JRCPA
Meetings
After a group of Johns River residents got together in early September 2007, an invitation went out to all residents to form the
Association.
The Inaugural
Meeting of the Progress Association took place at the Community Hall
on the
22nd of September 2007, which saw the election of the current
Management Committee, who will hold office until the 2009 Annual General Meeting (AGM).
Check out the 2008 AGM Here,
and the
Minutes of the 2009 AGM are here as well.
Upcoming Meetings & Fora:
- Management Cmte Mtg, 4th Saturday of the month
Your
New 2009-2010 Committee
ELECTED AT THE AUGUST 30 AGM
Thanks to all members who attended and sent their proxies for our Annual General Meeting at the hall on Sunday, the
30th of August at 1pm.
A history of progress was presented by outgoing President Glen Ferrero, followed
by short presentations by each nominee for the Management Committee.
Financial members then voted on their favourites with the following results:
-
Deena Lane, VP
-
Joe Malvicino, Treasurer
-
Shannon Davies, Ordinary Member
-
Rod Heath, Ordinary Member
-
Bruce Shaw, Ordinary Member
The position of Secretary is
currently being appointed, with Walter van der Poll stepping down due to personal reasons
With the position of President remaining up to the assembled financial
members, nominations were taken from the floor. Single nominations for
the position of President were declined by Glen Ferrero, David Shepard and
Chris Bawn.
Three rather enthusiastic nominations went to Richard Wilson, who after a
rousing round of applause by the members, graciously accepted the post of
JRCPA President for 2009-2010.
AGM
2008: A BIG SUCCESS!
Our 2008 AGM was Sunday April 6th
Over 80% of our membership voted to return President Glen
Ferrero to office, with David as VP, Bruce promoted to Treasurer,
and Chris maintaining his role as Secretary and Public Officer.
Rod and Kerri returned to Ordinary Committee members, with newcomers
Deena Lane and Michael Williams joining the Management
Committee of seven members.
All of the runners-up for positions achieved nearly one third of
the votes, showing healthy support across all sectors of village
life!
Thanks go from all members to the brave dozen people who put their names
forward to be on the 2008-2009 JRCPA Management Committee, and thanks
go too from the Committee to the 53 members voting in person and by proxy for the
meeting.
AGM Highlights
Full meeting minutes will be available online shortly
Proposed Resolutions
The AGM opened with the resolution of Joe Malvicino and Paul
O'Brien, who wanted for the delegates to Council's 355 committee to
remain there until the mission of the committee was completed.
The membership present voted and the motion was passed.
There was then a lengthy 20 minute run-down of the
rule changes which the Management Committee proposed for the
Association. Ten of the 11 changes were accepted, the
only exception being the powers of the president.
Officer Reports
The President opened the reports section with a brief run-down
of history of achievement, including how our voices have been heard
in many circles, and how we have built the association, both in
paperwork and reputation in the short months since incorporation.
Read the full
President's Report here
The Treasurer, Chris Bawn, then reported on the finanacial
background and current status of the association, the
full Treasurer's
Report is here. Members were also
presented with
a brief
report on the website from the Media Officer.
The Vote!
The committee was dissolved and Councillor Richard Wilson
chaired the meeting and managed the voting process.
Ballots were handed out to all members, with additional ballots for
all offices also given to those holding proxies for members unable
to attend.
Once all had marked their ballots, Councillor Wilson oversaw the
impartial scrutineers, who laboriously went through the ballots to
ensure an accurate count. The actual votes were then
announced and all members cheered in the new committee.
The Year Ahead
Re-elected President Glen Ferrero then resumed the meeting chair
and walked the members through roughly two dozen issues, from water
management, road construction, the village history, to broadband
availability, 355 committee delegates, the hall grounds and
trustees, and other plans for the future.
Meet and Greet
And, just like at the end of every good meeting, everyone stood
around, chatted and met the new and re-elected committee members.
The Management Committee collected some great new ideas, and really
got a feel for who wanted what, why and when!
Recent Reports:
6 April 2008
PRESIDENT’S REPORT The first six months of the Johns River
Community Progress Association has been a busy time for all
involved. There have been great advances made in getting the
community's message to the powers that be and letting them know that
the community has a strong voice when combined. The inaugural
meeting set the agenda for the interim committee and we hit the
ground running. Incorporation, as the first important step followed
by banking requirements and statutory needs under the Associations
act. The challenges set down have been well and truly met by the
people you entrusted this work too and I am proud of what the
committee has achieved in the short time since incorporation.
The association has established an enviable reputation, for the
professionalism that we display, in our dealings with all we have
encountered including but not limited to the Greater Taree City
Council, The Roads and Traffic Authority and even our State
Representative Mr Rob Oakeshott.
The comments received have been positive and congratulatory.
These are helpful in vindicating the direction of the Association
set by the current committee. The website continually gets glowing
praise from those that have viewed it and is another testament to
the diligence and foresight of the people who you elected to interim
positions on the committee.
The inclusion of two delegates from the JRCPA Inc. on the Johns
River Post By-pass Design Committee set up by Greater Taree City
Council has been a great win for the community. The delegates of the
association Mr Bruce Shaw and Mr Chris Bawn have been provided with
many great ideas from the many community forums that were held by
the association and attended by the whole of Johns River.
I am very pleased with the outcomes and hope to take an active
role in the future delivery f service to the Johns River Community.
There is still a lot of work to do and I have faith in the community
to make the right decisions on how it wishes to progress.
6 April 2008
The JRCPA Inc opened a Bank Account
with the Laurieton Branch of the Holiday Coast Credit Union on the
7th December 2007. The balance of that account as at 29th February
2008 is [balance provided].
The Association has 68 members (as at
31st March 2008) – who are all financial members and available to
vote at meetings of the JRCPA Inc. The Balance Sheet (assets and
liabilities) of the JRCPA Inc as at 29th February 2008 is as follows
[the Treasurer presented the report, available to members at the AGM
and on requests].
The Income and Expenditure of the
JRCPA as at 29th February 2008 is as follows [Balance Sheet
Presented].
The JRCPA Inc has no property and as
such no mortgages, charges or other securities are in existence.
It is the Management Committee's view that the current Annual
Membership Fee remain at $5.00 per member and the Subscription Fee
remain at $10.00 per member.
E-Mail the Treasurer Here!
6 April 2008
Starting up any organisation from
nothing is a big task, and our Progress Association was no
exception. In addition to posting information at the store, doing
mailings, and flyers, we decided early on to start up a website, at
johnsriver.com.au
Because it is 2008, and the internet
has brought an additional dimension of workload, we decided to
cleave off some of the duties from the Secretary position, which is
busy enough with meeting minutes, publishing agendas and other
duties as listed in the Association Procedures.
So, media officer basically handles
getting the word out once the Management Committee has decided what
to do and say. The website has been really useful for news
organisations to get their information about what’s going on in
Johns River.
We noticed that a lot of the two-page
spread in the Manning River Times came from the Association
website. Reporters from the local television news broadcasts, Prime
News and NBN News also referred to the site in their interviews with
me, Deena Lane, Wendy Bawn and Tony Galati.
The interviews are online now on the
website, you can watch the videos there as well. The Committee
decided to open the web site to local commercial interests by
allowing advertising on the JRCPA website. The Committee will
dedicate a portion of advertising revenue to a subsidised membership
fund allowing community members to apply for subsidised memberships.
Details will go out soon to community businesses with rate and
advertising opportunities. In addition to the website, advertising
may be available in a future printed community updates for members.
As media officer, I update the website
at least weekly, sometimes two or three times a week as events and
news comes in. I also field phone calls from media, most recently
from The Land newspaper, who interviewed us about the bypass for a
piece in their publication.
We do a lot of printing – from the
Community Update flyers, to hand-outs like at this meeting, posters,
and a fair amount of internal documents related to planning, meeting
minutes and urban design options.
One of the best things about the
website is that it is a permanent repository for all of our
communications, photos, articles, announcements, and we even store
copies of posters and community updates from the past.
We do realise that many of our members
don’t have internet access, and to this end, we’ve thrown around the
idea of possibly having a printed quarterly update flyer for village
residents, just to let them know what’s going on.
But it’s important to maintain the
Association documents in a place accessible to all, and the website
helps local government, politicians, the RTA and construction firms
to make sure they understand our position for the future of the
village and our agreed village design concepts too.
The online gallery contains plenty of
photos of the village and will act as a living record of Johns River
from now forward.
All of the design plans submitted to
the RTA are there, along with presentations by our delegates to the
Post-Bypass Committee headed by our local councillor Richard
Wilson.
If you do happen to be online, check
out the great aerial shots of the road construction, courtesy of
Bruce Shaw and our local aviator Mr. Grant Burley, just super. If
anyone has anything they think might go on the website or be
published in an upcoming flyer, just let me know.
We are thinking about setting up a
history subcommittee to ensure that our local history can be
preserved and put online for future generations, who undoubtedly,
will be online and wondering what life was like here back in 1858,
1908 and 2008 as well.
Thank You All!
