ALIA member submissions to the ALIA Board

Purpose

This paper has been developed to clarify the context and process for members wishing to make a submission to the Board, including requests for attendance at Board meetings. Its coverage includes all requests for attendance at Board meetings by ALIA members.

Introduction

ALIA operates under its constitution to meet the needs of and represent the interests of members. It is a company limited by guarantee.

ALIA is managed by its Board which consists of seven directors with voting powers and one non voting member:

• a president (elected by members);
• a vice-president/president elect (elected by members);
• four directors elected by members; and
• one director elected by institutional members; (ALIA Constitution clause 13.3 (a)); and
• the ALIA Executive Director (the non-voting member) (ALIA Constitution clause 13.4 (a)).

The duties of the Board are:

• to act within its powers under the Corporations Law and ALIA's Constitution, consistently with the purposes for which the powers were conferred;
• to act honestly;
• to provide members with accurate and sufficient information when seeking their support for decisions;
• to give members honest opinion and advice;
• to act in the best interests of the Association as a whole.

The specific duties of the Board under the Constitution and By-laws are to:

• operate the financial affairs (Constitution clause 14);
• establish the groups of the Association, monitor their activities and, where decided, delegate powers to them (By-law 2);
• hold the National Advisory Congress and receive the recommendations of the delegates (Constitution clause 12); and
• appoint the National Awards Committee (By-law 7).

Principles for member submission

The ALIA Board may seek information and input from members and non-members to assist the Board to undertake its duties. At its meeting of 30 November 2006 the Board agreed the following principles:

• the Board will see advice from members and non members on issues as required;
• members may make comment on any issues they recommend the Board should consider, or issues the Board is addressing, through submissions; and
• the Board may seek additional information from members through attendance at a Board meeting if required.

In agreeing these principles the Board noted that good governance includes good communication between the Board and members of the association. It was further noted that this includes two way communication, that is from the Board to members, as well as from members to the Board.

Communication from the Board includes:

• information published shortly before each board meeting at http://www.alia.org.au/governance/board/meetings.html to enable members to be aware of high level issues that the Board is addressing;
• reports of the Board meetings published shortly after each meeting at http://www.alia.org.au/governance/board/reports/ and in Incite; and
• summary reports and links to reports on ALIAnews and other emails and Incite articles as appropriate.

Communication from members includes:

• written submissions such as emails when issues are identified on which a member wishes to provide information or express an opinion;
• reports of discussion at group meetings which is communicated in writing to the Board; and
• oral comments made to members of the Board at a meeting of the Board.

Guidance for members wishing to make submission to the Board follows.

Process for members making submissions

The ALIA Board recognises the importance of members' perspectives on issues which are considered by the Board. Members of the Board are required to act in the best interests of the Association as a whole which will mean considering the diverse views of members on issues.

Members may, however, wish to make submissions directly to the Board about issues that they have particular information or views on.

Submissions should be made to the Board according to the following principles:

• information should be provided through a written submission to the Executive Director for communication to the President and thus Board members;
• information should be provided in a clear and succinct written form; and
• in exceptional circumstances where information cannot be provided in writing it should be communicated to the Executive Director orally.

Submissions should be short and clear. Members are encouraged to make submissions which are preferably no more than 2 pages. Presentations at Board meetings should similarly be concise and members are encouraged to make oral submissions no more than 10 minutes unless requested otherwise by a specific Board meeting.

Should a member wish to make a presentation in person to the Board on any matter an application, simply identifying the issue and the reasons that the member has information which can only be provided in person should be made to the Executive Director for communication to the President and thus Board members. The President and the Board can decide on when the submission could be made and its format.

Process for members to be requested to make submissions

On some matters the Board will wish to obtain the advice of members, because of their expertise or knowledge on a particular issue. This information may be sought in addition to information from Expert Advisory Group, other ALIA Groups or non-member.

Where this advice is sought the Executive Director or the President will ask the member for a submission and advice the format in which is should be provided, which may be oral or in writing.

Members seeking to attend meetings

ALIA Board meetings comply with good governance and Corporations legislation and are thus not open forums.

Any member wishing to attend any part of a Board meeting for any reason needs to follow the procedure outlined in this paper. The key to attendance at a Board meeting is so that the member can contribute information on an issue which is relevant to the Board's needs and will communicate additional information to that provided through a written submission.

Review

This operating policy was approved by the ALIA Board at its meeting on 12 March 2007 and should be reviewed at least every 5 years.