26 November, 2020

26 November 2020

The Office of the Registrar and the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council (NSWALC) would like to provide updated advice to Local Aboriginal Land Council (LALC) members regarding the current situation with COVID-19.

LALC Meetings:

As COVID-19 restrictions continue to ease and community transmission is diminished, LALCs should consider holding members’ meetings in a COVID-safe way. When you consider organising a members’ meeting, we strongly encourageyou contact the relevant NSWALC Zone Office to discuss selecting an appropriate venue (i.e. taking into consideration an average number of members that normally attend meetings), numbers allowed in the venue and social distancing measures. Every LALC meeting must have and adhere to a COVID-19 Safety Plan.

Where an appropriate venue cannot be secured or for any other reason a meeting cannot occur in a COVID-safe manner, the meeting must be cancelled or postponed. This is to ensure the health and safety of the members within the Land Rights network.  The Office of the Registrar and NSWALC recognise that the risks associated with COVID-19 differs according to the size and age of the membership and the location of the LALC.  In areas where it is not possible to hold a members’ meeting safely at this time, LALCs will not be penalised.

Priorities

As a priority, NSWALC Zone Offices will be working with those LALCs that have urgent business, particularly casual Board vacancies that need to be filled.

Day to day Operations

The day to day operations of your LALC continues to be managed by the CEO with oversight and direction from the LALC Board. Board meetings can be held, either in person provided social distancing measures can be maintained, or by telephone or other electronic means such as Skype, Zoom or Microsoft teams.

LALC Communications with Members:

LALCs will advise members on how they will be continuing to communicate with members while COVID-19 restrictions remain in place. This may be through email, social media, newsletter, or letter box drop. Alternatively, many LALC offices remain open with social distancing to be observed. For those LALC offices that are closed, most LALC CEOs and staff are continuing to work from home and contactable by telephone or email.

If you have any queries or need to further discuss the matters contained in this Network Message, please feel free to contact your LALC in the first instance.

NSWALC and the Office of the Registrar will continue to provide further updates regarding COVID-19 and Public Health Orders.

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