Board Director (Voluntary)

SAFCA is the professional association for Financial Counsellors in South Australia and the Northern Territory.

SAFCA has a volunteer Board Director position available for person with experience in governance and/or human resource management and/or technology and/or executive management to join the board that governs our Association.

The SAFCA Board comprises of seven elected financial counsellor members and four independent members, to ensure we have the necessary mix of industry knowledge and governance skills.

Every year, Financial Counsellors assist thousands of South Australians and Northern Territorians who are experiencing financial difficulty. Given the current cost of living crisis financial counselling services are in high demand to support people.

SAFCA provides professional development required by financial counsellors to keep up with the latest developments in such areas as banking, utilities and debt collection practices around hardship and collections.

We also advocate directly to government and industry to improve outcomes for people who are experiencing financial difficulty.

Aims of SAFCA

The aims of SAFCA are to ensure that:

• Financial counsellors in South Australia are supported to achieve best practice;
• The financial counselling sector has secure, stable and sustainable funding;
• SAFCA engages with a wide range of stakeholders to ensure recognition of financial counselling as a highly regarded profession;
• Vulnerable consumers have an effective voice through systems advocacy; and
• SAFCA is a well governed, strong, adaptive organisation that is valued by members, government and other stakeholders as the peak body in SA and NT for financial counsellors to assist people experiencing financial difficulty through financial counselling. 

About the Position

The role of the Board is to govern SAFCA so that its mission is carried out effectively whilst acting ethically and prudently, operating within the law and the SAFCA constitution and meeting obligations contained in agreements with government and funders. SAFCA has a well developed set of governance and management policies.  We have received certification of the quality program “Australian Service Excellence Standards”.

The Board is the link between the SAFCA membership and the organisation. It gets its authority from and is accountable to the SAFCA membership.

SAFCA employs a full-time Chief Executive Officer, and seven other staff.

The Board meets 7-8 times per year, usually on a Monday, during the day.  All meetings are held online or occasionally mixed mode of online/in person.  Board members are also expected to participate in one or more of the subcommittees that have been established to assist the Board.

The SAFCA Board welcomes and values diversity.

A Position Description is available below.

This is a volunteer position. 

This is an opportunity to be part of a board that cares about best practice for financial counsellors to improve outcomes for people experiencing financial difficulty.

Next Steps

If you have a strong commitment to social justice, have human resource management and/or technology and/or executive management skills and experience and are interested in becoming a member of the SAFCA Board, we would like to hear from you.

For a confidential discussion, please contact the Chair, Kelly Hughes on 0490 862 926.