UPDATE ON ACDS ACTIVITIES DURING COVID-19 CESSATION
13 May 2020
Dear Members
UPDATE ON ACDS ACTIVITIES DURING COVID-19 CESSATION
Federal Council would like to take this opportunity to update members on several matters that have been affected due to COVID-19 cessation period.
- Federal Conference
As a result of the current cessation period based on Federal and State government laws, Federal Council has made the decision to cancel the Federal Conference for The Federal Conference takes several months to organise and given the uncertainty with the period of social distancing and ban on gatherings, it is not possible to plan and hold a Conference at the current time. - Federal Annual General Meeting
The Federal Rules state that the annual general meeting must be held in June or July each year. The ACT Associations Incorporation Act requires an association to hold its AGM within 5 months of the end of the financial year (in the case of the ACDS, this means by 30 September). The Rules require a quorum of 20 members present in person. Furthermore, both our Rules and the Act, together with the model rules for associations in the ACT, do not allow the ACDS to use technology to hold the AGM.
All members are entitled to attend the AGM and at the current time, a number of the borders within Australia are still closed which means all members cannot attend the meeting (whether they wish to do so or not).
Accordingly, Federal Council believes it cannot hold the AGM under current laws relating to COVID-19 restrictions and has decided to hold over the AGM until the law allows it to legally convene the meeting.
Once all restrictions on holding the AGM are lifted, Federal Council will convene the meeting.
- Annual Financial statements
The annual financial statements have been prepared and are being sent to the
auditors. Once the audit report is completed, the statements will be available to
members. - Nominations For Office Bearer Positions For The 2020-2021 Year
In accordance with Rule 16.1 of the ACDS Rules and Regulations, at the close of
nominations for candidates for election as office bearers on 15 April 2020,
nominations for the following positions had been received by the Federal Secretary:
Federal President Peter Lee
Federal Vice President Kate Wholagan
Federal Treasurer Leonie Hartshorne.
In accordance with Rule 16.3, as there is only one nomination for each of these
positions, those nominees shall be deemed to be elected.
Subsequent to the closing date of nominations and prior to the date of this
notification, a nomination for the position of Federal Secretary has been received
from Tom Dowling.
PETER LEE
Federal President
