Part III – Australian Governance

The 2026 edition of Part III of The Rule of the Society of St Vincent de Paul (‘Society’) in Australia introduced revisions to the 2012 edition of the Articles and the accompanying Procedures.
The 2026 edition divides the Articles into three Sections.
Section One covers matters that have to do with Conferences and Members.
Section Two covers those matters that have to do with aspects of Councils and how they function, Council position holders, elections of Council Presidents, managing complaints involving Members, and Special Works.
Section Three covers general governance matters.
Throughout the Articles, there are references to procedures and to appendices.
A Procedure provides commentary or details and/or protocols to assist Members and Councils to better understand or to assist in implementing aspects that attach to an Article.
Appendices have been referenced to give Members a source of corporate knowledge about decisions taken by National Councils past and current and material that has been developed since the Sydney Congress 2023.
An ‘online filing cabinet’ has been established as the source of protocols and material that provide instructions and references for all Councils and Conferences to be aware of, to follow or to consider. Details of how Councils might make use of the information contained in a particular Appendix is outlined in the Preamble to The Appendices.
Because the Procedures and the Appendices are online, this allows National Council to revise existing material and to add new reference material when this is relevant.