Chair role & Senior Leadership roles

Role Description:

The Chair is the senior volunteer leader of YSPN, accountable for setting the organisation’s long-term vision, safeguarding its culture, and ensuring effective governance as the organisation scales. This role focuses on strategic direction, leadership alignment, and organisational health, rather than day-to-day execution.

 

The Chair enables others to succeed by empowering enablement and regional leads, establishing clear decision-making frameworks, and ensuring YSPN operates with integrity, purpose, and consistency. They act as a unifying force across the organisation, ensuring all initiatives align to YSPN’s mission, values, and strategic priorities. ​​

 

The Chair also represents YSPN at the highest level with key stakeholders and partners where appropriate. 

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How the Chair transition will work?

• We we are looking for 2-3 exemplary candidates who want to be the next YSPN Chair

• They will shadow the current Chair till Dec 2026 to understand how the organisation works and engrain themselves within the organisation to understand systems, processes, culture, delivery and the broader teams

• There will be a voting / application process to confirm the next Chair during Dec 2026

• Those who weren't successful after the voting process would be best suited to then join the Chair PMO team given the governance nature of the role

• You will still have access to the current Chair for 3-6 months for support once you are appointed the next Chair for any support and ongoing support post that period if required

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Skills / Capability: 

• Strategic leadership and vision-setting 

• Governance and decision-making frameworks 

• Organisational design and restructuring 

• Cultural stewardship and values-based leadership 

• Strong facilitation and influencing skills 

• Ability to coach, challenge, and support senior volunteers 

• High emotional intelligence and judgment  

 

Key responsibilities:​

• Vision, Strategy & Governance 

  • Define and steward YSPN’s vision, mission, and long-term goals 

  • Ensure all major initiatives align to organisational strategy and values 

  • Establish clear governance structures, decision rights, and accountability 

  • Guide organisational restructuring as YSPN grows 

• Organisational Effectiveness 

  • Identify systemic inefficiencies and commission improvements (via PMO / Enablement) 

  • Set expectations for leadership performance and collaboration 

  • Ensure role clarity across teams and leadership layers 

• Leadership Enablement 

  • Support, coach, and challenge senior leads (Regional, Enablement, PMO, etc.) 

  • Provide guidance on complex or sensitive issues escalated by leads 

  • Facilitate alignment across leadership forums 

• Culture & Community 

  • Act as chief custodian of YSPN’s culture and values 

  • Address cultural risks, misalignment, or leadership behaviours that undermine trust 

  • Reinforce a high-trust, service-oriented, and inclusive volunteer environment 

• Summit (Strategic Ownership) 

  • The Summit is our annual yearly gathering of volunteers into 1 location (usually an Australian city)

  • Set the purpose, outcomes, and success measures for the YSPN Summit 

  • Appoint and oversee Summit leads and workstreams 

  • Facilitate key sessions where leadership alignment or cultural reset is required 

• External Representation (where required) 

  • Represent YSPN with key external stakeholders where strategic credibility is required 

  • Support External Affairs and Revenue leads through high-level introductions where appropriate 

• Advisory Board meetings​

  • You will be required to coordinate with the YSPN Advisory Board comprised of senior executives, which may be conducted quarterly for broader updates or ad-hoc for working group style sessions on specific topics / initiatives​

  • Meetings are typically 1-1.5 hours 

  • Where a new Advisory Board need required, you will be required to identify new candidates

 

Direct reports 

• 5 reports

  • Oceania Regional Lead​

  • Asia Regional Lead

  • Americas Regional Lead

  • Growth Lead

  • Chair Project Management Office (PMO)

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Effort Estimate 

• 3-8 hours per fortnight (given the nature of the role there may be a requirement for more effort during peak periods of activity)​​​​​