The Proponents and the Institute?

Establishing a fully fledged research institute in Australia which can work with, but is independent of, established universities is no trivial task. There is no applicable standard Australian legal structure for such an Institute and it has been considered impractical to try to mobilise all the resources needed from scratch.

So using a conventional member-based incorporated association provides the Proponents with a practical boot strap process. Our agreed Statement of Purposes provides clear demarcation as to what the Proponents Association needs to prioritise initially:

  1. Recruit participation of organisations and individuals. (Application for Membership)
  2. Prepare and pursue a detailed strategy for establishment of the Institute.
  3. Initiate and support research, training and consultancy services of the kind envisaged for the Institute at levels appropriate to a professional association.

That third objective is effectively to make the Association a Pre Institute. We intend to develop arrangements and structures needed for the Institute within that preparatory phase.

It is important at this early stage to keep our options open. Consequently the Statement of Purposes strikes a balance between specifying the theoretical and practical areas in which we want to concentrate while leaving things open enough for the Institute to take on whatever form is determined by wider consensus, specifying only:

(…) a Kororoit Institute, however named, which services growth areas west of Melbourne with an interdisciplinary research focus crossing emergence, systems, complexity, organisation knowledge management, community consultation, service corridor and public land use planning, and facilitating information technologies.

Initially we can talk about “the Proponents”, “the Association”, “Kororoit Proponents” or “the Proponents Association” interchangeably rather than the whole mouthful of “Kororoit Institute Proponents and Supporters Association Inc”. But when we talk about “the Institute” or “Kororoit Institute” we are referring to something which does not yet exist. And when it is appropriate to blur that boundary, we might simply talk of “Kororoit”, preferably superimposed on an aqua lemniscate. “Supporters” should only come into play after the Institute is established.