There's a pattern showing up across a lot of post-settlement iwi and hapū organisations right now, and it's worth naming because it's easy to miss from the inside.
Settlement is the hard part everyone prepares for. Years of work, culminating in the return of assets and a real chance to build something lasting. What tends to catch organisations off guard is what comes after. Asset bases grow. Whānau expectations grow with them. Compliance obligations multiply. And the usual response, sensible on its face, is to create one new role to hold it all together. A Governance Secretary. An Operations Coordinator. Someone central, capable, and trusted with a lot.
The risk isn't in the person. It's in the job description.
Two jobs wearing one title
Governance oversight and operational coordination are related, but they're not the same job. One is about making sure decisions are made properly: that trustees have what they need, that conflicts of interest are identified before they become a problem, that the record of what was decided and why can stand up to scrutiny later. The other is about keeping the organisation moving day to day: diaries, correspondence, projects, relationships with contractors and funders.
A skilled person can do both. But stacking them into a single newly created role, often without deep governance experience behind it, means the organisation is relying on that one person to notice when something needs to go up to the board as a governance matter rather than get handled as routine admin. That's a lot to ask, especially early in a role, and especially in a small team where there isn't really anyone to check with.
Where the gap tends to show up
It rarely shows up on a quiet week. It shows up when something contentious comes to the table: a decision involving a related party, a dispute between hapū or whānau interests, an asset decision with long-term consequences, or a Trustee who wants to understand exactly what they're accountable for and finds the answer isn't clearly documented anywhere.
In those moments, the coordination role can only carry the organisation so far. What's missing isn't effort, it's independent governance experience sitting alongside the operational support, someone whose job is specifically to watch for the things a busy internal team doesn't have the distance to see.
What this looks like done well
The organisations getting this right aren't necessarily the ones with the biggest teams. They're the ones who've separated the two jobs on purpose. An operations or governance secretariat role that keeps the organisation moving, supported by independent governance advisory input, whether that's an independent trustee, periodic board advisory support, or simply someone experienced to sense check the harder calls before they're made.
This isn't about adding bureaucracy to an already busy organisation. It's about making sure the person holding the coordination role isn't quietly also expected to be the organisation's governance safety net.
This article is general information and isn't a substitute for advice on your specific situation. Every trust and hapū organisation's governance needs look different. If you'd like to talk through what independent governance support could look like for your organisation, get in touch.