Re-defining ALIA

Incorporation under Corporations Law on 1 March was agreed to by special resolutions of the members at an extraordinary general meeting on 22 February 2000. This incorporation had symbolic as well as governance significance. Once again, the Association has shown its willingness and ability to re-define itself.

General Council was replaced by an Interim Board of Directors on 1 March and the new constitution came into effect. The Association acquired a company number and Limited was added to our name. A preferential voting system was introduced and on 24 May the first elected Board of Directors took office. Vice-president Alan Bundy assumed the position of company secretary. The inaugural National Policy Congress, held on 26-27 May, developed a framework for organisational restructure which has been taken up by the Board of Directors for implementation during 2001.

Changes were made to our accounts structure to manage the requirements of the New Tax System and Corporations Law for timely and accurate financial reporting. The division accounts were centralised from 1 July and new arrangements put in place for conference accounts.

The introduction of the goods and services tax (GST) had an impact on inter-library loan voucher facilities across the sector and participating libraries redeemed over $1 million of the voucher fund. A confidential study undertaken by ALIA indicated that most library and information services planned to apply the GST to the standard interlibrary loan (ILL) charges as no savings could be identified, though a number of federal government libraries were required to reflect government-wide savings in the ILL charges. The standard charges plus GST were taken up in the revised Australian Interlibrary Resource Sharing Code prepared by the National Resource Sharing Working Group. The Australian Tax Office issued private rulings regarding the application of GST to inter-library loan voucher transactions and loans or copies made under an agreement where there is no charge and confirming that there are no GST implications for the balance of funds set aside for the future redemption of vouchers issued prior to 1 July 2000. The ruling on voucher transactions has been included in a public GST draft ruling on vouchers.

The annual general meeting in October was the last to be held under the Royal Charter and constitution. In future, the AGM will be held within five months of the close of the financial operating year. Directors' terms will commence and cease at the AGM. PricewaterhouseCoopers were appointed as the Association's auditors. There will no longer be a requirement to reappoint the auditors at each AGM.

The Board of Directors initiated a full program. Roles of the president, vice-president and directors were documented and the role and delegations of the executive director clarified. Plans were put in place for review of the awards program, committees to support the work of the Association, future information technology and communication needs, and new member services and benefits.

The highly-successful ALIA2000 conference Capitalising on knowledge in Canberra in October was the culmination of a year of achievement by the Association.