Members’ Charter

CQ RAICCHO was intentionally established as a ‘balanced’ model of regional development and support.  The balance comes from its origins as a creation of four incorporated companies who each nominate one Director to the CQ RAICCHO Board.  This is a ‘federated’ approach.  But CQ RAICCHO is also required to initiate programs and projects, and to provide developmental assistance, guidance and support to its constituent Member Services.

So there is an inherent ‘balance’ between the federated composition and the entrepreneurial programming role.

Experience has shown that guidelines are needed to spell out how relationships and behaviours will work when such ‘balanced’ regional models exist.  There is always the potential for either excessive centralized control from the regional organisation, or, on the other hand, for excessive fragmentation amongst Member organisations that can make the whole regional development process impotent.

The Member Services and the Board of Directors of CQ RAICCHO recognized these two risks, and agreed that the solution would be to document in a Members’ Charter the optimal relationship values and behaviours.

CQ RAICCHO reviewed the Charter that had been developed years previously for the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services Council Inc (KAMSC), and reviewed the current state of knowledge about other regional organizations in our Sector in several jurisdictions.  From these reviews, CQ RAICCHO developed and has adopted a Members’ Charter which emphasizes the core support to the Member Services, shared values, and which provides for CQ RAICCHO to:

• Conduct pre-audits of a Member Service’s financial affairs where CQ RAICCHO and the Member Service decide it is appropriate, so as to pre-empt the requirement for external financial administrators being appointed, which compromises Aboriginal community control; and

• Intervene in a Member Service to guarantee continuity of delivery of primary health care services to Aboriginal clients in circumstances where the Member Service is unable to do so.

The Members’ Charter was formally endorsed at a Special General Meeting of Member Services on 18^th February 2014.