The Order in Australia is governed by The United Grand Chapter of Australia (UGCA) with assistance from Supervisory entities at either a local or state level. In recent years, District Grand Chapters, which required 19 Office-bearers, were replaced with District Grand Committees. DG Committees do not require a full board of officers and are made up of regular Chapter representatives in that particular jurisdiction.
In some states, there are not enough regular Chapters to form or maintain a Supervisory level. These regular Chapters report directly to another level.
The term of office for the majority of all Chapters and District Grand Committees is 12 months with the exception of The UGCA which has a 2 year term.
A regular Chapter has 18 Office-bearers with the Chief Office-bearer being the Worthy Matron. Grand Chapters and The UGCA have additional Office-bearers to share the administrative duties within their responsibility.
At Supervisory levels, Office-bearers with the same duties exist, but with the addition of a prefix depicting their responsibility eg:
The United Grand Chapter of Australia is represented by 22 Worthy Grand Office-bearers who are assisted by various administrative officers and valued Emeritus Worthy Grand Office-bearers. The term of office is 2 years with the Biennial Sessions held in June, and within in the State of the incoming Most Worthy Grand Matron.
The Grand Representative program is designed to promote and foster fraternal international relationships between members. Representatives are appointed by Most Worthy Grand Matron to a particular overseas jurisdiction who in turn, appoint a member from their Grand Chapter. Together these members form a lasting friendship – sharing their ideas and experiences of their respective OES journeys.
Any member of the Order in Australia can apply to become a Grand Representative by completing details of their OES history on an application form (available in the Members only area) and lodging it with the Worthy Grand Secretary.
The Present and Past Grand Representatives Association of Australia was formed in 1988 and it’s aims and objectives are “to promote, develop and foster a continuing interest of those who have been appointed as Grand Representatives by exchange of ideas beneficial to Grand Representatives in particular and the Order of the Eastern Star in general”.
Grand Representatives can apply to join this association for a small fee paid each biennium by completing an application form (available from the members only area). This entitles them to attend Association meetings and luncheons that are organised from time to time. Membership forms and minutes of recent meetings are available from the Members only area.
