Several thousand people in ten areas around England and Wales have voted for schemes in which offenders can perform important work cleaning up prominent eyesores and enhancing the local environment. They were invited to vote for one of five possible projects and work on the winning projects has started now in ‘Clean-Up Week’ A further short list of projects will be started later in the year.’Clean-Up Week’ is designed to raise the public’s awareness and understanding of community punishments and community sentences. During the week teams of offenders will be put to work on a variety of projects including the regeneration of public rights of way, clearing up cemeteries, and installing community safety features in council estates.

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Councillors in South Ribble, in the north west of England, have taken part in a pilot assessment scheme to help develop their leadership skills. The 360 degree assessment seeks to identify their strengths and weaknesses and helps them to decide what they could start to do, stop doing and continue to do or do differently. Each council member could choose up to eight people who they wanted to complete assessment questionnaires. This could include other councillors at South Ribble, councillors at other councils they came into contact with, officers of the council or people they worked with on outside bodies. Because of the success of the assessment it is likely to become an annual event.This form of assessment has been in use for managers at South Ribble for some years and focuses on teamwork, employee development, and customer service. By involving a full circle of feedback sources it provides a more comprehensive picture of performance than relying on a one to one supervisor to employee feedback.

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By Richard P. Chait, William P. Ryan and Barbara E. TaylorThe authors provide a new framework for helping nonprofit organizations maximize the effectiveness of their boards. They seek to redefine nonprofit governance by setting out a new covenant between trustees and executives which results in more macrogovernance in exchange for less micromanagement.

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