4. Review Current Organisational Activities and the Constitution

It’s good business practice to review your rule book regularly and before your AGM is ideal. This is because if you want to make changes to your rules, they must be approved by members passing a special resolution. (A special resolution is passed when 75 per cent of the members present and voting at the AGM agree to the proposal.)

Preparation of various aspects of organisational activities and the Constitution will require planned timeframes. There needs to be sufficient lead time for consulting with external expert advisors and approvals, well in advance of an AGM.

Over time your corporation naturally evolves which means your business activities and how you run them can change too. This is also an opportunity to review staff position descriptions so that they align with organisational goals and the Constitution

Rule books should be updated to:

·       Say what the corporation does. The objectives in your rule book need to reflect the business of your corporation.

·       Set out how your corporation is to be run. If your rule book sets out certain requirements you must follow them, even if they’re out of date. This is why it’s so important that your rule book keeps in step with the way your corporation wants to work, the requirements of members and directors, and how decisions are made.

Some rule books have been around for a long time. Corporations set their rules when they first register. Some still have the Registrar-initiated rule book from when they transitioned from the old Aboriginal Councils and Associations Act 1976 to the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006. Those rule books are probably now out of date.

Some reasons for making changes to your rule book are to:

·       Improve the way the corporation is run, how decisions are made, or the process for electing directors.

·       Add new activities into the corporation’s objectives.

·       Open up membership to another language group or geographical area.

·       Add the use of technology to hold directors’ and members’ meetings (e.g. Teleconference) or distribution of documents to members by email.

·       Make the rules easier to read and understand.

·       Fix a minor error or problem that was missed the last time the rules were updated.[1]