Accountability
Transparency
How ECA is run, where the money comes from, where it goes, and how to see the accounts for yourself.
Community organisations ask people for their money, their time and their trust. Too often they never say what happens to any of it — not out of dishonesty, usually, but because nobody made it a habit. The result is the same either way: members who cannot tell whether the association is being run well, and no way for them to find out short of asking someone awkward at an event.
ECA is choosing to do the opposite, and to keep doing it after the people who decided it have moved on. This page sets out what we publish, what we do not, and how to get the things that are not on the site. It is written to be checked — everything below either links to the page that proves it or tells you exactly who to ask.
If something here does not match what you find, that is worth telling us about.Email the committee and we will either fix the page or explain the gap.
What we commit to
Four things, each already live on this site rather than a promise about the future.
We publish who runs ECA
Every committee position and the person holding it, plus the committees that came before. Elected by members, not appointed.
We publish what we are working on
The projects board shows everything in progress — including what has stalled, and the ideas nobody has picked up yet.
We publish what it costs to join
Both rates in full — $50 standard and $25 concession — before anybody is asked to pay, with no proof required for the lower rate.
We show members the accounts
Full financial statements are presented to members at the Annual General Meeting, where they can be questioned. Any member can ask for a copy at any time.
How ECA is governed
ECA is a not-for-profit incorporated association registered in Victoria, operating under the Associations Incorporation Reform Act 2012 and its own rules. That is not a formality — it is what makes the association accountable to its members rather than to whoever happens to be running it.
A committee of volunteers, elected by members at the Annual General Meeting, is responsible for running ECA. The committee meets monthly. Financial statements are presented to members at the AGM, and members vote on committee positions and on significant decisions about the association's direction.
Nobody at ECA is paid. Not the committee, not the people who run the events, not the people who wrote this site. Every hour is volunteered, and no part of the association's funds goes to anyone as salary or fees.
Membership is what turns a reader into someone with a vote.Joining is how you get a say in any of the above.
Where the money comes from, and where it goes
The categories, in plain terms. The figures against them are in the financial statements — the next section is how to see those.
What comes in
Membership fees
The two annual rates published on the membership page.
Event tickets and stall fees
Where an event charges, which not all do.
Donations
From members, families and supporters of the community.
Grants
From councils and government programs, when we win them.
What goes out
Venues and permits
Hall hire, council permits and the paperwork around a public event.
Insurance
Public liability cover, without which ECA cannot run a gathering at all.
Food and equipment
What it takes to actually put on a festival, an iftar or a community day.
Youth programs
Mentoring, sports days, career nights and the annual scholarship fund.
Running this website
Hosting and the domain name. It is a small line, and it is a real one.
The treasurer keeps the accounts, the committee reviews them at its monthly meeting, and the association lodges what Victorian law requires of it. Membership fees are set by the committee and published in full on themembership page before anybody is asked to pay.
How to see our financials
Three routes, in the order worth trying. All of them are open now — none of them depend on us getting around to publishing something.
Come to the AGM
The treasurer presents the full financial statements to members once a year, and members can question them on the spot and vote on what happens next. This is the fullest picture anyone gets, and membership is what gets you in the room.
Ask us for a copy
Any member can email and ask for the most recent financial statements, and we will send them. If you are not a member — a funder, a partner, a journalist, or someone deciding whether to trust us — ask anyway and we will tell you what we can share.
Check the public registers
ECA is an incorporated association registered in Victoria and has an ABN. Both are public records you can search yourself, without asking us, to confirm the association exists and is in good standing.
What is already published
Everything on this list is on the site right now, and stays current rather than being refreshed once a year.
- The current committeeEvery position and who holds it.
- Past committeesYear by year, as far back as we have records.
- Projects and their statusIncluding what has stalled.
- Every event we have runUpcoming and past, kept as a record.
- Membership feesBoth rates, and where the fee goes.
- What we do with your informationWhat we collect and why.
What we do not publish, and why
Dollar figures are not on this website. The financial statements go to members at the AGM and to anyone who asks for them, and that is deliberately a step you have to take rather than a file sitting on a public page. Putting a full set of accounts online is a decision for the members to make at an AGM, not for whoever is editing the site — so until they do, the statements are available on request and this page tells you how.
We are not a registered charity. ECA is an incorporated association, which is a different thing. It means there is no entry on the national charity register with our financial reports attached to it, and no tax deduction for donating to us. Anyone telling you otherwise is mistaken.
Some history on this site is still incomplete.Past committee names are published only as former members confirm they are happy to appear, and parts of ECA's early history are still being written down properly. Where a page is thin, we would rather say so than fill it in with something that sounds right.
Ask a question, or raise a concern
A transparency page is only worth the reply that follows it. If you want the accounts, want to know how a decision was made, or think something is wrong with how ECA is being run, write to us — it reaches the committee, and we usually reply within a few days. Members can also raise anything directly at the AGM, on the record.
Eritrean Community in Australia Inc. — an incorporated association registered in Victoria. ABN 99 460 492 171. Melbourne, Victoria.