History of Amendments to the Constitution and Policy

The constitution is version-controlled in git. See the commit history

4 June 1976

Section 4, Composition, and Section 5, Affiliation, were added to the original Constitution.

16 February 1996

The Executive and Committee were renamed, Cancellation of Membership added, Affiliation removed, and clauses on Voting added to the Constitution

23 January 1998

The election of vacant committee positions was transferred from the Committee to a General Meeting.

6 October 1999

A number of changes were made on 6 October 1999, including the provision for purchase decisions outside of committee meetings, changes to procedures for special meetings and the requirement to keep an up to date online copy of the constitution.

16 December 2010

The club voted to incorporate under the Associations Incorporation Act 1987, necessitating several changes for compliance with the Act - so we took the opportunity to fix up several other problems at the same time. Spelling, grammar and formatting changes have been omitted.

  • Section: Name

    • Changed name of the club to include Inc.

  • Section: Definitions

    • Modified 'club' definition to incorporated name
    • Added financial year, special resolution, the Act, the Commissioner, University.

  • Section: Objects

    • Modified the main object to make it more focused on the objects of the club, who we are and what we do.
    • Modified object 3 to satisfy non-profit status whilst maintaining requirements for SOC affiliation

  • Section: Membership

    • Added subsection 3, binding all members to comply with Guild regulations - required for SOC affiliation

  • Section: Election

    • Added subsection 2.1 to clarify absentee nominations and acceptance thereof

  • Section: General Powers

    • Renamed to Powers of the Club
    • Entire section replaced with the appropriate section from the model rules, then modified to include that the club cannot go into more than $100 long term debt, as per the old constitution

  • Section: Common Seal of the Club (new)

    • Added after the renamed Powers of the Club Section - required under the Act

  • Section: Meetings of the Committee

    • Renamed to Proceedings of Committee
    • Added subsection 5. Declaration of Pecuniary Interest, content taken directly from the Department of Commerce model rules
    • Slight change of wording in the Voting subsection 6.2 that you must be eligible to vote for your vote to count
    • Changed the rules of debate to Roberts Rules of Order newly revised

  • Section: Duties of Committee Members

    • Secretary
      • Added subsection 1 for provision of custody of the membership register - required under the Act
      • Added a clause to subsection 1 covering what can/can't be done with the membership register - required under the Act
      • Modified the recording of General Meeting minutes to now be published online instead of a minute book
    • Treasurer
      • Only the last subsection didn't change, most things have been reworded to make them more specific, and to ensure that proper accounting records will be kept under the Act
      • Made auditing of accounting records for each AGM at the discretion of committee

  • Section: General Meetings

    • Notice of meeting modified to be less ambiguous
    • Quorum for a General Meeting increased to 15 people present in person
    • Rules of Debate changed to Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised
    • Voting
      • Subsection 2, must now be eligible to vote for your vote to count
      • Subsection 3 added, proxy voting and postal voting no longer permitted

  • Section: Removal from Office

    • Added a new subsection after Subsection 1 so that a person has a chance to defend themselves before being removed
    • Changed Subsection 4 to reflect new subsection

  • Section: Cancellation of Membership

    • Added a cooling off period for new members, and fixed to close several loopholes (stops people from rejoining straight away)

  • Section: Finance

    • Executive no longer required to be the trustees of the club
    • Modified so that policy made at a General Meeting can limit withdrawal powers of the executive (stops the Investments policy contradicting the Constitution)

  • Section: Policy

    • Modified to include that policy cannot contradict the Act
    • Modified so that any change in policy now requires a special resolution (used to be two-thirds)

  • Section: Amendments to the Constitution

    • Changed to cover legal obligations under the Act, notably must now have a 75% majority to change the constitution.

  • Section: Dissolution (new)

    • Added - required under the Act

2014

  • Expand committee
    • replacing 3 OCMs with 2 OCMs and 1 Ed Officer and 1 Social Officer,
    • replacing VP with Ed VP and Social VP
    • Committee is now 1 President, 1 Ed VP. 1 Social VP, 1 Treasurer, 1 Secretary, 1 Fresher Rep, 1 Ed Officer, 1 Social Officer, 2 OCMs.

2015

  • Clarifications to roll of Ed VP and Social VP.
  • Up numbers required to call an SGM.
  • Typo Fixes

2016

  • Some small changes to being inline with new incorperations act.
    • mostly around quorum sizes, and financial year.

2017

  • Remaining changes for the Associations Incorporation Act 2015

    • Most notably the addition of the dispute resolution section.

  • Revert changes to committee size from 2014

    • Committee is now 1 President, 1 VP, 1 Treasurer, 1 Secretary, 1 Fresher Rep, 3 OCMs.

2019

  • Even more leftover changes to be compliant with the 2015 Act

    • Change reference to the Act from 1987 to 2015
    • Require the Executive to be financial members of the Club
      • Previously, only non-exec had to be members
    • Specify that memberships expire at the beginning of the AGM

  • Provisions for resignation from the club, and removing the 14-day notice requirement to resign from the committee

  • Specify that members may only hold one committee position at a time