Required Addition Not-For-Profit Clause

All club Constitutions must contain the clause shown below in its entirety without edits: 

"The assets and income of the organisation shall be applied solely in furtherance of its above-mentioned objects and no portion shall be distributed directly or indirectly to the members of the organisation except as bona fide compensation for services rendered or expenses incurred on behalf of the organisation.” 

Required Amendments to General Meetings Clauses

For the following amendments, it is highly recommended that you directly copy and paste Section 6 'Meetings' from the Model Constitution found HERE 🔗 

Below is the abridged version:

• Notice for General Meetings be sent at least 14 days prior to the meeting date.
  • There must be a minimum of 7 days for candidates to nominate themselves.
• All Candidates must be given equal opportunity to present themselves.
• The quorum for established Clubs, Executives of the Club will not count towards reaching quorum. 
• Proxy votes must be passed through the Returning Officer.
• Elections to use an 'optional preferential' voting system

Changes such as the notice period that occur PRIOR to the AGM will not impact your AGM this year. However, changes such as quorum will come into effect immediately after passing them.

Required Addition of a Returning Officer

For the addition of a Returning Officer, it is recommended that you directly copy and paste Section 6 'Meetings' from the Model Constitution found HERE 🔗 

Impartial Returning Officers are a good way to ensure that elections are run fairly. The role of a Returning Officer is to oversee the election process including receiving nominations, determining eligibility to vote and stand for election, distributing voting forms, collecting and counting votes. 

An impartial Returning Officer will be appointed by the outgoing Executive. The Returning Officer does not need to be a member of the Executive. The role can be fulfilled by any person with no perceived or actual bias in the elections they are facilitating. 

Required Addition of the Responsibilities of a Welfare Officer

The responsibilities of a Welfare Officer are now required for all Arc Affiliated Clubs. 

This does not mean that your Club needs one individual executive to be a Welfare Officer, nor do you need to rename your custom position names. 

It is likely that your Club currently has a Grievance Officer and/or an Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Officer, the Welfare Officer position merges these roles. If your Club has one or both of these roles please amend their responsibilities to ensure they contain the clauses below. 

That being said, Arc recommends that the Welfare Officer be one person so that you have a single Executive responsible for the wellbeing of Club members. 

To meet this year's Affiliation Requirements, the following responsibilities must be included in the roles of one or more Executive positions (Cannot be as part of the President's responsibilities):

• To foster an inclusive culture within the Club
• To lead efforts ensuring that your internal Club culture is positive and to prioritise and foster wellbeing and balance within the Club;
• Ensure that Club events will not result in poor wellbeing outcomes and will not lead to grievances from Club members and/or executives;
• To be an accessible contact for members, UNSW students and UNSW staff in receiving complaints and grievances relating to the Club and on any matters regarding equity of events and activities as well as conduct and diversity within the Club.
• To investigate grievances (where necessary) and resolve grievances or make recommendations to the Club Executive on the resolution of grievances;
• To act in a fair, ethical and confidential manner in the performance of their duties, and pass on their responsibilities for specific grievances to other Club Executives if they cannot act impartially; and
• To notify those involved of the outcome of the grievance.
• To not act as counsellor during any grievances, but to ensure that anyone experiencing distress is provided with adequate resources on who to speak to or where to go to seek professional advice or help.
• To facilitate, promote, and engage non-majority demographics of the Club, and ensure that the Club takes into consideration the needs and requirements of non-majority demographics to make their events and activities as inclusive as possible.
• Provide guidance to members and representatives of the Club on appropriate ways to behave and to communicate inclusively.
• Ensure that all Club communications can be understood clearly by all students by avoiding the use of slang and idioms, where practicable;
• Monitor engagement, membership and any significant issues from students relating to non-majority demographics within the Club and provide reports to Club Executive as required;
• Undertake training as required to build understanding of how to look out for your peers and how to improve the internal culture of your Club; and,
• Other relevant duties as required.

Required Amendments to Membership Termination Clauses

For the amendments to Membership Termination Clauses, you MUST directly copy and paste Section 4 'Membership' from the Model Constitution found HERE 🔗

Below is the abridged version:

• The Executive may be petitioned by at least 20 Club Members to initiate impeachment proceedings
• Termination of a member must be carried via a motion at an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Club allowing the member concerned at least 5 minutes to speak against the motion
• OR If the person in question has either sabotaged the Club, instigated instances of bullying, harassment, assault and/or gendered violence an EGM can be held privately following consultation with Arc. 
• Any member of a Club or Club Executive who believes they have been wrongly expelled may appeal to the Clubs Tribunal, who will arrive at the final resolution of the matter.

Recommended Amendments to Term of Office Clauses

Arc Clubs is recommending that Clubs move their Term of Office to begin at the conclusion of Term 3. We believe this will make a significantly positive impact on the running of your Club for the following reasons: 

• Executive teams can serve a full 3 Terms of the calendar year to fulfil their visions.
• Allow for a 6-9 week handover period as the Incoming Executive is elected in Weeks 1-4 and doesn't become fully responsible until Week 11.
• Allows the incoming team time to strategically plan their upcoming year such as completing training, planning T1 O-Week and recruiting Directors/Subcomm.

Since 2023, most Newly Affiliated Clubs have been moved to this model with great feedback. 

In order to enact this change, simply add/amend your Term of Office Clause to the following:

"The term of office for each Executive elected at an AGM shall start at the conclusion of Term 3 in the current year and continue for a full calendar year."

Recommended Amendment to Remove Absent Executives

Arc is aware of many instances of which some members of the Executive become absent without notice or become uncontactable. The addition of this clause means that if an Executive member becomes unreachable or does not fulfil their responsibility to attend meetings they can have their position declared vacant without the need for an impeachment EGM. 

This aims to reduce the harm and distress caused by public EGMs and provide a common-sense solution to ensure your team can be at full strength.

To enact this change, amend your Constitution with the following clause:

5.8 Any member of the Executive shall have their position declared vacant if they:

5.8.4 Are absent from any three (3) consecutive meetings of the Club without apology or leave

Recommended Amendment to Allow Appointment of 'Acting' Executives

Often we hear of Executives choosing to go on exchange during Term 3 which does have a small overlap with Clubs Annual General Meetings. Rather than forcing Clubs to host an Extraordinary General Meeting within 4 weeks of holding their Annual General Meeting, this amendment will allow you to appoint 'Acting' Executives to fill the interim period before your annual elections. Presidents & Treasurers cannot be appointed.

To enact this change, amend your Constitution with the following clause:

5.11 Executive positions that become vacant less than 1 month before the yearly affiliation period may be filled by majority vote of the Executive. People appointed this way will be ‘Acting’ in the position, may not be the President or Treasurer, may not be a bank signatory and cannot act as Arc Membership Portal administrators.