The 10 GSAT Dimensions

In its Article VII (Chapter III), the WOSM Constitution outlines several obligations for Member Organizations such as (a) continued acceptance of and conformity with the requirements of the Constitution of the World Organization, (b) to make an annual report to the World Scout Bureau, (c) to get approval by the World Scout Committee prior to implementation of changes to its national constitution. Besides formal requirements stated in the WOSM Constitution, there are several best practices listed in this dimension (1) that express full integration of an NSO into the World Scout Movement such as the NSO’s participation to World or Regional Conferences and Events, in-country legal registration, protection of the Scouting names, logos and brands, submission of financial audited reports etc.

Dimension (2) looks at the governance of the organisation. The “National Board” is the policy-making body of an NSO while the “General Assembly” would be its highest authority. The “National Board” provides the strategic direction of the organisation and ensures that the long-term vision-mission, goals, and objectives of the organisation are carried out by the management and “Executive Team”. This Board must be composed of independent-minded persons acting in a voluntary capacity. They should possess certain qualifications that benefit the organisation’s principles and adhere to conflict of interest policies. Moreover, the Board should be governed by its own rules on conduct, attendance, meetings, quorum, voting rights, and terms of office.

This dimension (3) deals with the NSO’s reason for being: its vision-mission statement, its consistency throughout the NSO’s operations, structure and processes, and how it projects itself to its beneficiaries and the public. It investigates and assesses the extent to which these governing principles are documented, adopted, embedded, and made consistent with the NSO’s governing documents, structure, and processes, and how clearly these are communicated to its stakeholders and publics.

This dimension (4) addresses the organisation’s ethical standards and practices, checks and balances, Safe from Harm policy, behavioural policies, and non-conformance processes and systems. Organisational policies, systems and procedures shall be pre-defined and documented so that staff and volunteers will be guided not only in the performance of their respective duties and responsibilities but more importantly in their conduct and behaviour.

This dimension (5) revolves around the communication policy of the organisation with regard to its various internal and external stakeholders, particularly in relation to its operational undertakings, finances, stewardship, and the overall image it wishes to build and project. The overall purpose is here to assess the policy of transparency and how the organization keeps the public and its stakeholders apprised of its operations.

This dimension (6) deals with how the NSO handles human resources related matters such as recruitment, hiring, training, performance management, compensation and benefits, security, succession and employees’ relations. It is therefore critical to the NSO’ success, and sustainability, that the right people are chosen for each position, that their performance is properly monitored and assessed, and that they are adequately compensated for their efforts and outputs. As per the Adults in Scouting World Policy, when referring to Adults, we refer to professionals - paid staff - and volunteers.

This dimension (7) focuses on financial policies, resource generation and allocation, and financial controls. The objective is to determine the organization’s levels of financial accountability and transparency. This is done through an examination and measurement of the organization’s financial systems and processes in place (or lack of) and identification of areas of improvement to address the weak aspects of the financial system.

This dimension (8) deals with the NSO’s reason of being: from planning its major thrusts and objectives to detailing its mode of operations at the programme, project, and field levels. NSOs need to operate on certain planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation and feedback adjustment systems.

This Dimension (9) expresses the need for non-profits in general to make efforts to keep their current levels of service and funding. Those NSOs that grow are likely to do something proactively (otherwise, “competition” is likely to dent their “market share”). Several factors are critical to a non-profit’s ability to grow among which: Preparing for growth, demonstrating results, marketing to specific funders and engaging Board members’ time, talent and resources.

This last Dimension (10) concentrates on the NSO’s continuous and sustained improvement. All NSOs need to undergo an audit of their management systems, making their findings known to all concerned parties, implement corrective or preventive actions and ultimately take stock of the lessons learned, this is a prerequisite towards the NSO’s continuous improvement.