July Seminar: Making decisions  

Running meetings, AGMs, and changing your constitution

Do you shiver at the thought of organising your group's AGM? Do you quail at how to handle those tricky questions from the floor of the meeting, or how to deal with the persistent interjector? How do you go about changing the Rules?

This interactive seminar will address how to plan for and run an AGM and put a special resolution to the members to change your Rules, covering the requirements for both companies limited by guarantee and incorporated associations. Come along and feel prepared for when your next AGM rolls around!

Details for this seminar are:

Date: Thursday 19 July 2024
Time: 9.30 - 12.30 (registrations open 9:15am)
Venue: Freehills, Level 42, 101 Collins St, Melbourne
Administration fee:
$50 per person for small organisations (up to 10 EFT employees)
$100 per person for large organisations (over 10 EFT employees)

To register for this seminar, follow the link:

August Seminar - Occupational Health and Safety

Long term readers of our e-bulletin will be aware of the move towards a national harmonisation of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) laws in Australia. The reforms were intended to introduce a consistent approach to OHS across all jurisdictions, which would have been of particular benefit to not-for-profits operating interstate. You can read more about the background to the national model workplace health and safety laws on the Safe Work Australia Website.

Despite commitments by the former State Government, Victoria has indicated that while it supports the principle of national harmonisation, it will not be adopting the national model workplace health and safety laws in their current form. This view was supported by a PricewaterhouseCoopers report commissioned by the Victorian Government which found that adopting the national laws could cost Victoria $3.4 billion over 5 years and would not result in significant safety benefits. The Victorian Government is considering this report, however for the time being Victoria's existing occupational health and safety laws and regulations will continue to apply.

Readers are encouraged to register for an upcoming comprehensive seminar on OHS and your organisation with leading OHS expert, Barry Sherriff of Norton Rose lawyers, in August 2012.

Details for the seminar are:

Date: Thursday 23 August 2024
Time: 9.30am - 12.30pm (registrations from 9.15am)
Venue: NAB, Docklands, 800 Bourke St, Melbourne
Administration Fee:
$50 per person for small organisations (up to 10 EFT employees)
$100 per person for large organisations (over 10 EFT employees)

To register for this seminar, follow the link:

Training for culturally and linguistically diverse community groups

Over the past few months, PilchConnect has developed and delivered the first of eight training sessions to new and recently arrived migrant not-for-profit community groups. The sessions cover what ‘incorporation' means, how to become incorporated, and the benefits and legal requirements that flow from incorporation.

The training targets culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) groups and will be held in Flemington, Preston and Collingwood over the next two months. The project arose out of an identified unmet need for tailored legal information delivered in an accessible and appropriate way to CALD groups and with interpreting and childcare support. The project is funded the Edith Kemp Memorial Trust Fund, Ivy H & Arthur Thomas and Pam & Alfred Lavey Trust (administered by Equity Trustees) and in partnership with Spectrum Migrant Resource Centre and Yarra City Council.

The pilot sessions were recently delivered to the KAYYO Oromo women's group in Flemington (below) and were met with much enthusiasm and many great questions!

PilchConnect can customise training sessions on request to suit the individual needs of your community organisation. For more information visit our website or contact Stephanie Tonkin on  
(03) 8636 4430.

ACNC Taskforce Implementation Report

In June 2012, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission (ACNC) released the ACNC Taskforce Implementation Report. The report outlines five key actions areas that will underpin the ACNC's functions:

• registering entities 
• developing a reporting framework (report-once, use-often) 
• going online (one-stop shop) 
• helping charities and the public (guidance and education) and 
• engaging with stakeholders.

PilchConnect welcomes the report, and supports the establishment of the ACNC as an independent, national regulator for charities. The next step is to ensure the legislation under which the ACNC will operate enables the ACNC to function in the way it intends to.

For further information, or to view the Report in full, visit the ACNC website below:

Draft ACNC Bill Referred to House Standing Committee on Economics

The Federal Government on Friday referred the draft Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) legislation to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics for an inquiry over the Winter Parliamentary break.

According to the Government's media release, available here, referring the ACNC Bill to the House of Committee for an inquiry over the Winter Parliamentary break provides for appropriate Parliamentary scrutiny and also allows for further public consultation on the ACNC legislation. The Government will then consider any recommendations the Committee makes, before introducing the legislation later in the year, ahead of the ACNC's 1 October 2024 start date.

Further information on the inquiry (including timeframes and processes for making submissions) will become available on the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics' website, here. You can also follow us on Twitter for updates on the Committee process, or contact us for further information.

The revised Exposure Draft - Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Bill 2012 and supplementary materials can be found on the Treasury website, below.

Federal law reform package for not-for-profits and charities

In May 2011, the Federal Government announced a range of budget measures relevant to the future of the Australian not‐for‐profit landscape. Specifically, the 2011/12 Federal Budget:

• provided for the establishment of a national regulator ‐ the Australian Charities and Not‐for‐profit Commission (the ACNC); 
• announced that the Government would seek to introduce a statutory definition of charity for all Commonwealth laws to be applied by 1 July 2013; and 
• announced reforms to the way that some tax concessions were to be applied to the activities of not‐for‐profit organisations.

As a result of these announcements, the past twelve months has seen a flurry of activity - with a number of consultation papers and exposure drafts released by the Treasury for public comment.

To help not-for-profit organisations understand what the key changes are, and how they will be implemented, PilchConnect has updated the webportal to include a concise, plain language summary of the Federal reform agenda.

The new PilchConnect federal law reform package for not-for-profits and charities covers:

• the ACNC;  
• the statutory definition of charity; 
• changes to NFP tax concessions; and 
• national charitable fundraising reform. 

Please visit our website below for further information:

ACNC Factsheets and Frequently Asked Questions

To help charities understand and prepare for the introduction of the ACNC on 1 October 2012,the ACNC Implementation Taskforce has prepared a number of factsheets and answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs).

The FAQs address a range of topics, including: 

• about the ACNC; 
• registration; 
• reporting; 
• the ACNC Register; 
• guidance; and 
• compliance.

To coincide with the release of the Implementation Report (see above) a number of factsheets have also been developed on areas including:

• registering entities; 
• developing a reporting framework (report-once, use-often); 
• going online (one-stop shop); 
• helping charities and the public (guidance and education) and; 
• engaging with stakeholders. 

For more information, visit the ACNC Implementation Taskforce website, below:

As readers of this e-bulletin will be aware, the new Associations Incorporation Reform Act 2012 (Vic) was passed by the Victorian Parliament in late April. The Act has a delayed commencement date (which means the new laws don't apply yet). It is expected that the new Act will begin on 1 December 2012, but this start date could be brought forward.

Over the coming months, we will be providing you with information on what some of those changes will mean for your organisation and what you can do to help make the transition as smooth as possible. This month, we outline some simple, practical steps that you can take to help with the transition to the new regime.

What are your official Rules and Statement of Purposes? 

Under new Act, there will no longer be a requirement to have a Statement of Purposes that is separate to your Rules - rather, the Statement of Purposes will be included in the Rules of the association in the one document. In light of this change, it is important your incorporated association is using the correct version of its Rules and has a current Statement of Purposes.

Quite often, incorporated associations believe they have successfully changed their Rules (or Statement of Purposes) by passing a special resolution, only to discover later that the changes were never lodged with, or approved by, the Registrar of Incorporated Associations at Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV).

But it is important to note that the changes do not take effect until they have been sent to, and approved by, CAV. All changes to your Rules or Statement of Purposes need to be sent to CAV together with an Application for Alteration of Rules or Purpose and a fee (currently $75.20).

In the lead up to the changes to the laws for Victorian incorporated associations, we encourage you to be certain that your association is using the official version of its Rules and Statement of Purposes. If you want to be certain that your association has the most current version of its Rules and Statement of Purposes (as approved by CAV) you can request a copy by contacting CAV. 

PilchConnect is a specialist legal service which provides legal help to not-for-profit community organisations.

The service provides free and low cost legal information, training, advice and legal referrals for Victorian not-for-profit community organisations. We also undertake law reform and advocacy work about the wide range of legal issues that affect the not-for-profit sector.

To find out more about our legal services, visit our website below:

 PilchConnect - Legal help for community groups. 

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