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The statement of points of purpose of CoCA are as follows:
- To represent member association and the interest of all registered Marriage Celebrants and present celebrant concerns directly to the AG and the department.
- To be consulted by the AG and the department in respect of
- appointments of marriage celebrants
- marriage celebrant training and OPD
- proposed changes to, interpretations of, instructions and regulations relating to marriage celebrants in respect to Marriage Act 1961.
- the management of the marriage celebrant program.
- all other matters relating directly to marriage celebrants including but not limited to:-
- code of practice
- complaints process
- conflict of interest
- We stand ready to assist in the selection process of marriage celebrant section staff.
- We will make available information from celebrant associations to the AG and the
department and make available to associations, information provided by the AG and the department.
- CoCA will establish and decide its’ own methods of administration, appointment of Office Bearers and Terms of Office.
The delegates of CoCA agreed on three office bearers. Those being President, Vice President and Secretary/Treasurer.
John O’Carrigan had previously indicated that due to his health he was happy to stand down as Chair and an election process was then held and the results were as follows.
President: Lance Tapsell
Vice President: Nigel Caswell
Secretary / Treasurer: Robyn Caine
It was decided by CoCA that the terms of office are for 12 months with a 2 year maximum.
CoCA will be making a submission to the AG for funding to assist with the cost of holding face to face and teleconference meetings, as it is unfair on the member organisations to foot the full cost of this initiative which is of significant benefit to the AG’s department.
Previously the MCS had provided a draft proposal on a communications protocol. This protocol outlined the proposed method of communications between CoCA and the MCS, part of that protocol was that most things be communicated in confidence. We believe this would reduce the value of the communication as the purpose of CoCA is to communicate both with the MCS and the member organisations. When this was put to Deborah Nance, her response was that MCS would consider our proposal but it could limit the information that would be passed to CoCA. An initial document that the MCS released to CoCA “in confidence” was sent to CoCA without us agreeing to it being in confidence and since the contents of the document were of a statistical nature CoCA could not understand why it should be deemed confidential. It was agreed that both CoCA & the MCS would work through this issue in the spirit of forging a beneficial partnership for the good of all parties.
There was an interesting comment by Deborah Nance, that the MCS & the AG anticipated that CoCA would be involved in other areas of celebrancy. This is somewhat unexpected as the MCS & the AG have no jurisdiction in areas outside of marriages. This is something that we will continue to work on.
There was a long discussion on the quality of training provided by some RTO’s. It seems MCS is aware of some problem RTO’s but is was unclear what MCS is doing to address the issue. We made it clear we believe that some of the new celebrants being appointed have not received adequate training. We’re sure this issue will be revisited many times until there is a satisfactory result.
There of course were many other issues discussed, too many to mention, but there was a general feeling that real progress was made and that CoCA looks forward to providing a valuable service not only to our member organisations but all celebrants
Lance Tapsell
CoCA President
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