In his 1993 discussion paper, What Price ACPPA? former National President, John Willett, posed the question, “But what of the association, what does it do? ....... How do we achieve the aims of the association?”

When the original constitution for ACPPA was accepted at the inaugural AGM held during the first ACPPA Conference in 1984, it contained some very laudable and ambitious aims, including:

• To promote the overall aims of Catholic education in all dioceses of Australia.
• To promote the personal and professional development of Principals in Catholic Primary Schools.
• To work actively for the continuous improvement of education, particularly primary education.
• To promote an understanding of the role and significance of the Principal in Catholic education among Principals themselves; and among relevant ecclesiastical, educational, governmental, parent and other groups whose activities impinge on the role of the Principal;
• To provide the means by which executive members, through their local Associations may confer, consult, negotiate or liaise with all or any bodies or individuals on matters which impinge upon the effective operations of Catholic Primary Schools throughout Australia.

Much of the work of the association was left in the hands of the Executive. The constitution fixed the Executive as the President, Secretary and Treasurer of the state primary principals’ association which was the host of that year’s conference. However in reality, due to many facts, but perhaps mainly that the full association met only once a year at the annual conference and that the Executive changed every year and they were isolated, not to say extremely busy, in their own schools, nothing much was happening.

It was obvious, that if ACPPA was to meet its potential, changes had to be made to this structure.

In 1993, Jim Green was President, having been elected at the AGM held during the 1993 conference in Perth because he was President of the WA Catholic Primary Principals’ Association. In preparation for the 1994 AGM at the Adelaide conference, he circulated a proposal that contained seven recommendations:

1. The Executive will be composed of nominated members from each State or Territory Catholic Principals’ Association.
2. All appointments will take effect in February of each year.
3. The term of the appointment to be for 2 years, with a right of reappointment.
4. When a new president is elected, that person’s state or Territory Association is to nominate another delegate from their association to represent them.
5. The President of the ACPPA appoints two other ACPPA members from his/her State or Territory Association, as Treasurer and Secretary, to join with the Vice President and the Immediate Past President to form a Secretariat that will carry out the day-to-day duties given to it by the Executive
6. The Executive shall have power to delegate such matters deemed appropriate to individuals or Member Associations for appropriate action.
7. The Executive elects the President and Vice President of ACPPA at the Executive meeting held prior to the AGM of the Association. The Vice President is to be a member of a State/Territory Association different from the one to which the President belongs.

The term for the President was to be two years, with the right of re-election for a further two years. The President was to meet with the Secretariat on a regular basis between conferences and maintain regular communication with the Executive. It also gave the Executive the power to form standing committees, ad hoc committees or working parties to address matters of importance to the association.

This proposal was presented and accepted with only minor amendments at the 1994 AGM.

And so for the first time ACPPA had an Executive, appointed by its member state and territory associations, from which a President was elected. ACPPA could now get moving on those aims, so hopefully written ten years earlier.

But that did not quite happen, as the tyranny of distance which isolated the Executive in spots all over the country, with still only one face-to-face meeting together each year. There was some fine-tuning, and perhaps some not-so-fine-tuning to do, so it was very much a work in progress.

Jim Green (centre), with John Walker, WA and Barry Hamberton, NZ and school photography sponsors Fotex Him and Fotex Her