An AGM, a doco and a call for an EOI!
Posted on 14 November, 2014 by Connecting Country
Thank you to everyone that attended and contributed to Connecting Country’s AGM on Tuesday 14 October 2014. It was a night to celebrate our achievements from the past 12 months, look to the future and also consider where our activities fit into the bigger picture. Both the 2013-14 annual report and 2014-2024 strategic plan were launched on the night. In his President’s report, Brendan Sydes spoke about the recent presentation that he and Max had made to the Senate committee on National Landcare. As well as being interested in our perspectives on Landcare activities at the local level, the Senators were also quite intrigued by Connecting Country itself, with many questions about its activities, the community participation and its relationship to CMAs, Landcare groups and government agencies.
At the AGM, Brendan also spoke glowingly of two retiring committee members – Malcolm Fyffe and Maurie Dynon. Both have been on the CC committee since the earliest days of the organisation and have made significant contributions over that time. Artwork by local painter Ben Laycock were presented to each as a small token of our appreciation. Thank you Maurie and Malcolm.
The newly elected committee of CC for the next year is as follows: Brendan Sydes (president), Marie Jones (vice president), April Merrick (treasurer), Paul Hampton (who also subsequently offered to fill the vacant secretary role), Malcolm Trainor, Ann-Marie Monda and Saide Gray. As such, there is one vacant position on the committee, as an ‘Ordinary’ committee member. If you are potentially interested in joining the committee, please feel free to contact Chris (Director – chris@connectingcountry.org.au) or Brendan (president@connectingcountry.org.au) for more information.
Another highlight of the evening was the showing of the documentary – “Rediscovering the Country – A Journey into Landscape Restoration”, which includs a section near the start about Connecting Country. Three of the stars of the film (Geoff Park, Beth Mellick and Malcolm Fyffe), plus two of the film-makers (Ian Penna, Stephen Oakes), were available afterwards for a question and answer session. Many thanks to Geoff Park for being the MC for this session. For those of you who missed the film, it can now be viewed or downloaded from the film-makers website (link here) – which also has more background information and resources.
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