Rare opportunity

Wimmera people have a unique opportunity to enhance skills and knowledge for the benefit of professional or voluntary endeavours, locally.

Wimmera Development Association’s Leadership Wimmera offers community development programs for emerging and existing leaders.

It will bring the Australian Institute of Company Directors’ Company Directors Course to Horsham in October.

The course is delivered across five days, focusing on governance and the practice of directorship, the legal environment, risk and strategy, financial literacy and performance, and achieving board effectiveness.

It is designed for existing board members or directors, to strengthen understanding of the principals and practices of good governance.

Participants may come from private, government, non-profit or publicly listed organisations.

Horsham’s Penelope Manserra is a partner of financial planning firm Hillross in Horsham.

She was a Trustee of the Wimmera Health Care Group Foundation, among other community endeavours, when undertaking the Company Directors Course. She went in to have involvement in a Wimmera Cancer Centre steering committee and has since become a director of Skillinvest and a member of the board’s finance sub-committee.

Deeper understanding

“I wanted to build confidence and knowledge in my role as a director, and a deeper understanding of my role as a director and where you fit; as opposed to being a partner in my own business. My work requires strategic thinking and is operational but a director or board member is clearly not operational,” she said.

“Participating in the course has helped clarify that line.”

Mrs Manserra said the course delivery was engaging and offered real-life examples to learn.

“The facilitators of the program were fantastic and varied, so you would hear different stories and examples – which is always a great way to learn,” she said. “I was also part of a great group. The networking and learning from others, and from a cross-section of the community, meant we could learn from each other’s experiences.”

Leadership Wimmera program manager Vernetta Taylor said delivering the course in Horsham saved people time and cost of travelling to a larger centre, such as Melbourne, to undertake their studies.

“This is an opportunity for people to develop high-level skills locally, to meet and learn from like-minded others, and support the good governance of community groups and boards across the region,” she said.

The course is at the Wimmera Business Centre in Horsham across two weeks, starting on October 4 and 5, and finishing with week two from October 10 to 12.

Mrs Taylor said registrations close on Friday.

She said people wanting more information could phone her on 0419 114 274.