Virtual Meetings for P&C Associations

Historically P&C Associations across NSW have not been enabled by their constitution to hold meetings other than face to face. Due to changing times, P&C Federation has advocated on behalf of NSW P&C Associations to have an amendment added to the constitution by the Minister for Education to enable P&C Associations to hold virtual meetings (or hybrid meetings with a mixture of face to face and virtual platform/s) agreed upon by the members.

It is important to note that face to face meetings should always remain the preferred method for P&C Associations to meet so no-one is disadvantaged or excluded from participating.

The Prescribed Constitution (P&C Associations that are incorporated) can only be changed or amended by the NSW Minister for Education. Once any change or amendment is made and approved by the NSW Minister for Education, the new version of the Prescribed Constitution  automatically becomes the current Constitution your P&C Association is governed by. This is in accordance with the Parents and Citizens Incorporation Act 1976 No 50 (see extract below (2)).  

“15   Rules of incorporated associations

(1)  The rules for the conduct of the business and affairs of a parents and citizens association incorporated under this Act are the relevant standard or model rules published by the Minister under section 117 of the Education Act 1990.

(2) On incorporation under this Act, a parents and citizens association is taken to have adopted the relevant rules so published, as amended from time to time.
Click here to read the full Parents and Citizens Incorporation Act 1976 No 50
Note: The Standard Constitution (P&C Associations that a not incorporated) is also amended to include the changes.
Prescribed Constitution
Standard Constitution
When investigating the various platforms for online meetings and voting, there is some consideration you may have to take into account, such as, some providers of video conferencing software may offer free versions with limited functionality and capabilities. This may be suitable for your charity. However, it may be that your charity needs to spend some money for an effective option. Similarly, there may be extra technology-related costs that may come with a remote meeting. For example, devices, microphones or webcams, voting platform for anonymity, etc. When P&C Associations are discussing the options available for virtual meetings, a decision of the members must be passed in a motion regarding the platforms to use.

In this document you will note that meeting processes remain the same except for some additional considerations when hosting a virtual meeting, or a mixture of both virtual meeting and face to face, that must happen.

The process to host meetings remains the same. However, considerations need to be made to also allow additional meeting platforms e.g. Via video conferencing, by phone conference a mixture of all platforms or total virtual meetings