 ..... involved in the Coalition of Celebrant Associations (CoCA)
Opinion by Rona Goold
ACCN Director
I have heard a number of comments made about CoCA (The Coalition of Celebrant Associations) as I am a member of a number of celebrant associations. Some positive, some critical, some neutral.
More importantly such comments are few and far between, especially when one looks at the volume of posts amongst celebrant members of different associations. Does this mean celebrants don't know what CoCA's role is, are too busy to find out or simply don't care ?
What is CoCA?
The Coalition of Celebrant Associations is a representative delegation of member celebrant associations with appointed delegates who meet both electronically and face to face to discuss issues and propose solutions related to celebrancy and the Marriage Celebrant Program.
The Attorney General's Department now confirms CoCA as the peak body for marriage celebrants in Australia by the AG's Department.
As a new CoCA delegate, I'd like to address the ones that have been critical.
Being a association member of CoCA is important ... even though delegates are unlikely to all agree on everything
Delegates of different associations, with different objectives, different membership bases and different perceptions about the nature of marriage celebrancy are unlikely to all agree on different proposals.
Like the political parties in a democracy or countries in the United Nations, celebrant associations are unlikely to agree about everything 100% of the time.
Rather than a negative, having different delegate's perspectives being valued, can enable a higher level of planning and better proposals to be developed. Yes this may take more time, but let's remember that the complexity of issues facing celebrants are not going to be solved with a single "quick fix' type solution. Rather a number of strategies are needed.
CoCA's focus is make suggestions to government on ways to improve the marriage celebrant program to improve the professionalism of celebrants.
Delegates have managed to bring in a Constitution in less than 3 years.
The development of a profession, like nursing, teaching, law, etc. usually takes over 100 years. Celebrancy is less than half way, with this Civil Celebrant Program in the early 1970's.
Some changes occurred in the 1980's - an appointment preference for celebrants to be over the age of 35; a High Court challenge to the fixed fees in the early nineties; a doubling of the numbers of marriage celebrants in the mid nineties, and a break with the foundation needs based model in the early noughties.
The latter meant a complete 180 degree turn in the way celebrants were appointed and expected to operate.
The changed philosophical structure of the program, accompanied by a very low criteria for appointment and a commercially viable target group for registered training organisations, means that the post 2003 changes have been massive.
Therefore time is needed for people to work through the whole range of issues in letting go of the past, in adapting to the present and working out the positive and negatives of both the previous and present systems to plan for future improvements to the Marriage Celebrant Program.
Some of CoCA's progress is listed on their website - see Extracts below.
Given this back-drop, the fact that CoCA now has a Constitution in less than 3 years is a remarkable success.
CoCA has provided a range of advice to government
As an advisory body to government, its success should be based upon the quality of advice given the Attorney General's Department, not on whether the Attorney General's acts upon every recommendation.
The Coalition of Celebrant Associations has provided recommendations and advice in the following areas:
- The Code of Practice
- Ongoing Professional Development
- Appointment process for new appointees.
- Occupational Heath and Safety
- Content for the Marriage Celebrant Section website
The Attorney General's Department and the Marriage Celebrant Section are not bound to take CoCA's advice.
However the more that associations can work together and their members are aware of the strategies being proposed, then the more celebrants can be empowered to raise issues with their own Members of Parliament.
I have heard a suggestion that the biggest celebrant association should be the peak body.
Concentration of all power in one national celebrant association may seem on the surface a simple solution.
However, being the biggest does not necessarily mean the best. One size does not necessarily fit all !
All associations have there strengths, but also their weaknesses.
Different associations provide different perspectives - local associations such as state based associations often have a better grasp of local issues, are able to provide local networking and support, special interest associations such as the Humanist Celebrant Network can offer specific perspectives to ensure that certain sectors of the Australian community are not overlooked, while others may have broader or different views on the nature of celebrancy as a profession such as the Civil Celebrants Graduate Association and the Civil Celebrations Network Inc.
That's why the peak body is a Coalition, not a single body!
Its Memorandum of Understanding and Constitution is based upon cooperation and mutual respect for all celebrant associations.
Much like the United Nations, which provides a framework for tiny, smaller and larger countries to come together, to work on issues that affect all countries and their citizens, rather simply putting one country in charge of all their affairs.
What can celebrants do to help improve the work of CoCA?
Every celebrant can
- be interested
- ask for more information about CoCA's activities through their association communication networks,
- find out who your Association's CoCA Delegate is
- send your comments and suggestions for improvements to the Marriage Celebrant Program, to your CoCA Delegate
- offer your thanks and support for the work your Delegate does on your behalf and on behalf of future generations of celebrants.
Extracts from the Coalition of Celebrant Associations CoCA website
Aim: to establish a collective unified representation of marriage celebrants to the Attorney-General and to the Attorney-General’s Department.
Purpose: to promote celebrancy and the advancement of the profession of celebrants.
History CoCA
CoCA came into existence from a long held desire by marriage celebrants and their associations to have a representative group putting their concerns directly to the Attorney-General and the Attorney General’s Department (originally the Registrar of Celebrants and the Marriage Celebrant Section).
The first National Council achieved some success, but difficulties in reaching agreement amongst celebrants and associations saw this council evolve into the current peak body at the invitation of the The Hon Robert McClelland, MP and Commonwealth Attorney-General. 13 associations became part of the foundation group. Delegates were appointed by these associations and an initial meeting was held in Canberra in October 2008. This first meeting agreed on a Memorandum of Understanding and appointed the first office bearers.
Since this time, CoCA has continued to work with the AGD on all practical and formal matters that are within their scope. Coalition of Celebrant Associations has
- a Definition of Purpose,
- a Memorandum of Understanding,
- a draft professional standards for marriage celebrants,
- a Code of Ethics
And now - see the CoCA Update in this e_Magazine -
- a Constitution and
- an Agreed Protocol with the Attorney General's Department that now confirms CoCA as the peak body for marriage celebrants in Australia by the AG's Department.
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