Don't pay boardS – sell them

should housing association board members be paid? It's a complex question. But why have we not looked at any other ways to attract people? There is more than one way to crack a nut.

I would like to suggest an alternative to payment: the promotion of board membership. Most people are unaware of the benefits it brings, such as the chance to affect people's lives and enhance your own life skills. If these were promoted, there would be no need for payment to attract new members.

As a sector, we have never pursued a positive marketing strategy that would raise awareness of board membership. As a country, we have never had a national strategy for attracting board members to all the organisations – in housing, health, education, charities and the community – that operate in this way.

So how might such a strategy work? I suggest that an organisation be set up to raise awareness of, market and promote membership of boards on a national scale. It would cut across all sectors and deliver an agreed national standard. It would have the resources to market board membership nationally and promote high standards of training and support for new and existing board members.

Promoting board membership raises standards and delivers a constant supply of people

When someone expressed an interest in taking part, an induction session would identify the sector they were most suited to, whether at a local, regional or national level, and the opportunities that were, or might become, available to them. Their skills could be assessed, any training needs identified and responsibilities and governance issues introduced. Then, when a housing association or any other organisation needed a new member, there would be a pool of suitable people for them to approach.

The cost of setting up and running a national body to attract board members would be offset against the probable cost to each organisation of paying its board. An association with a board of 15 people could decide to pay each member £5000 and its chair £10,000, resulting in an annual payment to the board of £80,000. In the 30-year life of its business plan each association would spend £2.4m, not including the costs of servicing board meetings, training and other events. The board thus becomes a very significant business expenditure – and this is a conservative assumption, because the Housing Corporation's consultation document started at a proposed maximum payment of £20,000, comparable to the remuneration of chairs of larger NHS trusts.

Promoting membership has a number of benefits. It brings a great cost saving to associations and raises standards. It would also overcome many of the negatives that payment would bring, such as smaller, less balanced and diverse boards, and a restriction on tenant involvement. Plus, it would deliver a constant supply of members.