 Making up the rules as you go along |
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From: Brett Davis To: info@shoalhavenbushwalkers.com Subject: Making up the rules as you go along Date sent: April 9, 2025 |
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Hi SBW committee, It's amazing what you find when you look through the constitution and the minutes and the Standing Resolutions and then link them all together - as shown in the rest of this email. 😀 The "Provisional Standing Resolutions as of 19 October 2023" showed that Standing Resolution #9 stated - 9. Children: Children are not permitted on club walks or at club activities. The overriding principle of the NSW Care Act is that “…the safety, welfare and wellbeing of the child or young person must be paramount in all decisions concerning a child.” The club is not equipped or prepared to undertake this responsibility. Passed 6.7.2023" The minutes of the January 2024 committee meeting refer to Standing Resolution #9 by saying "Proposed Amendment to Standing Resolution 9 – relating to including children on club activities - the Standing resolution 9, referring to attendance of children under 18 on bushwalks was discussed, but a decision deferred subject to further investigation." The minutes of the April 18th 2024 committee meeting also refer to the same Standing Resolution by saying "Standing Resolution 9 and Participation of children on bushwalks - there was further discussion around this but still a few things to resolve. Andy will revise the wording of the Policy and the Standing resolution and endorsement (or otherwise) will be voted on electronically within a few days of this meeting". The "SBW Standing Resolutions updated 18th July, 2024" - which are still our current Standing Resolutions - show that Standing Resolution #9 states - "9. Children: Children may be permitted to participate in Club activities, subject to the SBW Child Safety Policy and to review after 12 months. Passed 27.4.2024". There was no committee meeting held on 27th April, so the resolution must have been passed via emails in the nine days after the April meeting as is allowed under Rule 27 of the SBW constitution, and as is noted in the April 18th committee meeting minutes. However, sub-clause (e) of Rule 27 states "A resolution approved under subclause (b) must be recorded in the minutes of the meetings of the committee." The resolution to approve the change of Standing Resolution #9 from "Children are not permitted on club walks ..." to "Children may be permitted to participate in Club activities ..." has NEVER appeared in ANY committee meeting minutes. I have checked all the minutes since last April, and suggest you also check them. Perhaps there was a resolution passed via emails, or perhaps not. Perhaps a member of the IT Team simply uploaded an illegally changed version of the Standing Resolutions, or perhaps not. Perhaps the committee was aware that all resolutions passed via emails must appear in subsequent committee meeting minutes, but probably not. Perhaps a member of the IT Team just decided to make up the rules as they went along, or perhaps not. It really doesn't matter. The supposedly superseded Standing Resolution #9 which says that "Children are not permitted on club walks" has never been legally changed so it is still legally valid. Therefore there is no need for the committee to repeal Standing Resolution #9 as I requested in a previous email. There is no need for a dispute to occur between myself and the club over whether the constitution allows children on walks or not. Standing Resolution #9 listed in our current Standing Resolutions had no legal validity. The committee simply needs to change Standing Resolution #9 back to the wording it had in October 2023. Regards, Brett |
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