So what are some of the key changes?
- Associations are no longer prohibited from trading, as long as it is consistent with the Association's main purposes and not for the purpose of obtaining profits for members.
- Clearer legal duties of office holders. This includes duties imposed on committee members, the Secretary and any other person who is influential in the Association or is involved in key decision making.
- New privacy requirements, including the right of members to restrict access to their personal information.
- Additional items to be included in the Rules of the Association, including procedures for the resignation of a member, keeping accurate minutes of all general and committee meetings, and addressing the rights, obligations and liabilities of members.
- A new financial reporting structure.
- Associations will now have 'Secretaries' instead of 'Public Officers'.
- New grievance and disciplinary procedures.
What to do now?
There is a transitional period which expires on 26 November 2013. By that time, every Association that currently uses the Model Rules will need to either:
Adopt the new Model Rules; or
Draft and adopt their own new Rules which comply with the new Act.If your Association uses the Model Rules and does nothing, the new Model Rules will automatically apply from 26 November 2013. Given that the new default Model Rules are very different to the old Rules, they might not be suitable for every Association. We recommend that every Association acts early to consider the new Rules and whether or not they should be adopted 'as is' or, instead, whether unique Rules should be drafted to suit the particular Association and its needs (while still complying with the new Act, of course!).
Associations that already have their own unique set of Rules (i.e. not the Model Rules) can continue to use those Rules after 26 November 2013. However, if those Rules are changed in the future, the new Rules must be updated to include all the recent changes.
How Sharrock Pitman Legal can help
If you have any queries on what your Association needs to do, please feel free to give Mitchell Zadow on 1300 205 506.
The information contained in this article is intended to be of a general nature only and should not be relied upon as legal advice. Any legal matters should be discussed specifically with one of our lawyers.
Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.
Mitchell is the Managing Principal of our law practice.
He is an Accredited Specialist in Commercial Law (accredited by the Law Institute of Victoria). He also deals with areas of Employment Law, Wills & Estate Planning and Probate. For further information, contact Mitchell on his direct line (03) 8561 3318.
