Show Notes
Compliance failures are rarely dramatic. They’re just things nobody wrote down and nobody was tracking — quietly unmet obligations sitting in the background until something outside the organisation triggers a very uncomfortable discovery. The goal of this episode isn’t a mountain of paperwork. It’s two practical tools: a Compliance Register and a Committee Calendar. Together they turn a constant low-grade anxiety about what you might be forgetting into ten minutes of agenda time per meeting.
In This Episode
- What compliance actually means — and why it’s a stress reliever, not a burden
- The two tools that make it manageable: the Compliance Register (your what) and the Committee Calendar (your when)
- Building your Register around what you are — incorporated association, registered charity, or both — and what you do
- The categories most committees overlook: fundraising, screening checks, events, staff, premises, privacy and photographs
- The four things to capture for each obligation: what it is, what you need to do, what evidence shows you’ve done it, and how often it renews
- Where to get reliable advice on which obligations apply — your peak body, not a guess around the table, and definitely not whoever’s fastest at googling it under the table
- The Committee Calendar: building compliance dates into the meeting calendar you’re already running, colour-coded so nothing gets lost
- Paper or online? — not even a close decision
- Why compliance belongs on every meeting agenda as a standing item — and why a governance subcommittee is the ideal owner
- Annual review: building the review of both documents into the calendar itself so it’s not something you have to remember to remember
Free Downloads
Two templates from the Committee Companion are in the show notes:
Download both at thecommitteeroom.com.au. A rough first version beats a blank page every time.
Want to Go Further?
If working through your Constitution, companion documents and compliance register has prompted you to think that a proper governance review is due, contact Fresh Allsorts. Details at freshallsorts.com.au.
This Week’s Challenge
If you don’t already have a compliance register, start this week. Start with your Constitution — that will give you your most important key dates and activities. Then work through your other documents, your event calendar and your contractual obligations. It doesn’t have to be complete on day one. A rough first version is much better than nothing, and you build on it from there.
Incremental improvement beats postponed perfection. Every time.
Got a Question for the Kates?
Use the contact form at thecommitteeroom.com.au. Your question might be the next one answered on air.
About Your Hosts
Kate Hartwig has spent forty years working in and around not-for-profit and membership organisations — as a CEO, director, and independent consultant. Her Committee Companion is a head start on good governance with checklists, frameworks and exemplars for committee members. katehartwig.com.au
Kate McPhee has three decades of hands-on experience helping small clubs and associations get more done with less stress. She is the author of Just a Tick, a plain-English governance guide for committees and boards — including a comprehensive compliance categories table. liquoriceallsorts.com.au
Together they offer governance health checks, the Constitution Composer, and other practical support through Fresh Allsorts.
This podcast provides general information on best practice governance for small to medium not-for-profit associations. It is not legal advice.
Timestamps
00:03 — When the committee goes “whoops!”
01:16 — Introducing the Kates and this episode on compliance
02:27 — What does compliance mean?
03:56 — Compliance tools — Register and Calendar
04:20 — The Register
04:49 — What you are…
05:49 — What you do…
07:34 — The nature of obligations
08:46 — Where to get advice?
09:22 — Write it down — what and where?
10:16 — The Calendar
11:44 — Paper or online?
13:07 — Put it on the agenda!
14:43 — Annual review
15:39 — Recap
16:24 — Listener challenge and next episode
Next Episode
A special guest joins the Kates to talk about natural justice and procedural fairness — two principles that sound like they belong in a courtroom but show up in community clubs and volunteer organisations more often than most committees realise. Plus some of those tricky legal questions the Kates can’t answer themselves.
Resources & Links
🎙️ The Committee Room thecommitteeroom.com.au — episode archive, show notes, downloads and contact form
🍬 Fresh Allsorts freshallsorts.com.au — Governance Health Checks, the Constitution Composer and practical support from both Kates
Kate Hartwig Consulting katehartwig.com.au — including the Committee Companion, a head start on good governance with checklists, frameworks and exemplars
Liquorice Allsorts Consulting liquoriceallsorts.com.au — including Just a Tick, Kate McPhee’s plain-English governance guide
Facebook: The Committee Room
LinkedIn: The Committee Room
You don’t need good luck if you’ve got good governance.
The Committee Room | thecommitteeroom.com.au