Club governance - not the most inspiring topic. John Braine, the Club's Executive Director pictured above with President Lili-Ann Kriegler, did his best to keep the audience interested while providing an insight into the governance and compliance matters that go hand in hand with the Canterbury Rotary Club.
We heard about the Club's Rules and Bylaws, which have their basis in the Club being an Incorporated Association. This incorporation leads to a number of compliance requirements like annual financial statements and an annual return to Consumer Affairs Victoria.
The Board keeps on top of the Club's finance through budgets, provision of monthly profit and loss statements and a balance sheet. There are many policies and procedures particularly about handling of payments and segregation of bank accounts.
John then explained about some of the other matters that keep the Board and the Club on its toes. These included:
- Working with Children registration and youth declaration forms
- Fund Raising registration
- Insurance and risk management assessment of projects and activities
- Annual plans including provision of information on the Rotary International Rotary Goal Centre website
- Privacy and
- Conflict of interest
John concluded the presentation with the comments that all the above processes are undertaken with a view to ensuring the various Rules, Bylaws, policies and procedures and legislative requirements are followed so that the Board's governance objectives are met.
As each year passes, the complexity of operations of any club continue to become more significant.