Dear Visitor,

Proposed Changes to the KHA Constitution at 2024 AGM

This is an introduction to proposed changes to the KHA Constitution, for consideration at 2024 AGM.

Members can access details of the proposed changes and the draft Constitution 2024 by logging on to the KHA website. The proposed changes can be found on the website under Members Area > Admin > Constitution Review. All members are encouraged to review the proposed changes prior to the AGM. If any member has difficulty logging on to the website, please contact Pip Brown on 0431 956 426 for assistance.

The KHA Constitution was last updated at the 2018 AGM. Since that time, the ACT’s Associations Act (under which KHA is incorporated) has been updated nine (9) times affecting 65 sections; with the most recent update to the Act being on 12^th December 2023. In addition, the ACT Government released in February 2024 the long awaited ‘Model Rules’ for associations; these Model Rules must be followed by an association in matters that are not covered in the association’s own rules.

The ACT Association Act (the ‘Act’) can be found at: Associations Incorporation Act 1991 | Acts

The ACT Model Rules (the ‘Model Rules’) can be found at: Associations Incorporation Regulation 2023 | Subordinate laws (act.gov.au)

The KHA committee and the Public Officer have undertaken a review of the Constitution and have identified that the Constitution requires amendment to accommodate changes to the Act and also to the way business is now conducted (in such things as changing banking practices).

Changes to the Act will require amendment to the Constitution to accommodate such things as:

• confidentiality of member’s contact details,
• member’s right of access to KHA documents,
• disqualification of committee members and Public Officer for bankruptcy of specified convictions under the Act,
• financial auditing requirements,
• use of the Common Seal and authentication of documents, and
• dispute resolution.

Changes to the way businesses operate that necessitate amendment to the Constitution include:

• management of funds (with the move away from cheques to electronic funds management), and
• the way people are contacted (less postal and more email or other electronic communications).

The Committee has detailed each proposed change to the Constitution in the following documents (which can be accessed on the KHA website):

1. “Proposed changes to the KHA Constitution - for KHA 2024 AGM consideration”, and

Each proposed change is explained in four columns – the first column numbers each change, the second column describes the reason for the proposed change to the Constitution, the third column shows how the current Constitution deals with the matter, and the fourth column shows how the proposed Constitution would deal with the matter.

2. “Draft - KHA Constitution – for KHA 2024 AGM consideration”

This is a draft of the Constitution with all proposed changes incorporated.

The proposed changes are colour-coded for ease of identification in both documents:

• Light Blue – highlights a change to the Constitution that was approved at the 2018 AGM, but an oversight meant it was not included in the published Constitution in 2018 (see Rule 22(2)(e) of the draft Constitution).
• Green – highlights proposed changes to the Constitution to meet requirements of the Act or the ‘Model Rules’.
• Yellow – highlights proposed changes to the Constitution due to changes in business practices.
• Pink – highlights reference changes due to proposed changes of Constitution rules.

All proposed amendments to the KHA Constitution will be dealt with individually, with opportunity for discussion before voting, at the AGM on 18^th May 2024.

Kind regard,