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Final Version of 25 February 2023
For over 50 years, ACS has been serving the needs of ICT professionals nationwide. In that time, we have grown from a small federation of state-based associations to a large national organisation.
The current constitutional document was written around the turn of the century, and was last amended over a decade ago. It has been recognised for some years that it has a great many features that are a poor fit to the need. ACS Congress formed a Constitutional Reform Working Group (CRWG) in mid-2021 to consult with the membership, and prepare a replacement constitutional document.
Three rounds of consultation were conducted during the 4th quarter of 2021, the 1st quarter of 2022, and the 3rd quarter of 2022. Members' input across the three Rounds resulted in a Recommended Constitution that reflects members' requirements, and that can take the Society well into the 21st century.
The Recommended Constitution was submitted to Congress on 15 October 2022. After lengthy discussions at three meetings, it was lightly revised and endorsed by Congress on 14 February 2023. The documents in question are:
This concluded the work of the CRWG, and indeed the work of Congress. Management Committee has carriage of the project from that point, and will prepare the documents that the current Rules require to be put before members in General Meeting, conduct a final legal review, and put the motion to the membership to approve the replacement of the Rules with the new Constitution.
The members of CRWG record their thanks to the participants in the consultation process. Their contributions have enabled the development of a Constitution that we believe reflects participants' submissions to the extent practicable, and that will serve the needs of members for the coming one to two decades.
The CRWG submitted its recommendations to ACS Congress on 18 October 2022.
In the meantime, MC had made two important decisions, which have been reflected in the Recommendations:
Congress discussed the recommendations at some length on 31 October, and again on 23 November.
On 23 November, Congress decided to ask Branch Executive Committees for their comments on the 4 open questions, and on any other aspects that they may wish to consider.
Members generally are very welcome to provide comments to their Branch Executive Committee for consideration.
The deadline for submissions by BECs to Congress is 15 January 2023. This will enable discussion and finalisation by Congress in early February, for transmission to the Management Committee and preparations for approval by the membership.
The documents provided to Congress by the CRWG are provisional recommendations, pending the outcomes of discussions. They are as follows:
Members are very welcome to provide comments to their Branch Executive Committee for consideration, by no later than 8 January 2023. You can find the relevant email-address via the drop-down menu at https://acs.org.au: acs.{canb,nsw,nt,qld,sa,tas,vic,wa}@acs.org.au Feel free to contact CRWG if you prefer, via convenors@crwg.org.
The third of the three rounds of consultation ran during June-August 2022. The analysis was conducted during August-September, and a Report back to Members was prepared. Background information is in an article published in Information Age.
The Report was published on 8 September 2022. Further, in order to support auditability and traceability, the members' input is available in an Annex to the Report.
The CRWG is now using the input provided by members in all three consultation Rounds, to finalise the constitution to be recommended to ACS Congress.
The overall design seeks to balance many considerations, including members' needs, differences among the Branches, the need for practicality and agility, and regulatory requirements.
A set of four documents is provided, at varying degrees of depth.
In each case, an HTML version is provided, for reading on-screen and providing your comments, and a PDF is available, for print and A4-display purposes.
We suggest that many people may prefer to read the short Outline (document 1), then scan the Overview (document 2) and read about features of particular interest.
The central feature is the Governing Committee and Congress, together with the means whereby the Governing Committee is accountable to the membership. For that, read the Models discussion (document 3), and then clauses 10-12 in the Constitution (document 4).
A series of events is being prepared, to be run by both national committees and Branches. These will provide the opportunity for discussion and inform submissions.
A pre-recorded lead-in video has been made available to event-organisers.
To facilitate a national conversation by electronic means, an Online Forum has been established.
The ACS CRWG Online Forum is live at https://groups.io/g/CRWG-3.
You may need to register, by clicking on the < + Join This Group> button at the bottom.
Once you've completed registration, we suggest you investigate the Messages component.
You can then:
It's important to use hashtags to show the part of the conversation your posting relates to.
The CRWG members will be observers, and where appropriate participants, in the forum.
We recommend you use the HTML version(s) of whichever document(s) you want to comment on, using the Web-Forms provided. That provides auto-tagging of comments and auto-posting to the Online Forum, enabling CRWG to efficiently collate and analyse submissions:
The following further alternatives are available:
If you would prefer a contribution to be open, but not identified to yourself, feel free to use a pseudonymous email-address. (CRWG's policy has been, and continues to be, to evaluate pseudonymous content on its merits).
If you would prefer a contribution to be considered by CRWG, but not open, you can email to the Co-Convenors, and/or to any CRWG member using <firstname>.<lastname>@crwg.org. The CRWG members are listed on the About page.
Contributions will be gathered from all channels on about 5 August.
The CRWG will receive all input through all of the channels, analyse it, and report back to the membership. Reports will be posted on this page.
CRWG anticipates publishing the Round 3 Report to members by 30 September 2022.
It is anticipated that a diversity of views will be expressed, that some will be inconsistent with one another, and that a few will not be consistent with the law. As a result, not all views will be able to be accommodated. The CRWG will nonetheless do what it can to reflect all members' input at least in the report, and where possible in the Constitution that we recommend to Congress and Management Committee.
The final Recommendations of CRWG will also need to reflect legal advice on the statutory and other regulatory requirements involving a cluster of agencies including ACNC, the ACT Registrar-General and/or ASIC, and the ATO.
[The following information was published on 25 April 2022. It provides access to the results of the consultation process. The links remain live.]
The second of the three rounds of consultation ran during February-March 2022. The analysis was conducted during March-April, and a Report back to Members was prepared.
A 1-page Report Summary is available, and is reported in n article published in Information Age.
The Full Report is available, comprising the Summary plus 20 pp. of text.
In order to fulfil the CRWG's auditability and traceability obligations, the raw material and an intermediate format used in the analysis are provided in the following files:
The CRWG, in preparing the Consultation Document for Round 3, is reflecting the input provided by members in Rounds 1 and 2.
The Round 3 Consultation
It is intended that this will commence during June 2022. Details will be provided on this web-page.
[The following information was published on 3 February 2022. It describes the process whereby the second round of the consultation process was conducted. The links generally remain live, whereas the process details are now a matter of historical record.]
The first consultation round was concerned with the principles that should guide the design of the new constitutional document. This second rounds seeks members' input regarding the elements that members would like the new constitution to have. The third round will be concerned with the wording of key clauses. All members will receive notice of the opportunity to contribute to each round.
The first consultation round was concerned with the principles that should guide the design of the new constitutional document. The third round will be concerned with the wording of key clauses. All members will receive notice of the opportunity to contribute to each round.
This second round seeks members' input regarding the elements that members would like the new constitution to have. Here is the Information Age article on Round 2.
Background is also available in an introductory video and slide-set, presented by the CRWG's Co-Convenors (11m45s). You can also access the slide-set from that presentation, or the slide-set presented to Congress on 22 February.
The CRWG recommends reading these documents before providing a submission:
A series of events is being offered, through both national and Branch channels, to enable discussion and inform submissions.
Here are the Branch-Level Events that we're aware of to date (alpha by Branch name):
Here are details of national events open to all members, and how to book for them. SUSPENDED, because of the rapid emergence of more popular Branch events
Here are the Events that we're aware of to date that are being run by national Boards, committees, SIGs, etc.:
To facilitate a national conversation by electronic means, an Online Forum has been established.
The ACS CRWG Online Forum is live at https://groups.io/g/CRWG-2.
You may need to register, by clicking on the < + Join This Group> button at the bottom.
Once you've completed registration, we suggest you investigate the Messages component.
You can then:
It's important to use hashtags to show the part of the conversation your posting relates to.
The CRWG members will be observers, and where appropriate participants, in the forum.
You can start with any of the three documents listed above because each is cross-linked to the others.
To provide feedback on the documents, and other input:
If you would prefer a contribution to be open, but not identified to yourself, feel free to use a pseudonymous email. (CRWG's policy has been, and continues to be, to evaluate pseudonymous content on its merits).
If you would prefer a contribution to be considered by CRWG, but not open, you can email to the Co-Convenors, and/or to any CRWG member using <firstname>.<lastname>@crwg.org. The CRWG members are listed on the About page.
Contributions will be gathered from all channels on about 14 March.
The CRWG will receive all input through all of the channels, analyse it, and report back to the membership. Reports will be posted on this page.
CRWG anticipates publishing the Round 2 Report to members at latest by 30 April 2022.
It is anticipated that a diversity of views will be expressed, that some will be inconsistent with one another, that a few will not be consistent with the law, and hence not all views will be able to be accommodated. The CRWG will nonetheless do what it can to reflect all members' input at least in the report, and where possible in the subsequent rounds.
[The following information was published on 13 December 2021. It provides access to the results of the consultation process. The links remain live.]
The first of the three rounds of consultation ran throughout October 2021. The level of interest remained high, and the deadline for input was extended to 12 November. The analysis was conducted during November, and a Report back to Members was prepared.
An outline of the results is in an article published in Information Age.
The Report, and supporting information, are available at the following links:
In order to fulfil the CRWG's auditability and traceability obligations, the raw material and intermediate forms used in the analysis are provided in the following files:
The CRWG, in preparing the Consultation Document for Round 2, is reflecting the input provided by members in Round 1.
The Round 2 Consultation
It is intended that this will commence in early February 2022. Details will be provided on this web-page.
[The following information was published on 30 September 2021. It describes the process whereby the first round of the consultation process was conducted. The links generally remain live, whereas the process details are now a matter of historical record.]
We welcome input from all members, current and former, as well as any other stakeholders who have a view on how ACS can best serve our members in the years to come.
The first consultation round will gain insights into members' views on the nature of the professional association, and the principles that should guide the design of the new constitutional document. The later consultation rounds will then drill down into the specifics of features and clauses. All members will receive notice of the opportunity to contribute to each round.
The CRWG recommends reading these documents before providing a submission:
A series of events is being offered, through both national and Branch channels, to enable discussion and inform submissions.
Here are details of events and how to book for them.
To facilitate a national conversation by electronic means, an Online Forum has been established.
The ACS CRWG Online Forum is live at https://groups.io/g/CRWG-1.
Please register by clicking on the < + Join This Group> button at the bottom.
Once you've completed registration, we suggest you investigate the Messages component.
You can then:
It's important to use hashtags to show the part of the conversation your posting relates to
The CRWG members will be observers, and where appropriate participants, in the forum.
First, read the summary and question list, and check what the full Consultation Document has to say about the points you are most interested in. To provide feedback on the documents, and other input:
Contributions will be gathered from all channels at the end of October 2021.
The CRWG will receive your input through all of the channels, analyse it, and report back to the membership. Reports will be posted on this page.
CRWG anticipates publishing the Round 1 Report to members at latest by 10 December 2021.
It is anticipated that a diversity of views will be expressed, that some will be inconsistent with one another, that a few will not be consistent with the law, and hence not all views will be able to be accommodated. The CRWG will nonetheless do what it can to reflect all members' input at least in the report, and where possible in the subsequent rounds.
Reports will be published here on the outcomes of each of the consultation rounds.