to where they can do the most good, there has been a lot less travel for the President in recent years. I enjoyed trips to visit BCA members in Launceston, Adelaide and Melbourne. Luckily for me, the Sydney branch is within easy reach. I equally enjoyed connecting with members online. The meetings with members were among my most rewarding experiences. I admit I approached some of them, such as the one regarding our recent reorganisation, with some trepidation, being uncertain of their outcomes. I have been buoyed by the attachment members almost always display for BCA and our mutual concern for it to thrive. It is not every company limited by guarantee that can attract over 50 members to its annual general meetings, especially in December. I drew encouragement from events with members, where not only do we hear from people who have always spoken at such events, and hopefully always will, but we also now hear from new voices and different perspectives.
Whatever our aspirations for BCA, we should start with the premise that we want BCA to be impactful now without compromising its ability to thrive in the future. Impact is difficult to measure. Advocacy wins are usually years in the making, as we have seen with audio description, or incremental and susceptible of being removed, as we have seen with accessible voting in NSW. I am reminded of one tiny win whenever I drive with a friend to our National Park. Thanks to BCA advocacy, my disability permit now entitles me to free entry, without needing to be attached to a specific vehicle.
When BCA started, people did not expect consumers who were blind to have a voice. What we talked about could be determined by BCA as directed by its members – pedestrian safety through audible traffic signals and tactile ground surface indicators, accessible public transport with audible announcements and clear signage, and the right to engage as a citizen, through voting, juries and access to information. As the voices of people with disability have become an expected part of many consultations and through purported co-design, the issues discussed are determined more by government and the broader disability sector than by people who are blind or vision impaired specifically. BCA is constantly required to respond to submissions about and to formulate positions on the NDIS, public transport, education, aviation, the budget and more. I am proud to say it is now accepted as essential that BCA’s views are part of these discussions. Indeed, some of BCA’s funding is conditional upon its participation. The challenge for BCA is that there are decreasing resources to champion the issues which uniquely impact people who are blind or vision impaired, such as braille or orientation and mobility devices and programs. I know that these are the causes for which people join BCA and for which members and branches will continue to advocate. After many years of arguing for BCA’s right to exist, it is now accepted as an integral element and leader of the blindness sector. A strong and united voice can achieve more than one single organisation and a focus of my leadership has been building collaborative relationships with a range of organisations within the sector. Future boards and members may confront some difficult choices about BCA’s priorities.
I have learned so much from my time as President. Many things I undertook for the first time: my first Strategic Plan, my first external audit and annual report, my first constitutional update, my first CEO recruitment and appointment. Of course, I would approach each of these differently another time. Among my proudest achievements in my time as a BCA leader have been the creation and adoption of the Blindness Service Provider Expectations Policy and the Healthcare Policy, and their memorable launch events, while I was chair of the then National Policy Council. As President, I was proud to lead a major update of BCA’s constitution and to design more flexible branch by-laws. I supported our commitment to the Uluru Statement From the Heart and to our first Reconciliation Action Plan. Starting from my time as a director, BCA was advocated for the ideals and work of the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of people with disabilities. I was grateful to be contracted to write a small number of BCA’s many submissions. While I continue to hope for more tangible change to result from so many people telling their stories, BCA’s work will stand as a testament to the experiences and aspirations of our members. I thank those of you who were with me along my leadership journey with BCA, including those who forced me to grow from the things I got wrong and those who celebrated with me the things we got right.
When I joined the board of BCA in 2017, there were six people living in my home, my eldest child had just begun her first permanent job. I was working out how to use my first NDIS plan and my first braille display that it had bought me. I used my phone for texts and occasional emails and had never opened the calendar. I had not installed any social media apps. I had never heard of Dropbox. Seven years later, there is just me and an adult child living here. I have no connection with schools, beyond living opposite one. I look at my phone calendar every morning and have had to buy extra capacity for Dropbox. I am connected with so many of you through Facebook and LinkedIn. My phone accompanies me everywhere. My family has expanded to welcome four partners and a grandchild. Throughout those seven years, especially in the last three and on an almost daily basis, the only constant has been issues related to BCA. Some issues were big, and some were small; some were expected, and some were a surprise; some of the surprises were good! All of them required me to exercise careful judgment, demanding a clear mind and focus. My strength came from the committed and passionate people I worked with and from my children and the many friends who have listened, counselled and encouraged me. Thank you! I hope now to have more time to explore the beautiful place I call home.
The President of BCA is honoured to hold a leadership position. One thing I have learned to value is that we all lead differently. There are fierce advocates, ready to take on the world and damn the consequences. There are deep thinkers, who like to analyse all the options from all sides. There are curious questioners, who like to consider lots of possibilities, including the ones that have never been tried. In the speech I gave when I became President, I said that I could never have imagined that I would do so. I hope that some of you reading this are equally surprised to find yourselves one day heading Australia’s national representative organisation of people who are blind or vision impaired. Don’t be discouraged from putting yourself forward as a leader because you might not measure up to your own or others’ idea of the type of person a leader should be. There is no ideal or perfect leader; each person deserves the space and grace to find their own way. Maybe you will discover you don’t want to lead or maybe you’ll discover it’s your purpose in life. I thank each of you for allowing me the opportunity, the honour and the privilege of being your President. I look forward to supporting BCA’s future leaders and direction, as an active member.