The FORUS Board Blog Update

SO, WHAT DO WE get up to?

By now, most of you will be aware of the format of our meetings from our extensive LinkedIn posts and office tours. Each month we visit a different office, having the opportunity to meet the wider team and get a feel for the various Fortus offices. Where possible, we’re chaired by the Board member whose home office is hosting. Regarding taking the minutes for the meeting, that’s whoever pulls the short straw!

The day starts early to allow for travel time and for someone in the team to raid the nearest M&S en-route for their finest Percy Pigs. We begin by having an initial run-through of the previous month’s actions to ensure that these have been completed, and resolved any issues identified when actioning these.

Now that the Suggestion Boxes are in place, we collate all suggestions prior to the meeting and run through these individually. They’re sorted into local and national suggestions, and we determine who’s best to action each one. Sometimes this is the Board itself – local suggestions tend to go to office sponsors – whilst national suggestions are discussed further to identify those with merit, those we can action, those we can’t, and those that should be reviewed by the Executive Board. We keep a record of outstanding suggestions which need to be followed up to ensure we’re responding where possible to suggestions. On that note, if you ever want a direct response be sure to include your name.

This is followed by a project update! When we initially began working as a Board, we all aligned ourselves to projects within the ‘Three Year Plan’. Our work as a Board still remains focused on the projects. In the early meetings, we spent some time outlining ideas we had for the projects, whilst meeting with those leading them to identify areas where we could add value. We then set out a plan of what we wanted to achieve in the year ensuring it remained specific, measurable, and achievable. Now those projects are well underway, we report back monthly to ensure we remain focused and on track.

roping in some of the team to join us

Each office sponsor’s invited along at some point during the meeting. There’s no real set format but themes tend to focus around current and historic difficulties faced in their region or office, things their team have overcome, achieved, as well as any other highpoints. We ask what each sponsor expects from us as a Board and if there are any ways we’re able to assist them. We finish off by putting them on the spot by asking for words of advice on how best we can further help the Fortus team.

Tom Dymond will call in and give the monthly Client Advisory Board (CAB) update. As many of the projects we’re working on closely align with work that the CAB undertake there have been some areas where the ForUS Board have been able to assist the CAB and share some ideas.

wrapping up…

Towards the end of the day we discuss our plans for what we’ll be sharing with the wider team and those outside Fortus over the following months. We try to arrange someone from the Brand & Creative team to be available who can advise on timeframes and the practicability of any work requested – whether this involves the promotion of the ForUs Values Awards, Suggestion Box designs, surveys, any new initiatives introduced etc.

We wind the meeting down with any other business and actions for the rest of the month. By this point we have eaten most of the snacks brought in, and so we’re ready to meet you all for a drink in the local. We really appreciate all those who have welcomed us to their offices and have taken the time to join us at the end of the day. By inviting everyone for an after work catch up we hoped this would allow everyone to share ideas and to provide feedback from the wider team – we believe this has been a success! It’s been fantastic meeting so many who we may not have the chance to interact with so casually, and it has allowed everyone (not just ForUS board members) to gain contacts throughout the Fortus network.

We hope this has given you a clearer sense of what our meeting day looks like. Over the next few weeks, you’ll be getting communications regarding the application process. If this has piqued anyone’s interest and you’re thinking of joining so would like to discuss this further, please feel free to grab a Board member (past or present) we’d be more than happy to chat!