Club operations

Conflicts of interest

The committee’s register of declared interests — who disclosed what, which meeting or decision it related to, and how it was managed (declared, abstained, left the room). Readable by admins, the Governance permission, committee position holders and the person named; never by members, the public or a parent organisation.

The Conflicts of interest page is your committee's register of declared interests: who disclosed what, when, which meeting or decision it related to, and what the committee did about it. Incorporated associations are expected to keep one and to be able to produce it, so this is the page that turns "we mentioned it at the time" into a record. You'll find it under Club operations → Conflicts of interest, beside Governance.

If your committee hasn't written a policy yet, start with the conflict of interest policy guide — it has a policy you can adopt at your next meeting, the words to use when a conflict comes up in the room, and how to handle buying from people connected to the club. The register guide covers the habits that keep a register true: the annual refresh, how it lines up with the minutes, and how long to keep it.

Who can use this

The register is a Pro plan feature and shares the governance module's plan requirement. Recording and editing entries needs the Manage meetings & documents permission — club administrators have it automatically, and a Secretary position is the natural grantee on User management → Roles.

Opening the page needs that same permission: without it you get a "not found", the same as any other admin page you have not been given.

Underneath, the register grants a little more reading than the page shows, so that committee-facing views can be built on it without loosening anything:

Anyone holding a committee position is allowed to read the register, and the person named in an entry is allowed to read their own entry when you link it to their account. Neither reaches this admin page today — if a position holder needs to see the register before a vote, an administrator shows it to them or shares the minutes.
Ordinary members, visitors and any organisation above you in a federation see nothing at all. A disclosure names a person and usually their money, so it is never a member page and never public.
ClubHelix staff can read counts for support purposes and can never add, change or remove an entry.

What's on the page

Active interests: entries still in force that the committee has to keep managing.
Active, not yet tabled: the gap worth chasing. A disclosure nobody minuted is, on the record, a disclosure that did not happen.
Entries in total: everything on the register, active or not. Where the register runs past 500 entries the page shows the most recent 500 and says so.
Add to the register: the disclosure form.
The register: every entry, newest first, with how it was managed, the meeting or decision it relates to, and a note when the position has since changed hands.

Step by step

Record a disclosure

Open Club operations → Conflicts of interest and fill in Add to the register.
Type the person's name. It's typed rather than picked from the roster because a committee member isn't always a platform account — and the name has to stay readable if their account is ever removed.
Optionally link their account. Linking is what lets that person see their own entry; nobody else on the roster can.
Choose the position they held. The register follows the position through a committee handover, and remembers what the position was called at the time.
Describe the interest, and name the other party if there is one — the company, club or person they're connected to.
Attach the meeting or the decision it relates to, if it relates to one. A standing interest ("my family owns the caterer") needs neither.
Choose how it was managed. This is the question asked after "was it disclosed?", so the register always records an answer.
Save. The entry is on the register straight away.

Table it at a meeting

Take the register to the meeting and minute the disclosures.
Back on this page, use Mark as tabled on each entry you put to the meeting.
A tabled entry becomes a permanent record: it can no longer be deleted, only marked lapsed or withdrawn.

Retire an interest

Find the entry and set its Status.
Lapsed means the interest has ended — the shares were sold, the contract finished.
Withdrawn means it was recorded in error. It stays on the register saying so.
Nothing is ever deleted once tabled. That's the difference between a register and a list.

Field reference

Field	What it's for
Who disclosed it	The person's name, as recorded at the time. Never rewritten afterwards.
Link to their account	Optional. Lets that person read their own entry.
Position	The office they held. Resolved live, so a handover moves the entry to the office's new holder, with the old title kept for the record.
Kind of interest	Financial, employment or contract, supplier to the club, family or close personal relationship, a role at another organisation, a gift or benefit, or other.
What is the interest	The disclosure itself, in the discloser's terms.
Other party	The company, club or person on the other side.
Meeting	The meeting it relates to. Leave blank for a standing interest.
Decision	The specific matter, when it isn't a whole meeting.
How it was managed	Declared and took part; declared and abstained; declared and left the room; declared and did not vote; handed the matter to someone else; other.
Notes	How it was actually handled on the day.
When was it disclosed	The date of the disclosure, not the date you typed it in.
Does the interest end	Optional. After this date the entry stops counting as active without anybody having to remember.
Status	Active, lapsed or withdrawn.

Tips & FAQ

What counts as a conflict? Anything where a committee member's own interests could reasonably be seen to pull against the club's — a family member's business tendering for work, a paid role at a rival club, a personal relationship with somebody being selected or disciplined, a gift from a supplier. The test is what a reasonable member would think if they found out later, not whether the person feels conflicted.

Do we have to keep a register? In New South Wales a register of disclosures is named outright, and every other Australian state carries an equivalent duty on committee members to disclose a material personal interest and on the association to record it. Your own constitution may go further. If you are unsure what your state requires, ask your state's fair-trading or consumer-affairs regulator — this page is a place to keep the record, not legal advice.

Is recording it enough? No, and that's why how it was managed is mandatory. Disclosing an interest and then voting on the matter anyway is usually the thing that causes the problem. Record what the committee actually did: abstained, left the room, handed the item to someone else.

Why does it say "not yet tabled"? Because a disclosure made in the car park and never minuted doesn't exist as far as anybody looking back is concerned. Take the register to the meeting, minute the disclosures, then mark them tabled here.

A committee member has stepped down — do I delete their entries? No. Their disclosures stay on the register: they were true at the time and they're part of the record of decisions the committee made. Mark the interest lapsed if it has actually ended. When their position passes to somebody else, the entry shows who holds it now and prompts you to check whether the new holder has an interest of their own to declare.

Can members see it? No. Members can inspect the minutes of a general meeting; committee disclosures aren't that, and publishing a volunteer's financial affairs to everyone who ever joined isn't something a register should do. A committee member who holds a position but not the Governance permission can't open this page either — ask an administrator, or read it in the minutes. If your committee decides a particular disclosure belongs in public minutes, put it in the minutes on the Governance page — that's a deliberate decision, made once, rather than a setting that exposes the lot.

Does the governing body above us see it? No. Inheritance in ClubHelix is configuration, not control — a federation never reads a club's register. If they need a disclosure, they ask you for it.

Where do the numbers go? Nowhere that names anybody. ClubHelix staff and the Helix Assistant can see counts by status and by how conflicts were managed, and nothing else: no names, no interest descriptions, no other parties.