More about How AIA Works
The Committee Meetings are called by the Secretary who sends an email to every Committee Member. This email will tell you the time, day, date and place of the meeting and will attach two files:
- the Agenda, and
- the Minutes of the last Committee Meeting.
Because the Committee is making decisions and spending money on behalf of all the AIA Members it is important that all decisions are made at Committee Meetings and proper records are kept so that all the members can see exact what is happening.
The Agenda tells you what is going to happen at the meeting and what will be discussed. It looks like this:
Armidale International Association Incorporated
AGENDA for Committee Meeting
To be held on Tuesday, 10th April, 2011 at 5.30pm
at the Letters Room in Dixson Library, UNE
1. Meeting open:
2. Present:
3. Apologies:
4. Minutes of the last meeting
5. Correspondence:
6. Business arising:
7. Reports:
(A) President's Report:
(B) Treasurer's Report:
(C) Sub-Committee Report:
8. [this only appears if there is something else to discuss]
9. Date of the next meeting:
10. Meeting closed
Note: Members are invited to read any Correspondence and Notes related to the above items before the actual start of the meeting.
If you can attend the meeting, then please be on time (as respect for the other Committee Members) and if you cannot attend, then please email the Secretary and "give your apologies" which means just telling the Secretary that you will not be able to attend.
The meeting has a Chair Person (usually the President) who manages the meeting and makes sure that everything happens properly and is recorded in the Minutes which all the Members can read later and keep up-to-date with what the Committee is doing on their behalf.
Then, at the actual meeting, the Chair Person follows the Agenda and the Secretary will write down the Minutes which is like this:
Armidale International Association Incorporated
MINUTES of the Committee Meeting
held on Tuesday, 10th April, 2011 at 5.30pm
at the Letters Room in Dixson Library, UNE
1. Meeting opened: [the time the meeting starts]
2. Present: [this is a list of all the committee members who attend the meeting]
3. Apologies: [this is a list of any committee members who apologised because they could not attend the meeting] [if the apologies are accepted then "ACCEPTED" is written in at the end of the names]
4. Minutes of the Meeting held on [the date of the previous meeting]. [The President will ask if all the committee members agree that the Minutes are correct. If everyone agrees, then the Secretary adds "ACCEPTED". If there is something wrong (usually someone would see that earlier and contact the Secretary so that the Minutes can be corrected before the actual meeting), then the change is discussed and either agreed to or not. Whatever happens, the Secretary records that there is a change or Amendment, writes down the change and adds "Accepted with the following Amendment".]
5. Correspondence: [This is about all the letters received and sent by AIA since the last meeting. The Committee is asked to accept the correspondence (or not) and "APPROVED" or "ACCEPTED" is written.]
6. Business arising: [This is a list of all the things that were discussed at the last meeting where something was to happen. For example, at the last meeting an event might have been discussed and a committee member might have volunteered to find out how to rent premises to hold the activity in, how to book it and how much it would cost. These things are now told to the committee to help a decision being made.]
7. Reports:
(A) President's Report: [The President tells the Committee Members what they have done since the last meeting. If this is something complicated, then the President will have a written report to add to the Minutes. If it is complicated and requires a decision at this meeting, then the President would have asked the Secretary to email the report to each Committee Member with the Agenda and Previous Minutes, so that each Committee Member had time to think about it and ask questions before the meeting takes place. The Committee is asked to accept the report (or not) and "ACCEPTED" is written.]
(B) Treasurer's Report: [The treasurer gives a written report on all money paid in and paid out since the last meeting. The Committee is asked to accept the report (or not) and "ACCEPTED" is written.]
(C) Sub-Committee Report: [If there are any sub-committees who are working on projects, then they would report here. It would be the same sort of report as the President's Report. The Committee is asked to accept the report (or not) and "ACCEPTED" is written.]
8. [this only appears if there is something else to discuss] [If you want to discuss something at the meeting, you need to email the Secretary before the Agenda is sent and ask for an Agenda item to be added. That way it can be added to the Agenda before it is sent to the Committee Members and everyone knows what will be discussed. For example, if you want the committee to think about a new activity, say an international film festival, you would ask the Secretary to add the item to the Agenda. When everyone receives the Agenda it will have: "8. International Film Festival. An idea suggested by [your name]." That way, any other Committee Members can contact you before the meeting and tell you what they know about organising an International Film Festival and you can have several discussions with them before the meeting which helps you to prepare what you want to say at the meeting.]
9. Date of the next meeting: The President and Secretary suggest the time, date and place for the next meeting and ask all the Committee Members if they agree with that.
10. Meeting closed [the time the meeting finished.]
These are the Minutes of the Meeting which will be typed up by the Secretary and emailed to you with the Agenda before the next meeting to make sure they are right.
In the meantime, the Minutes that were "Approved" at this meeting are made available for all the other AIA Members to read and know exactly what is happening with their association.
It might sound a bit complicated but this is exactly the way that all associations in Australia manage what they do. This is established by Australian law and any changes to this format, needs to be in the association's Constitution and approved by the Government before any association can change the procedure.
All Members and Committee Members need to know what is in the Constitution so they know what to expect and what can be done and how to do it.
Contact AIA | AIA Constitution
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Armidale International Association Incorporated
PO Box U14, UNE, NSW, 2351.