Key responsibilities of the Chair Person include:

• to chair AIA National Board meetings, ensuring that all Directors contribute and consensus is reached on decisions where possible
• develop the National Board agenda in cooperation with the National Director and Company Secretary;
• motivate Directors and lead by example;
• ensure implementation and review of National Board appraisal, training, and succession-planning processes;
• help guide National Board actions with respect to organisational priorities and governance concerns;
• engage with the work of National Board committees as required;
• communicating regularly with the AIA National Director and acting as a link between the National Board and the National Director;
• Chair General Meetings of AIA;
• represent AIA publicly when required;
• communicate with and participate in events with AIA membership, donors and rights holders
• National Director:
  • support the National Director;
  • undertake their performance management, including conducting annual performance reviews and approving leave;
  • approving the appointment of an Acting National Director as required; and
  • oversee negotiations for the National Director's employment;
• International:
  • represent AIA in Amnesty International fora;
  • participate in the Chairs’ Forum, in consultation with and accounting to the Board;
  • lead the Regional Forum delegation; lead the Global Assembly Delegation

This volunteer position is for a 3-year term and is not remunerated. This successful applicant can be based from any of our Action Centres across Australia (and will predominantly be remote and after normal business hours).

Board composition

The Board can have a maximum of nine directors who are identified and elected according to a set of capabilities, attributes and diversity as detailed in the AIA National Board Attributes Statement.

Seven directors are elected by the members at a General Meeting and up to two additional directors can be appointed by the Board.  Currently the Board has 6 Directors including the current Chair.

Time commitment

The AIA Board meets six times a year, with three of those meetings being two hours, usually in the evening, and the other three being one-day long, usually on a Saturday. There may be other ad hoc short meetings to deal with particular issues. The Chair works with the National Director and the Company Secretary to set the agenda.

The Chair currently meets weekly with the National Director, is a member of three board subcommittees and is involved in stakeholder engagement with members, donors and rights holders as well as international work.

It is estimated that the role requires about one day per week on average, with some parts of the year being busier. There may be some opportunity for greater workload sharing between the Chair and Deputy Chair in order to allow the Chair to manage their time commitments.