Background

The ANZSRS has been in existence for “30” years and during this period the membership of this trans-Tasman Society has grown and formed links globally to other groups who work in the field of Respiratory Science.

When the ANZSRS was officially formed it was formed as an Incorporated Society under a constitution that allowed the Society to meet, develop and grow. Over the years amendments to the constitution have been necessary to allow the Society to grow and also to accommodate changes in the South Australian legislation under which the ANZSRS is registered.

More recently concerns were voiced about the manner in which the ANZSRS was functioning at its top level in terms of Governance and day-to-day management. These concerns were taken seriously and as you all are aware the ANZSRS began a process of reviewing its governance structure and the constitution. This process has taken 5-years of dedicated and hard work from a number of ANZSRS members.

Several drafts for a new ANZSRS governance structure were reviewed and offered to the membership, and at the same time a complete review of the ANZSRS Constitution was undertaken with a re-drafting from start to finish. This re-drafting brought to light significant legal issues both around the legislation we were acting under and the way in which the ANZSRS was acting (legally) as an Incorporated Society. The Board took legal advice from a company who specialise in governance issues - Board Matters. Following this legal advice and diligent consideration the Board elected to move the ANZSRS Society from an Incorporated Society to a Company Limited by Guarantee.  This decision required that we draft a new constitution under a new set of legislative guidelines. This has been achieved with the help of Board Matters. The new draft constitution has gone through review resulting in several versions which have been driven by the Governance and Vision subcommittee and has also had significant input from both the ANZSRS Board and Executive team.

The culmination of this work is that we now have a new constitution drafted to take the ANZSRS forward for the next 30-years.