The Australian Wool Exchange Limited (AWEX) is a Company Limited by Guarantee and provides the major industry framework for the exchange of ownership of wool in Australia.

It is a member services organisation.

Its members include Australian and international wool brokers, processors and exporters, wool producers, private treaty merchants and industry associations.

AWEX has three categories of Membership.

1. Trading:

Trading Members are essentially commercial businesses that operate within the wool industry either as exporters of wool from Australia or buyers, sellers or processors of wool within Australia.

Classes of Trading Membership include:

Exporters
Brokers
Private Treaty Merchants
Processors

2. Associate:

An associate member can be either a commercial business or industry association, which typically has a close affiliation within the wool industry.

3. Grower:

Growers are 'non-trading' members whose core relationship with the wool industry is the production of wool in Australia.

Some of the benefits available to an AWEX Member are:

AWEX Members have an active role in industry self regulation, through the development of AWEX Rules.
AWEX Members have the ability to propose and comment on rule changes, in order to facilitate the ongoing improvement of an efficient, innovative and informed trading system.
AWEX Members form an extensive network of various industry participants, which enables AWEX to provide a central point for the exchange of timely and relevant industry information. Information is distributed in the form of:

o Journals

o Annual Reports

o Boardtalk

o AWEX News

o Notices to Members

AWEX Members receive a 15% discount on AWEX Market Report publications.

Additional benefits apply to Grower and Trading Members.

Grower benefits:

Entitled to one vote to elect an AWEX Board director representing the interests of wool producers.
An updated Code of Practice for the Preparation of Australian Wool Clips.
Right to attend and vote in AWEX general meetings.
Right to elect a representative to AWEX regional committees.

Trading Member benefits:

Ability to access AWEX managed trading facilities- including auction, Eclipse electronic tender and offer boards.
Right to attend and vote in AWEX general meetings.
Right to elect representatives to AWEX regional committees.
Right to elect AWEX Board directors representing appropriate Membership classes.

AWEX Board

One Director may be elected by those Exporter Members who, together with their related bodies corporate, have purchased through any selling system managed by the Wool Exchange an average in excess of 7,000,000 kilograms of wool per annum over the 3 years before the election. One Director may be elected by those Exporter Members who, together with their related bodies corporate, have purchased through any selling system managed by the Wool Exchange an average less than or equal to 7,000,000 kilograms of wool per annum over the 3 years before the election.
One Director may be elected by those Broker Members who, together with their related bodies corporate, have sold through any selling system managed by the Wool Exchange an average in excess of 35,000,000 kilograms of wool per annum over the 3 years before the election. One Director may be elected by those Broker Members who, together with their related bodies corporate, have sold through any selling system managed by the Wool Exchange an average less than or equal to 35,000,000 kilograms of wool per annum over the 3 years before the election.
One Director may be elected by Grower Members.
One Director may be elected by PrivateTreaty Merchant Members.
One Director may be elected by Processor Members.
One Director may be appointed by the Wool Council of Australia. The Director must be a person with business, marketing or finance experience and may have wool growing interests.
One Director may be elected by:

o Exporter;

o Broker;

o Private Treaty Merchant; and

o Processor
Members in general meeting voting together. The Director must be a person with business, marketing or finance experience.

One Director may be appointed by the other Directors. That Director will be the Chairperson.
Associate Members are not entitled to elect or participate in the election of any Director.