This Forum is facilitating a national conversation about what members want their Society's replacement constitution to look like. It has been configured to facilitate discussion about topics of current relevance.
The consultation is being coordinated by a Constitutional Reform Working Group (CRWG). The Co-Convenors of the CRWG are National Vice-President Nick Tate, and Canberra Branch Secretary Roger Clarke. CRWG members will be observers, and will participate in discussions where appropriate.
Participants are encouraged to use this Forum to discuss the topics identified in the Consultation Documents, and on any other relevant aspects that are not addressed there.
You can also email Submissions directly to the CRWG
Note that this consultation phase is NOT concerned with specific features of the future constitution, and certainly not with the drafting of clauses. It is about:
what we, the members, want our professional society to be like in the 21st century
The CRWG will analyse responses, and report back to the membership. It is anticipated that diverse views will be expressed, that some will be inconsistent with others, that a few will not be unlawful, and hence not all views will be able to be accommodated. The CRWG will nonetheless do what it can to reflect or acknowledge all members' input at least in the Report, and where possible in the subsequent rounds.
At all times, remember that this is a discussion among professionals, not an argument.
Please respect the Code of Conduct at the end of this User Guide.
The menu bar provides access to the following:
The best way to start is in the The Resource Centre. Begin with the Summary document and the list of Questions. Then look at the parts of the detailed Consultation document that are relevant to your interests.
Finally, go to The F O R U M. This contains the conversation threads relating to the specific topics.
Choose a thread of interest to you. Follow it through, to find out what other participants have contributed.
Each thread can have pre-defined Category-Tags assigned to it. These correspond with topic-areas in the documents available in the Resource Centre.
If you are responding to points made in previous messages, Reply-To the most relevant message in that thread (by default, the most recent message).
If, instead, the points made by a poster have inspired other thoughts, consider whether you should instead be creating a separate thread, with its own descriptive subject line.
If you are making the first posting on a sub-topic, make sure that your subject line includes brief text identifying what you're talking about. That defaults into being the identifier of the thread.
If your posting needs to be long, consider putting a 2-line summary at the very beginning.
Assign one or more appropriate category-tags, so other participants interested in that topic will more easily find your posting.
At the top-right of the screen, you can manage your personal settings:
This document affirms expectations for participants' behaviour in the ACS Constitutional Reform Online Forum.
Participation in the Forum represents agreement to comply with the terms of this Code
The Forum will be monitored. Communications that are minor breaches of this Code will result in off-list, and where appropriate on-list, reminders of the terms of this Code. Serious breaches will result in offenders being subjected to moderation of messages or suspension of the right to post, and represent a cause of action in relation to the exercise of the disciplinary procedures in Rule 7.
The purposes of this Code are: