Every site's council has to hold an annual general meeting (AGM) once a year.

Parent member elections are usually held at the AGM. If your site has a parent member election planned, you'll probably find it helpful to look at election planning for councils.

Importantly, you will also be sharing the annual report for your site (preschool/school) with your community.

Who, when, and what happens

• who comes – people from your site’s local community (this can include, site staff, parents and families, community members, persons who have an interest in the site and governing council members).
• when – once a year. The time between each AGM must not exceed 16 months.
• what happens –
  • parent member elections are held, and to declare election results
  • a chance for the chairperson and site leader (principal/director) to talk about how well the site is doing, report on the site’s proceedings, operations and finances of the council for the period since the last AGM.

What doesn’t happen

Staff, students, affiliated committee members, and community members are not appointed to the council during the AGM. Similarly, office holder positions are not filled at the AGM either. These appointments take place during a separate governing council meeting, usually the first meeting of the council after the AGM.

What information you should expect to see

Ahead of the AGM the site leader will have shared the annual report with council. The annual report should show progress against a variety of different plans and detail achievements, highlights and challenges for the year.
Examples of these planning documents include:

• school improvement plans
• self review report
• strategic plan
• governing council report.

The annual report includes information about:

• learner achievement and development, for example reporting on Australian Curriculum
• effectiveness of improvement strategies, for example the targets in the strategic and site plans
• resource management, for example finance reports
• compliance requirements, for example relevant history screening checks.