The Committee Room

Kate Hartwig and Kate McPhee

0.0 (0)
Non-Profit

Practical governance for volunteer committees and not-for-profit organisations. Hosted by governance consultants Kate Hartwig and Kate McPhee, each episode tackles one topic — clearly, honestly, and without the jargon. Short enough to finish before your coffee goes cold.

2d ago

Ep 28 Where to from here?

The committee has been in its strategic planning session for three hours. There's a long list of things to do, three sheets of butcher's paper and a shiny new website on the wish list. Then someone asks: what's our vision? Silence. Then a brave volunteer offers a sentence nobody can explain — including the person who said it. In the second episode of the Planning With Purpose series, Kate Hartwig and Kate McPhee go back to the start and work through the building blocks of a strategic plan, from why your organisation exists to the goals that get you where you want to be. In this episode: Starting with purpose: why your organisation existsValues that guide decisions, not just decorate the websiteWhat makes a good vision, and how to spot one that's drifted into the howBHAGs: Big Hairy Audacious GoalsVision nightmares, and a tip for drafting the vision without a two-hour argumentThe three foundations every organisation sharesStrategic pillars: often the hardest part to get rightGoals that describe outcomes, not activitiesStrategies, and how all the pieces connect This week's challenge: can your committee explain your purpose, values and vision? No download this week — the challenge happens at your next committee meeting. Full show notes at thecommitteeroom.com.au
Nov 2

Ep 27 Why Planning Matters

A community arts centre committee has had a huge year: six exhibitions, classes four nights a week, a new website and a grant application for a kiln. But when the president sits down to write the annual report, she can list everything they did and not one thing it achieved. All hands on deck, and nobody steering the ship. In the first episode of the Planning With Purpose series, Kate Hartwig and Kate McPhee look at why planning matters for small volunteer-run organisations, and what kind of planning your committee needs right now. In this episode: Why busy isn't the same as purposefulThree reasons committees skip planningWhy so much strategic planning advice is written for someone elseBringing in the people who care, without getting stuck in analysis paralysisStrategic plans and operational plans: the what and the howAn easy test for which plan something belongs inFour situations, and where your committee should startThe ghost planCould your committee recite its vision from memory?Why it's better to have planned and changed your plans than not to have planned at allThis week's challenge: governing or managing?Full show notes at thecommitteeroom.com.au
Oct 26

Ep 26 Governance after Dark - Halloween Special

It was a dark and stormy Tuesday night. Item one on the agenda had been there since 2019, the minutes read as if they'd been written at a different meeting, and the car park question — voted down three times — had risen from the grave again. Some committee rooms are haunted. In this Halloween special, Kate Hartwig and Kate McPhee open their field guide to the creatures that lurk in committee rooms. Every monster is a real governance problem, and every one can be sent packing. The decision monsters: zombie, vampire, bogeyman, skeleton, wizard and witchy decisions, and the goblin amendmentThe creatures at the committee table, from the invisible man to the banshee complaintGhost policies, scarecrow policies and the policy registerMummy, cursed and Frankenstein constitutionsFrankenstein and cauldron minutes, and using an AI notetaker safelyThe poltergeist agenda, the graveyard quorum and the full moon meetingGeneral business, the time vampireSpooky money: the Jack-o'-lantern report and trick or treat fundingFree Governance Monster Spotter's Guide to download. Full show notes and free download at thecommitteeroom.com.au
Oct 19

Ep 25 Planning your Numbers

The Treasurer opens last year's budget, adds a little CPI to every line, and the committee approves it. It looks sensible. But nobody has actually budgeted for the year ahead — they've given last year's story a pay rise. In the final episode of the Financial Confidence series (for now), Kate Hartwig and Kate McPhee show how to build a budget that connects to what your organisation is planning to do, see the tight months coming, and plan for the big bills before they arrive. In this episode: The zombie budget, and why CPI is good at increasing numbers but not at planningWhy budgeting is a job for the whole committee — and the three questions to ask firstThe finance subcommittee, and when the budget conversation needs to startHistoric and zero-based budgeting, and when to use eachEstimating expenses high and income lowWhy “we budget to break even” is a slow way to go broke — and how to plan a surplus on purposeCash flow budgeting, because the timing matters as much as the totalThe Assets Register, sinking funds and asset management plansFinance leases, operating leases and what belongs on the registerComparing budget and actual figures every monthFree Assets Register template from the Committee Companion. Full show notes and free download at thecommitteeroom.com.au
Oct 12

Ep 24 Reading the Numbers

Once upon a time, there was a committee that thought their finances were fine and dandy. The Treasurer read the numbers aloud. The surplus was healthy. Everyone nodded. Nobody looked at the Balance Sheet. Nobody noticed that current liabilities had been greater than current assets for three months in a row. The story the numbers were telling was right there — written in plain figures on every report. Nobody knew how to read it. In this Storybook Edition of The Committee Room, Kate H and Kate M take you through the three financial chapters that land on your committee table every month. In this episode: Cash vs accrual accounting — which edition of the book you're reading (with a mnemonic involving spotty dogs)Chapter 1: the Balance Sheet — the Foundations of the Kingdom. What the organisation owns, what it owes, and what it's worth on one dayThe four questions to ask every month — and why Question 3 is the one to underlineThe Balance Sheet heroes and villains — including the wolf in grandma's nightclothesChapter 2: the Profit and Loss — the Chronicle of the Year — and the sneakiest villain of all: the poisoned appleChapter 3: the Cash Flow Report — the Royal Coffers — and why a beautiful P&L can still hide a crisisWhat a happy ending actually looks like — and why woolly answers are a red flag in their own right Free Financial Reports Checklist in the show notes. Full show notes and free download at thecommitteeroom.com.au
Oct 5

23 Who Minds the Money?

Sam got backed into a corner and reluctantly said yes to being Treasurer, and everyone else at the table breathed a sigh of relief. The finances are in Sam's hands now. Except — that's not quite how it works. Every single committee member shares the same responsibility for the members' money. Nobody needs to be an accountant. But nobody gets to opt out either. In the first episode of the Financial Confidence series, Kate H and Kate M cover the financial side of governance from the ground up. In this episode: The myth of 'not-for-profit means no surplus' — why it's wrong and what it actually costs organisationsWhy 'we budget to break even' is just budgeting to fail — and why three months of operating costs in reserve is the minimumEvery committee member is financially responsible — and approving a report you haven't read is not a defenceThe Treasurer's actual job: oversight, not bookkeeping — and the difference between a bookkeeper and an accountantThe no-one-person rule and what to do when you don't have either a bookkeeper or an accountantThe best Treasurer Kate 1 ever worked with and whyThe five governance structures that protect the organisation's money — and where to start if you don't have most of themFree Treasurer's Role Description Card in the show notes. Full show notes and free download at thecommitteeroom.com.au
Sep 28

Ep 22 Special Guest Interview

Natural justice and procedural fairness sound like they belong in a courtroom. They show up in community clubs and volunteer organisations more often than most committees realise — and the obligation to follow them applies whether your Constitution mentions them or not. Ignorance is not a defence. In this special episode, Kate H and Kate M welcome their very first guest: recently retired South Australian Magistrate Maria, 23 years on the bench. She joins them for a plain-English conversation about what natural justice actually requires of committees — and what happens when they get it wrong. In this episode: What natural justice is — and why the process, not the outcome, determines whether you've done it rightThe two non-negotiable requirements: the person must know what they're accused of, and they must have a genuine opportunity to respondImpartiality in small organisations where everyone knows everyone — and what to do when there's nobody left who isn't conflictedWhen a matter is serious enough to call the police — and why you should never try to investigate criminal conduct yourselfRecord keeping as a natural justice tool — and whether formal hearings should be recordedCan you have a do-over? Yes — but the process for getting there must be correctWhen the organisation must get involved in a member dispute — and when it's entitled to say this is a personal matterThe one thing Maria wishes every committee member understood: you're not there to run your personal fiefdomShow notes at thecommitteeroom.com.au
Sep 21

Ep 21 Compliance Basics

It's an ordinary committee meeting. Nothing about compliance on the agenda. Then the secretary goes looking for the public liability certificate of currency — and the policy lapsed four months ago. And then someone remembers Dave, coaching the Under 12s since March, was due for a new Working With Children Check when his expired in April. Nobody followed that up either. Two essential obligations, quietly unmet for months. The club only found out because someone outside the club happened to ask. Compliance doesn't have to be complicated. It just has to be tracked. In this episode of the Documents Done Right series, Kate H and Kate M cover what you have to do, to whom, and by when — and the two tools that make staying on the right side of the law manageable for any volunteer committee. In this episode: What compliance actually is — and why it's a stress reliever, not a burdenThe Compliance Register: your master list of obligations built around what you are and what you doThe categories most committees overlook — fundraising, screening checks, events, staff, premises, privacy and photographsWhere to get reliable advice on what applies to your organisation — not a guess, not a google, your peak bodyThe Committee Calendar: the 'when' to the Register's 'what' — and why it belongs on every agenda as a standing itemPaper or online? Not even a close decisionAnnual review: building it into the calendar so it's not something you have to remember to rememberFree Compliance Register and Committee Calendar templates from the Committee Companion in the show notes. Full show notes and free downloads at thecommitteeroom.com.au

Practical governance for volunteer committees and not-for-profit organisations. Hosted by governance consultants Kate Hartwig and Kate McPhee, each episode tackles one topic — clearly, honestly, and without the jargon. Short enough to finish before your coffee goes cold.

Creator

Kate Hartwig and Kate McPhee
Years Active

2026
Episodes

28
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© 2026 Kate Hartwig and Kate McPhee. All rights reserved.
Show Website

The Committee Room