MSO Subscriber Service
MSO is an integrated set of services and resources designed to assist community sector, not for profit organisation to manage and operate confidently in challenging environments, to achieve and maintain excellence, and take initiative and explore innovation.
The MSO team combines diverse expertise and practical experience, specialising in community management and organisational building for the not for profit sector in Australia.
MSO is committed to the viability of the community sector and not for profit organisations, and to an ideal of strong organisations supporting healthy communities.
MSO is an Australian based subscriber service provided by independent management consultants Bradfield Nyland Group.
The service was developed in response to the need of community sector organisations for easily accessible, affordable and trustworthy information and advice.
The service aims to provide the highest quality resources and support to community and not for profit organisations.
Checking Your Needs
Checking your needs provides you and your organisation with a way of assessing what skill building or organisational improvements will be useful.
This section of the MSO will help you select the set of "skill building" activities that is right for you, or the set of "working better" activities that your organisation needs.
The review activities are simple question and answer forms, and the results are automatically collated on the screen for you. With the results of each review comes a suggested list of relevant skill building or organisational development activities.
The following assessments are available for both individual or organisations:
- Accountability and organisational culture
- Board of management
- Financial resources
- Planning
- Service delivery
- Staffing
- Systems and procedures
Skill Building
MSO provides online interactive training programs to build the essential skills of members of management and staff in a range of key competencies.
Skill building provides self directed training activities covering the core governance, management and operational skills needed by staff and members of management.
Each activity provides an overview of the topic, gives you essential information, and takes you through practical exercises. The practical exercises guide you in completing a piece of work that will directly benefit your organisation.
At the end of the activity, a short self assessment allows you to check your progress.
MSO also offers facilitated programs with group tutorials, conducted by teleconference or online, and individual feedback on completed work, on a fee for service basis.
- Finding your feet
- Boards and management committees
- Financial management
- Designing and maintaining systems
- Planning and monitoring performance
- Human resource management
- Managing services and activities
- Maintaining an ethical organisation
Working Better
MSO will give you and your organisation guides and work programs for evaluating and reviewing aspects of your organisation and making the changes you want in manageable stages.
Working better provides your organisation with structured guides to reviewing current ways of working, developing new approaches, and completing specific tasks such as the annual plan or budget. There are guided activities covering the core aspects of your organisation"s operation.
Each activity provides key information on the topic, and a set of practical exercises for relevant members of staff or members of management to undertake. The exercises are linked to specific tools, and take the group through the completion of particular tasks for the organisation.
MSO also offers direct consultancy assistance on a fee for service basis. MSO aims to keep the costs of direct assistance as affordable as possible for organisations, and assistance is tailored to the circumstances of individual organisations.
- Foundations for working well
- Developing effective governance
- Streamlining systems
- Managing financial resources
- Managing staff
- Developing and monitoring plans
- Improving services and activities
- Organisational culture and accountability
Resources
MSO will give you access to a comprehensive collection of relevant resources, information, tools and contacts.
In the Resources section of MSO you can make use of:
tools
The tool cabinet contains the 'pro forma' equipment such as checklists, policies and procedures, formats for various tasks such as planning or budgeting, and other useful documents that can be downloaded and tailored for your organisation.
info sheets
The info stand contains summary information sheets, each with the key information about a particular topic for easy and quick reference, or for distribution to relevant staff or board of management members.
library
The library contains all the larger documents, background reading materials, articles and discussion papers.
contact directory
The contact lists contain information about useful organisations and reference points, and links to other useful websites.
Getting Assistance
MSO provides a support service where you can get confidential assistance with management and operational problems from a team of experts.
The support service gives you access to confidential and well researched assistance and accurate information to help you with your organisational problems and issues.
You can lodge requests for information by email, and will receive an initial reply by the next business day.
If a request cannot be easily answered by email or fax, an mso team member will arrange to talk in more detail with you by phone.
Sharing Ideas
Sharing ideas provides you with a way of talking to other mso users to share information, discuss issues, or swap ideas.
This section of the MSO provides:
- a message board: this is a moderated discussion forum, which MSO team members monitor and may be involved in. You can read the board and add messages at any time.
- a meeting room: this is a "real time" chat facility, and site users can drop in at any time, organise a time to meet with others to talk about a particular issue, or join a scheduled forum.