David Price explains how Acts, constitutions, bylaws, and standing orders fit together in an organization's hierarchy. He covers what each document does, how custom and procedure guides like Renton's fit in, and gives practical tips for presidents, secretaries, and board members on using them correctly.
David Price here, the short guy who helps you walk tall. People sometimes get confused when the term governing documents is used. Let me explain what governing documents are. An organisation operates usually under some Act of Parliament, like the Associations Incorporations Act, if you're an incorporated association. Then there's lots of different Acts under which organisations operate. Under an Act of Parliament is often, but not always, what is called the regulations. And the regulations basically provide interpretation of the Act and how it operates. Now, they're normally a hand's length apart from an organisation in their day-to-day running. It's rare for an organisation to have to refer back to the Act, although it does happen a lot in local government, for instance, where they refer back to the Local Government Act. But in most organisations, the governing documents that you need to be concerned about are your constitution, your bylaws, and your standing orders. The rule about governing documents is relatively simple. Nothing can contradict a governing document that is higher in the hierarchy. You can't have a constitution that contradicts the Act or the regulations. But similarly, in your local level, you can't have documents that contradict documents that are higher in the hierarchy. So the highest document is the constitution. Normally under that come something called bylaws. Not all, all organizations have bylaws. Some do, some don't. But if you have them, you need to follow them. But they cannot contradict the constitution. Below bylaws there is often, but not always, something called standing orders, and standing orders tend to say exactly how the meetings of the organisation will run, and they often include the rules of meeting procedure, or they often include general things about how the organisation will run. Nothing in there can contradict the bylaws, and nothing in the bylaws can contradict the constitution. Now technically that's the end of the governing documents, but organisations often find themselves in a situation where the standing orders or the bylaws or the constitution are silent on certain things, and so they then operate on custom. Custom can fall into 2 categories. It can be the local customs of what that organisation does, bearing in mind that those customs again cannot contradict the standing orders or bylaws or constitution. But the other type of custom is the generally accepted customary meeting procedure rules. They're laid out in a couple of books. Renton's book, A Guide for Meetings and Organizations, is an excellent book. My own book also is used by a lot of organizations, Meeting Procedure Made Easy. They lay out the customs for meeting procedure if the governing documents are silent on certain things. So the governing documents are really important to know if you're the president or the secretary or a board member or a committee member, because you need to follow those documents and they can be challenged if they're not followed. So get to know your governing documents and you'll find that your organisation has the opportunity to be more efficient and effective in achieving its goals and its objectives.
