Olette Bollen

Member Association:  Volt Netherlands

Gender: Female

What strategy would you implement to recruit and retain highly specialised volunteers for the functional teams, for example in communications, policy, or data, over a full Board term? 

I already have recruited volunteers for (new) functional teams, like for the NL Policy Quality Assurance team, Connect coreteam and PartnershipsTeam NL.
In first instance, I held interviews with all the candidates with the relevant employee from the party-office. If there was a person suitable for a co-lead role, following new team members would be recruited by this person. If necessary, I could joint the first interviews or rather have a preparation meeting with the co-lead. Interviews for a new co-lead would be done by me and the relevant employee again. The leaving co-lead could be asked to give candidates some information on what the role is like.
In the same way I would do this with roles I am less familiar with, and ask a current team member to joint the interviews.
I think it would be helpful to have the EUR HR-team to come up with a process for this. So that we professionalize our recruitment and selection.

Non-executive Board members must both support and challenge the executives. Describe a situation where you would publicly back the Co-Presidents, and one where you would publicly dissent. What guides your choice?

Publicly, a Board speaks with one mouth. We have our discussions behind closed doors. Here we argue the pro’s and cons of a decision. When a decision is made, every board member backs this up. Me included.
If there would be a situation where I would have a strong negative argument about the decision being made, I would put this in the minutes (minor situations) and/or have an extra meeting with one or more relevant board members (larger issues).
When things go really wrong, next steps on the escalation ladder can be taken, like be  informed by the appropriate Bodies. Based on that decide on further steps.
Based on my experience as a Dutch Board member, I would not publicly dissent a fellow-board member.

What would you do if you believed the Board was making a decision that conflicted with Volt Europa's core values?

Then we would have quite a discussion first. I would probably also put things in writing for argument and record-keeping purposes. Sometimes, a desired outcome can have a potential conflict of interest when tried to achieve in a certain way, but can be achieved with another approach.
If it would stay a conflict of interest or even be something illegal, and the person in question would not listen to any arguments anymore, then I would report this at the appropriate bodies. Preferably with support from other board members.