Our School is fortunate to be able to draw on the expertise of a diverse range of people to guide our decision-making. Many people from within our School community, as well as outside experts, share their time and knowledge to serve on our Council Committees.
Our six Council Committees – Buildings and Grounds, Community Relations, Finance and Audit, Investment Management, and Risk Management – bring together experts with a variety of professional and personal backgrounds to ensure our School is managed capably, sustainably, and thoughtfully.
As one would expect, deciding who serves on each of these committees requires careful consideration. In creating each committee, Melbourne Grammar relies on the expert guidance of a specialist group – our Nominating Committee.
The Melbourne Grammar School Nominating Committee is a Council Committee made up four Council members – myself as Chair of Council, Deputy Chair of Council Geoff Cohen, Melbourne Grammar School Foundation Board Chair Julian Smith, and one of our newest Council members, Natalie Charles, Principal of Mentone Girls’ Grammar School, and former senior staff member at Melbourne Grammar from 1998 until 2016.
The Nominating Committee’s role is to recommend new members for all our Council Committees, as well as to put forward considered suggestions for new members of our School Council. Each time we are called on to make a recommendation – whether to replace a departing Committee member or expand the membership of an existing group – we always aim to achieve diversity in terms of age, experience, and gender, and to represent a broad range of professional and cultural backgrounds. However, of course, our priority is to ensure that each Committee has members who bring the necessary ability and knowledge to ensure the Committee is well equipped to meet its mandate.
A concrete example of the Nominating Committee’s work can be seen in the structure of our Risk Committee. This group has a broad range of responsibilities ranging from managing the School’s financial risk profile to addressing issues related to health and safety.
To ensure balanced representation of expertise across all these areas, our Risk Committee has been designed to include medical, legal, and business experts, people with financial expertise, and even those who can offer knowledge of contemporary risks in areas such as cyber security, data governance, and digital privacy.
As with all our Committees, the eight members currently serving on the Risk Committee represent both those with a direct connection to the School as well as others who are simply willing to share their expertise with Melbourne Grammar.
An outward focus is crucial in ensuring our School Council and its Committees maintain best practice across all operations. To achieve this, I participate in gatherings with Chairs of Council from other independent schools to discuss some of the more complex issues related to education governance. Most commonly, we discuss common challenges all schools need to address, and this is where we can share our knowledge, hear directly about lessons learned, and discover new solutions.
I share these insights into the structure and functions of School governance not only to recognise the significant commitment of each person who serves on these Committees, but to underscore the strength of our School’s leadership as we come to the end of another successful year.
Andrew Michelmore AO
Chair of Council
