Concerned members issues

Historical Significance: Five members of the Victorian College of Optometry demanded a meeting with the President of the College, Graham Hill, and the Director, Barry Cole, to discuss their concerns about the governance and adminisiration of the College. The five members were John Bartlett, Ian Breadon, Peter Dwyer, Helen Robbins and Damien Smith. The meeting as held at the request of the five members in the Park Royal Hotel 111 Collins Street Melbourne on March 27 1995. The concerns included better opportunity for members of the College to express their views on the optometry course curriculum and specifically (1) the appointment of a clinical professor (2) independent audit of the optometry course (2) change to the constitution of the College council to give greater power to councillor elected by the members (at the time the Director of the College, the Director of the Clinic, the Director and Chairman of the NVRI and the University of Melbourne representative were ex-officio members of the Council and there were 7 members elected by the members). In addition the members wanted the College to appoint an ophthalmological teaching fellow, appoint a GP to the clinic staff, gain optometric participation in Hospital Eye Clinics and create a forum for members to contribute to curriculum development. The members brought special resolutions to a meeting of the members of the College held on April 1 1996 to change the constitution to restructure the College Council to comprise only 10 elected members, with no ex-officio members. The proposals failed to get the 75% majority necessary to change the constitution but just failed to get a simple majority (215 for, 219 against). A negotiated agreement was reached for compromise change to the composition of the Council in May 1996 and subsquently adopted by the members. This file contains many of the papers relating to this dispute.