Membership, Growth & Digital Transformation · 19 January 2027
Most associations have a policy for handling member misconduct, the disciplinary procedural fairness discipline this series covered earlier. Far fewer have an equally genuine policy for the opposite direction entirely: a member unhappy with the association's own service, a decision, or how a specific situation was handled. This gap deserves the same deliberate attention.
A Genuine National Standard Most Associations Have Never Consulted
Australia has a formally published national standard specifically addressing this, AS 10002:2022, Guidelines for complaint management in organisations, and it applies broadly, not just to large regulated entities. The standard is specific that effective complaint handling recognises fairness in both directions: fairness to the person making the complaint, and fairness to any staff member or volunteer the complaint concerns. An association building a complaints process focused entirely on satisfying the complainant, without a fair process for the person or decision being complained about, has built half a system.
The Same Natural Justice Principles, Applied More Broadly
This series established the core elements of procedural fairness in the specific context of member and director discipline: the right to be heard, an unbiased decision-maker, and a decision based on relevant evidence. These same principles apply to general member complaints handling, not only formal disciplinary matters. A member complaining about a decision affecting them is entitled to a fair process for how that complaint is investigated and resolved, even where no misconduct or discipline is involved at all. Sector guidance is specific on a detail many complaints processes skip entirely: a complainant should be told the actual reasons if their complaint is not upheld, and informed of any avenue for further review. A complaints process that simply says no, without explaining why or where to go next, has not actually completed the process, regardless of how quickly it was closed.
Why This Should Never Disappear Entirely Into Administration
Sector guidance on effective complaint handling identifies leadership commitment as an essential element, not a nicety. The chief executive's personal, visible endorsement of the complaints process, and a clear line of senior accountability for how complaints are handled, meaningfully affects whether a complaints system functions well in practice or exists only as an unused policy document. A board should ask whether member complaints handling has this kind of visible ownership, or whether it has quietly become an entirely administrative function with no senior accountability at all.
- Build a member complaints policy distinct from your disciplinary and misconduct policy, addressing complaints about the association's own service, decisions, and actions specifically.
- Apply the natural justice principles this series established for disciplinary matters to general complaints handling as well, a fair hearing, an unbiased decision-maker, and a decision based on the relevant facts.
- Ensure your process explains actual reasons when a complaint is not upheld, and informs the complainant of any further review avenue, rather than closing the matter with a bare no.
- Confirm your complaints process is fair to the staff member or volunteer being complained about as well as the complainant, consistent with the balance AS 10002 explicitly requires.
- Maintain visible senior leadership accountability for complaints handling, rather than allowing it to become a purely administrative function with no meaningful oversight from the chief executive or board.
A member complaint, handled well, is an opportunity to demonstrate the fairness and accountability your association asks its own members to extend to it. Handled poorly, or left without any real policy at all, it becomes exactly the kind of grievance that erodes trust quietly, one unresolved complaint at a time.
This is one of the practical governance topics built into our Association CEO course — alongside the papers, tools and frameworks that turn the principle into your board's actual practice. Explore the course →
— Annie