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West Footscray Neighbourhood House Annual General Meeting 2022

Notice is given that West Footscray Neighbourhood House will be holding its 2022 Annual General Meeting:

The Annual General Meeting will be held on Tuesday 24 May 2022 at 7pm. 

Attendance may be:

• In person at 6:30pm for a 7pm start at 1/539 Barkly Street West Footscray
• Via Zoom at 7pm with details to be sent following RSVP

The purpose of the meeting will be to:

• receive from the Committee, a full report of the activities from 2021;
• receive from the Committee, financial reports;
• appoint the auditor for the forthcoming year;
• elect Committee members for the following 12 months;
• discuss any general business;
• discuss ideas and directions for the future;
• determine any amendments to the constitution.

 

Notice of Special Resolutions

Following a review of our constitution, it has become apparent that it was drafted in 2008 and has not been updated to reflect legislative requirements passed in 2012. In undertaking the modernisation of our constitution, the Committee has also taken the opportunity to update it to allow West Footscray Neighbourhood House (WFNH) to apply, should it decide it wishes to do so, for Deductible Gift Recipient status in the future.

The draft Rules of Incorporation for WFNH (our proposed Constitution) are now being forwarded to all members so that they have an opportunity to consider the new constitution, before a vote is held as two special resolutions at our AGM. 

The Rules will help move WFNH into the future. Your committee members, in conjunction with Neighbourhood Houses Victoria, have worked extremely hard to get these Rules right and strongly recommend your ‘Yes’ vote at the Special General Meeting. The committee is excited to implement the new Rules so that they can provide the best possible governance for members.

A third special resolution will be proposed to change our accounting period to financial year, that is 1 July to 30 June.

At the meeting, the following three Special Resolutions will be proposed:

1. That the current constitution be repealed; 
2. That the new Rules be adopted; and
3. That the organisation’s accounting period be changed from calendar year to financial year.

The key changes to the constitution are listed below:

1. The structure and general content of the Rules has been changed to reflect the Model Rules and the requirements set out in the Associations Incorporation Reform Act 2012;
2. The statement of purpose has been altered to better reflect WFNH’s current aims in a manner consistent with the Charities Act 2013;
3. The eligibility for membership has also been updated to be more consistent with the Charities Act 2013;
4. The section on Disciplinary Action has been updated to reflect the provisions of the Associations Incorporation Reform Act 2012;
5. The number for a quorum at the AGM has been changed from six members to 10% of members entitled to vote at a general meeting;
6. The composition of the committee has been altered, from 8 full members with certain requirements and two ex-officio members without voting rights, to 10 members consisting of a Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer and seven additional ordinary members;
7. The quorum for committee meeting was four and is now a majority of the committee members;
8. Clause 76(6) of the new Rules has been added to assist WFNH in obtaining Deductible Gift Recipient status, should it be required in future.

 

Proxy votes 

Members who cannot attend may like to appoint a proxy by filling in an Appointment of Proxy form. 

Nomination for committee

West Footscray Neighbourhood House is run by a volunteer committee of community members. We will be electing new committee members for the coming 12 months. 

 If you would like to nominate to be on our committee please complete and return a Nomination for Committee of Management form. This form must be signed by a current committee member – please get in touch with the office if you need an introduction or have any questions.

Memberships

Memberships

Memberships are also due. Membership is $7 a year and is a great way to support your local neighbourhood house. You can apply for membership:

• by completing and emailing a membership form 
  You may need to download the form and open it in Acrobat to enable the electronic signature.
  We will send you an invoice to pay the fee by direct deposit.
• at the meeting
• at the House during office hours 9am-3pm Monday – Thursday

More information

If you have any queries, please contact our Chairman, David Pearce, or committee member, Kelly Powers, to talk about what the changes mean and if there are any details in the Rules about which you have queries. You can email admin@wfnh.org.au and our office staff will pass your query on.

Download: West Footscray Neighbourhood House Constitution – draft rules of Incorporation 

Download: Appointment of proxy form

Download: Nomination for committee of management 2022

You may need to download these forms and open them in Acrobat to enable the electronic signatures. You can return either of these forms by email to admin@wfnh.org.au

RSVP here