EXTRACT FROM THE DEPARTMENTS LETTER TO COCA

RE: OPD and Celebrant Association Activities

I am writing to seek your views on the recognition of association conference attendance for OPD in 2013.  I apologise for the delay in writing about our proposed options.  Given that this calendar year is quickly coming to an end, I would really appreciate your views by next Tuesday 30 October.  We can then put in place the new arrangements and notify celebrants through the December edition of the newsletter.

Options for conference attendance – See extract below

Coalition of Celebrant Associations CoCA Response letter to the AG Department.

TO: Marriage Celebrant and Law Section.

CoCA Delegates were very disappointed with the MLCS proposing only two options – no OPD credit or a proposal of 1 hour OPD Equivalent for attendance at a Celebrant Conference.  

These options were not discussed with CoCA representatives at two meetings in September, nor at the CoCA-MLCS meeting in October.

Rather, at these meetings, a THIRD option of a 3-hour OPD Equivalent for a full day’s attendance (6 hours) of an association approved conference was discussed without any apparent concerns expressed by the Department. One delegate mentioned a longer-term option of the association making a recommendation of, for example, a 1-hour OPD equivalent for a 3-hour activity.

The purpose of the celebrant association conference option is to link celebrants with professional association support, and to encourage them to join associations.

The purpose of OPD is to encourage ongoing learning and should not be used as a substitute for pre-appointment training, nor on a punitive model of making celebrant pay more for learning they do not necessarily need. This system is already discriminatory against Commonwealth Marriage Celebrants when the 24,000 State marriage celebrants are not required to do any AGD approved OPD.

CoCA Delegates considers:

1.  A 1-hour’s OPD Equivalent for a full day’s attendance (6 hours) of an approved association conference sends a very poor message to the celebrant community about how the Department views the value of celebrant association conferences.

2. As previously discussed, the current OPD Approval and Monitoring model is flawed and biased to the existing OPD providers. CoCA has already presented a model for an independent approval process.

3.  A priority for 2013 is the establishment of a simple, efficient, effective and independent approval and monitoring process that expands the opportunities for Ongoing Professional Development as outlined in CoCA’s February submission.

4. This Independent Approval and Monitoring Process for 2014 OPD learning activities, including association conferences and workshops, needs to be established by 30 June 2013 to ensure that new OPD opportunities, including celebrant association activities, can be submitted and approved from 1st July 2013.

5. Feedback about OPD needs to be part of the annual celebrant survey.

Therefore CoCA’s recommendation would have to be Option 1 – The Status Quo (ie no credit for celebrant association conferences for 2013 only)

Kind regards
Rona

Rona Goold
Secretary
Phone: 02 4885 2393

Coalition of Celebrants Association (CoCA) Inc.

Options for conference attendance

Option 1 – Status quo

Under this option, we would continue to have five hours of OPD delivered by the current Panel.  Conferences could continue to engage the Panel to deliver five hours of OPD and work with the Panel providers to tailor packages to suit their members’ needs.  This will allow time to fully explore and develop options for conference attendance counting towards OPD attendance from 2014.

Option 2 – approved association conference attendance counts as one hour towards OPD elective

Under this option, AGD would pilot association conference attendance being recognised as meeting one hour of a celebrants’ OPD elective obligations.  The conference organisers would be required to send an outline of the conference agenda to the Registrar for approval and the conference would be listed as an approved activity in that year.  This would give associations, OPD providers and AGD an idea of how this option can work in practice and any variations that might be required in order to fully implement it from 2014.  It will also allow us to seek feedback from celebrants about their views on this option and identify any problems to resolve.

Under this option, we do not intend that conferences will be required to demonstrate that a formal training course will be provided equalling one hour, or that the person delivering the topic would have formal training qualifications.  The intention of allowing conference attendance to count towards OPD is a recognition that there are flexible ways for celebrants to develop their skills, networks and knowledge outside of a formal training environment.