Board Secretary and Executive Assistant to the CEO

About the role

The Board Secretary & Executive Assistant to the CEO combines two distinct disciplines: professional Board and Committee secretariat, and high-level executive support to the CEO. The position is accountable for the end-to-end secretariat of the Board, all Board Committees, and ODH operational governance committees — in the order of twelve to fifteen standing committees in addition to the Board, most meeting bi-monthly or quarterly, with the full cycle scheduled annually in advance. It also provides governance advice, applying working knowledge of the Health Services Act 1988 (Vic), the ODH By-Laws and Standing Orders, Committee Terms of Reference, Director duties and liabilities, and conflict of interest management. As Executive Assistant, the position provides confidential, anticipatory support to the CEO including diary and inbox management, correspondence, briefing preparation, and tracking of CEO commitments across a complex regional and statewide stakeholder environment.

Key responsibilities

• Build, own, and drive the annual Board calendar and meeting cycle for the Board and all Committees, published in advance of each year, with cycles deliberately spaced to avoid deadline collisions across concurrent paper cycles

• Establish and maintain a forward agenda plan with at least 80% of items scheduled six to twelve months ahead, with author, due date, and reporting cycle against each; map every Terms of Reference obligation to a scheduled item

• Issue forward notice to authors well ahead of each due date, and actively drive authors, Executive, and Committee Chairs to the dates they have agreed

• Monitor schedule health continuously, identify slippage early, and escalate to the CEO while recovery remains straightforward

• Provide professional secretariat services in accordance with the ODH By-Laws, Standing Orders, and each Committee's Terms of Reference, including meeting logistics, attendance, apologies, and quorum records

• Prepare, quality-assure, and distribute agendas and complete papers no later than five (5) business days before each meeting

• Attend all meetings and record accurate, concise minutes constituting the formal record of the organisation's decisions — resolutions, declarations of interest, dissent, and actions

• Populate the resolution register at the point papers are distributed, entering each proposed resolution as it appears in the papers, then confirming or amending/updating after the meeting

• Update the resolution and action registers within one (1) business day; follow up and report outstanding actions at each subsequent meeting

• Provide confidential, anticipatory support to the CEO including diary and inbox management, correspondence, briefing preparation, and tracking of CEO commitments

About you

• A relevant tertiary qualification in governance, business, law, public administration, or a related discipline; or a Governance Institute of Australia Certificate in Governance Practice; or demonstrated equivalent experience of comparable depth

• A minimum of five years' experience in a board secretariat, company secretarial, governance, or senior executive support role, including at least three years with direct and primary responsibility for minute taking at board or committee level

• Demonstrated experience owning and driving a forward governance calendar and agenda plan across multiple committees, with specific examples of planning systems established or maintained and of holding authors and senior stakeholders to agreed dates

• Demonstrated experience providing governance advice to a Chair, board, or chief executive on meeting procedure, director duties, or conflict of interest management, within a legislated or regulated environment

• Proven ability to take accurate, concise, legally defensible minutes of complex meetings, and to maintain statutory and governance registers, action registers, and a compliance calendar to an audit-ready standard

• Demonstrated capacity to manage concurrent and overlapping meeting cycles to fixed, non-negotiable deadlines with minimal supervision, anticipating requirements rather than responding to prompting, with an exacting standard of attention to detail and accuracy

• Substantial experience providing confidential executive support at Chief Executive, Director, or Board level, including proactive diary, inbox, and commitment management

• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word styles, templates, document assembly), Microsoft Forms, and Adobe Acrobat (assembly, bookmarking, redaction, secure distribution of large documents)

• Demonstrated Microsoft SharePoint administrator capability — site and library configuration, permissions, version control — sufficient to administer the ODH Board portal without external support

• Sound political judgement, strong interpersonal skills, and demonstrated discretion in handling confidential, sensitive, and politically significant information

About us

Omeo District Health (ODH) is a Small Rural Health Service that provides a broad range of health and support services to our local communities. These include urgent care, acute care, transitional care (community and residential), residential aged care (permanent and respite), primary care, home-based care, and community-based/district nursing. Located in the East Gippsland High Country, ODH serves the Omeo and District region as the gateway to Victoria's spectacular Alpine region. The Administration Department provides organisation-wide support across corporate governance, executive and Board services, organisational communications, and corporate administration, coordinating governance processes and supporting the effective operation of the Board of Directors and its Committees to ensure compliance with legislative, regulatory, and accreditation obligations.