(‘Independent’ means not a large investor; ‘non-executive’ means not holding or
seeking an employee role with its own job description)
Location: From home with quarterly in person meetings in Bristol
Salary: This is a voluntary position but reasonable expenses will be paid
Hours: We estimate this role to take 3 hours per week on average

About GO-OP:

GO-OP aims to improve access to public transport by providing open
access rail services linking main lines to smaller market towns. Where feasible, we
will go on to provide light rail or bus links or develop carpools to enable outlying
communities to access these services.
Our mission is “in accordance with co-operative principles, to facilitate the provision
of inclusive public transport services of high quality in order to reduce the social and
environmental impacts of transport.”

We measure our success according to benefits to the community such as:

• Reduced greenhouse gas emissions
• Reduced road traffic
• Improved resilience and sustainability of outlying communities
• More evenly distributed economic opportunities
• Greater mobility for non-car owners
• Health of pedestrians and cyclists
• Opportunities for communities to specify their own public transport service
  level

Purpose of the Role:

The board of directors is crucial in driving GO-OP forward and
making this ambitious, yet forward-thinking and positive enterprise happen. As a
Director you will be involved in overseeing and decision making for GO-OP’s strategy.
If you have a specialism to share, such as finance, fundraising, marketing, or sector
experience you will be encouraged to lead on these areas and provide guidance to the
board and team.

Main Responsibilities

• Keep on top of new information and the running of the organisation to be able
  to contribute effectively to decision making
• Contribute to and attend the AGM
• Ensure that the group is working towards its objectives and mission statement
• Take an equal share of responsibility for: setting long term strategy, monitoring
  financial performance, ensuring good governance, risk management and any
  other key areas of oversight
• Be an example for other to look to in organisational values and culture
  including cooperative ethics and values
• Ensure that member participation is monitored and members are given a voice
  and taken into consideration at all possible opportunities.
• Maintain good relationships with paid staff (as we hire them) to ensure they are
  supported and achieving their targets

Person Specification:

• Looking for people who are enthusiastic, committed to our mission, and can
  attend regular board meetings
• Understand or willing to learn about co-operative principles and well suited to
  working within them
• Directors must be a member of GO-OP; or a nominee of an organisation that is
  a member of GO-OP. This ideally means that you will be a prospective user of
  our transport services, or a prospective employee. However, there are a small
  number of places on the board for ‘non-user’ members.
• Over 18
• Not on the list of persons barred from directing a company (if you have been
  through a bankruptcy, business failure or you are under a debt management
  order, this does not automatically rule you out – but please tell us all about it
  early on).
• You must be able to listen well and engage effectively with discussion

We are particularly looking for people with skills and knowledge in any of the
following specialisms:

• Train and transport sector
• Logistics and project management
• Green technology
• Marketing and customer service
• Fundraising and community shares
• It is important, however, that the Board of Directors has a range of skills,
  perspectives, experiences and temperaments that allow it to reach the best possible
  decisions and move the project on. Community enterprises are often run by people
  who haven’t been a Director of a business before or hadn’t thought it is something
  they would be interested in. This doesn’t stop them doing an incredible job, by
  combining their judgement and enthusiasm with the expert knowledge of other
  Directors, employees and contractors. So, if you are excited about GO-OP, we
  encourage you to get in touch.

What you’ll get out of it:

• Be part of the first mainline Co-operative train service in the UK, along with
  leading on a service which tackles transport climate change issue head on
• Gain and develop new skills, and knowledge – we are keen to support directors
  in gaining qualifications, as resources permit
• Attend events, networking meetings and other experiential opportunities
• Make a significant change in your community
• Build your qualifications for serving on boards of other social enterprises
• As GO-OP secures trading opportunities, we expect to introduce an attendance
  allowance so that board members can devote more of their working lives to it.
  However, this is likely to be modest and will not be available for some time.

To Apply:
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer Director for GO-OP, please contact:
Alex Lawrie t: 0300 456 2265 e: info@go-op.coop