Notice of 2025 AGM

The 2025 AGM of the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues will be held at the Railyard Bar and Cafe at 6PM on Tuesday 25th February.

There are vacant general positions on the board. Board nominations will open on 14 January 2025 and close on 11 February 2025.

The nomination form can be found here.

Please click here to view the proposed Constitution prepared by the WFJI Committee.

The existing Constitution is very complex, leading the Committee to form the view that the current Constitution of the WFJI is no longer fit-for-purpose. The governance update is proposed to address some key challenges in the existing Constitution:

It includes provisions that contemplate the strong involvement of Rural City of Wangaratta Council in the festival governance. Council is no longer actively involved in the festival;

It is overly prescriptive in relation to the appointment of festival staff; and

It has a complex membership structure that no longer reflects the reality of the membership base of the WFJI.

Instead of carrying out the painstaking task of editing the current constitution, the Committee proposes to replace the constitution with a new constitution based on the Model Rules for an Incorporated Association (Rules). The Rules are derived from the legislation that governs member-based organisations in Victoria, and are used as a governing document for thousands of member-based organisations.

Importantly, the proposed new Rules essentially keep the same purpose statements as the existing constitution. The only changes proposed are minor edits to ensure consistency of drafting. This means that if the new Rules are adopted, the high level guidelines directing the Committee of the WFJI will remain unchanged.

In the Committee’s view, a key improvement of the proposed new Rules is that the Rules deal exclusively with the governance of the WFJI. The operations of the Festival and any related fundraising and management are a matter for the Committee and any employees or contractors engaged by the Committee. In the existing constitution, various operational decisions, including the appointment of certain positions, were enshrined in the Constitution. The proposed approach is preferred because it gives the Committee flexibility to adaptively manage the Festival while incorporating a strong governance framework.