Creating a Governance Calendar: What to Include and Why 

Good governance is proactive, not reactive. A well-structured governance calendar helps the board maintain regulatory compliance, stay focused on strategy, and avoid last-minute fire drills. A governance calendar will serve as a roadmap for the board’s responsibilities across the year.

What is a Governance Calendar

A Governance Calendar is a document or tool that outlines all key governance activities, compliance deadlines, reviews, and board responsibilities on a month-by-month basis. It is typically maintained by the company secretary or governance team. 

The Benefits of Maintaining a Governance Calendar 

• Ensures compliance with deadlines (ASIC, ATO, ACNC, Corporations Act).
• Improves board effectiveness and preparation.
• Strengthens strategic alignment by scheduling major strategic discussions and reviews.
• Enhances transparency between board and executive.
• Reduces meeting fatigue by distributing workloads more evenly.

What to Include in Your Governance Calendar

A comprehensive governance calendar should reflect the full spectrum of a board’s responsibilities from regulatory compliance to strategic oversight. At a minimum, your calendar should include:

• Statutory & Compliance Obligations: Annual returns, policy reviews, ASIC/ACNC deadlines.
• Financial Oversight: Budget approvals, audit reports, and monthly or quarterly reporting cycles.
• Strategy & Performance: Dedicated sessions for strategic planning, mid-year reviews, and KPI assessments.
• Governance Policies & Procedures: Review of board charters, committee terms, and board evaluations.
• People & Remuneration: Executive remuneration and incentive review, succession planning, and board training and development sessions.
• Meeting Planning: Planning major agenda items well in advance helps ensure no important topics are missed.

Tips for Maintaining & Using Your Calendar

• Treat it as a living document, updating it throughout the year as priorities shift.
• Assign ownership for each task or review.
• Link to agenda planning to ensure alignment.
• Host it within your board portal for centralized access and visibility.
• Use colour-coding or tags for committee-specific tasks.
• Use the calendar to track and acknowledge the completion of major milestones.
• At the end of the year, hold a brief "calendar retrospective" with the Chair and Company Secretary to refine and adapt it for the year ahead.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

• Cramming too many governance tasks into a single meeting can lead to superficial discussions and poor decision-making.
• Failing to integrate the management team's planning cycles, thereby creating impossible deadlines for the executive team.
• Using vague item descriptions as ambiguity leads to mismatched expectations and inefficient meetings.
• Not aligning with the organisation’s strategic cycle.
• Populating the main board calendar but forgetting to include committee-specific reviews.
• Treating it as a static document rather than a living planning tool.

Conclusion

A 12-month governance calendar is a strategic asset that empowers your board to lead with foresight and confidence. By building and maintaining a governance calendar, governance is transformed from a series of reactive tasks into a proactive driver of organizational success. Start now by reviewing last year's meetings and deadlines and ask, “what would a more strategically aligned, less stressful year look like for your board?”