In February 2014 Dick Carter made a proposal to formalize the structure of an incorporated Common Dreams association. The arguments for doing this are laid out in his proposal below. This proposal was happily agreed to and became a reality.
A PROPOSAL FOR A FORMAL STRUCTURE FOR COMMON DREAMS
Introduction
Common Dreams (CD) has been a great success to date – maybe more successful than we could ever have hoped – which is a great tribute to Rex Hunt’s and Jonathon Rea’s vision when in 2005 they conceived the idea of staging a major national conference of religious progressives. It has a track record of three very well attended international conferences and several CD on the Road events that have also been very well staged and supported. It has an established “brand” (even if we might not like to think of it in those terms) which is well recognised and respected by a significant proportion of Australian and, to a lesser degree, NZ religious progressives and also by a growing number of prominent international researchers, writers and academics in the field. We are in the early stages of planning CD4 in Brisbane some time in 2016 which has every prospect of being as successful as the previous three triennial international events. CD now has approximately $120,000 in the bank or invested in an interest earning account so it is financially robust and now able to consider a more ambitious program or spread of activities.
On the other hand, the alliance which is CD has a very informal, even evanescent, structure which has served us well to date but it lacks form, its governance arrangements are not well defined, its operation is rather opaque and not well understood by those who are CD’s leaders, and it does not easily provide for succession among the leadership. It is suggested that we need to address these issues.
The Progressive Christian Network of Victoria (PCNV) formed Common Dreams Melbourne Inc (CDM) as the vehicle to undertake CD2 in 2010 principally to keep CD’s operations clearly separate from the PCNV’s & to ensure that PCNV did not become liable for GST on its own activities (because the addition together of the CD2 & PCNV revenues were expected to exceed the threshold of $150,000 pa where GST becomes payable). It was intended that when CD2 was wrapped up any cash in the bank would be passed on to the group charged with organising CD3 and then CDM would be wound up.
As we know, the latter part of this plan did not come to pass and, when it became apparent that the Canberra team tasked with organising CD3 did not have some of the key resources needed to undertake the complete task of staging CD3, a hybrid approach was developed under which the Canberra Local Arrangements Committee (LAC) was responsible for the conference logistics and other aspects (except programming) were handled by CDM. Rex Hunt led the program development with input from a core National Planning Committee plus consultation with a larger group of other interested parties.
This hybrid arrangement worked well and it is proposed that we should build on this format to create a transparent and flexible organisation structure that will carry CD through the next stages of its development.
Proposal
Basically, the proposal is that CDM should be made the entity that holds the “intellectual property” and the financial assets which together constitute “Common Dreams”. It is legally able to do this as, even though CDM is incorporated under Victorian state law, it is empowered to operate anywhere, including overseas (eg NZ), and its officers & committee members do not have to be resident in Victoria and can live offshore; the only restriction is that the Secretary must be an Australian resident.
A name change would be required so as to signal the wider scope of its operations, preferably to “Common Dreams Inc” or, if this name is not available, to perhaps “Common Dreams (ANZ) Inc” or similar. Its Officers and Committee Members should be made broadly representative of the leadership of the progressive movement in Australia and NZ, and its membership of individuals should also be broadened and made available to any who are interested.
At the moment, reflecting the purpose for which CDM was established, the Officers are: President – Dick Carter, Vice-President – Adrian Pyle, Secretary – David Merritt, Treasurer – John Smith and the Committee Members are Lorraine Parkinson and Chris Page. The company has eight “members” who are the current committee members of the PCNV plus Chris Page – these members are the people who get to vote at General Meetings including on the appointment of the Officers and Committee Members. There will be no problem having some or all of these people stand aside to allow the election of a new and more representative committee. Likewise there would be no barriers to broadening the Committee membership to include people who are active in the various state and NZ progressive bodies.
Under this arrangement the Committee of Common Dreams Inc (CDI) would assume the position of what was previously the National Planning Committee and take over the final responsibility for all aspects of CD’s operations including the approval of themes and programs for the triennial conference and other major events. It could continue to consult with a large number of people about aspects of programs, conference themes, etc. The LAC would become a sub-committee of the main Committee and thus be officially under the umbrella of CDI and legally empowered to do all of the things that it are designated for it to do. Further sub-committees or task groups could also be formed to undertake other CD activities such as CD on the Road, etc.
The Officers (President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer) and six Committee members would be elected annually at the Annual General Meeting.
The functions needed to provide continuity of administration between & during main events would remain as at present with a small group of “officials” or agents (particularly John Smith, Maree Burnett, Adrian Pyle, & Dick Carter) who would be responsible to the CDI Committee; this would cover bookkeeping & financial reporting, banking & funds investment, maintenance of the website, registrations, advertising & promotion, regulatory compliance, etc, etc.
This structure is far more transparent and has much better defined responsibilities than the current informal structure; it can be made broadly representative. It should also allow clearer succession planning for the leadership group and allow individuals to move out of it when they wish and for successors to be brought in as appropriate. All of this should help ensure that Common Dreams has reasonable assurance of a continued existence and that it can grow and evolve as its leadership sees the needs & opportunities.
It should not be too difficult to put these arrangements or something like them in place.
Changes To Rules Of CDM
Recent changes to the Victorian law governing incorporated associations is requiring all such bodies to change their “Rules” (i.e. their constitutions) in prescribed ways as part of a bid to modernise governance in this sector. As a result CDM is going to have to change some things anyway and it would be relatively simple to make the transition to CDI as part of this process.
This process will involve changing the Rules of CDM as required by the amended Victorian act (which are largely procedural and straight forward), changing CDM’s name to CDI, and broadening the statement of CDI’s purposes in the Rules to clearly empower CDI to do all of the things that it may wish to undertake in the foreseeable future.
The Rule and name changes will need to be approved at a General Meeting and then be submitted to the Victorian Department of Consumer Affairs for a compliance review. The same meeting would elect the new Officers and Committee Members.
Time-Line & Responsibilities
The revision the Rules required by the changes to the Victorian Act will be led by the Secretary of CDM, David Merritt, who has considerable experience doing this for PCNV and some other incorporated associations. David and Dick Carter will also arrange the change of name and draft the revised CDI Purposes clause with input from the present National Planning Committee.
Timing of these and other steps will be approximately:
- March/April Draft revised Rules, reserve CDI name, redraft and agree Purposes clause
- May Enrol additional members
- Early June Issue notice of General Meeting
- Late June General Meeting, new Rules approved, new Officers & committee elected.
Recommendation
It is recommended that the CD National Planning Committee give its approval to implementing this proposal.
RJ Carter, 7 February 2014
oOo