Policies, procedures and templates

Valuing Organisational Improvement and Community Excellence (VOICE) is an online resource comprised of management policies, procedures and templates designed to help with the day-to-day running of a community organisation. VOICE was developed as part of the Strengthening Indigenous Non-Government Organisations initiative. Although targeted at Indigenous organisations, its resources are relevant to all NGOs.

The content provided on VOICE includes documents that are grouped into five categories:

• office administration;
• people using the service;
• people working in the service;
• governance and accountability; and
• style guides.

Office administration

This section contains documents relating to basic administration and general office administration functions such as communication, filing, organising and running meetings, setting up registers and employing staff. There are also basic style guides and templates for documents such as letterhead, faxes and reports.

People using the service

This section contains documents that support the organisation's engagement with its local community and the support it provides to clients who access the service. Documents have been grouped under the sub-categories of community and client.

People working in the service

This section includes documents that relate to recruiting and supporting staff and volunteers. There are also some documents relating to workplace health and safety.

Governance and accountability

This section includes documents that support good governance, covering areas such as strategic planning, roles and responsibilities of management committees and financial management.

Style guides

This section gives a few style guides for commonly used forms of communication, such as letters, emails and faxes.

Types of documents included in VOICE

• Topic Guides introduce key topics and competencies/skills in running a community organisation. They include key points to consider when undertaking that task.
• Policies and Procedures provide a suggested policy statement which an organisation may choose to adopt and a practical set of procedures to implement that policy.
• Templates are blank forms that could be refined and used to support implementation. 
• Samples are also provided to show how a completed form might look.
• References and Resources list references to other websites and publications.

References to specific positions in documents

The documents contain references to specific positions in organisations such as employees, administration officers, program supervisors and managers. These are intended to be generic references and it is acknowledged that this may not apply in many cases. For example, some employee or administration officer tasks may in fact be undertaken by management committee members or other volunteers in the organisation.

Saving the documents

The documents provided on VOICE can be used in their current format or can be adapted to your organisation's needs. Organisations can place their own logo on all templates by deleting the logo placeholder and replacing it with their own.

Complete the template by typing in required information. Save the completed form to your local network or hard drive following your organisation's file management procedures.