Facilitator: Toby
Minutes: Kevin
Present: Toby, Anna, Vicki, Rowan, Shahni, Kevin
Apologies: Liz

Meeting open: 3:05pm

Acknowledgement of Country (Vicki)

 

Introduction (Toby)

• Overview of agenda

Election of Office Bearers - Briefing (Kevin)

• Background:
  • FS is governed as a collective. Open monthly general meetings where decisions are made as a collective. Less significant and more urgent decisions are often made online.
  • An incorporated association was required as part of the legal separation with Belong/Communify. It is a condition of the partnership agreement which provides access to the building, facilities and utilities without charge.
  • To fulfil the requirements of incorporation, FS has three office bearers: president, secretary and treasurer.
  • This is not the "management committee" in more conventional association but instead, these are administrative roles, not management or supervisory roles. Office bearers do not necessarily have more control over decisions made about the operations of our initiatives. e.g. the treasurer may notice that the donations have dropped and suggest a reduction in expenditure but the decision to set the weekly shopping is made by the collective at a GM.
  • The office bearers are responsible to understanding and fulfilling our legal responsibilities as an incorporated association and a significant amount of time will be spent reading documents and legislature, collecting and ordering information, organising meeting and interacting with external organisations or government/council bodies. The work of the office bearers isn't glamorous but is an essential part of keeping the collective operating at Fleurs Street.
  • Office bearer will be required to regularly attend general meetings.
  • Previously, these appointments were seen as ones "in name only" i.e. office bearers appeared on paper only but a role's responsibilities were distributed amongst working groups or across the collective. This has not worked and the decision was taken to revise our understanding of these roles.
• The proposed roles and responsibilities for office bearers:
  • Treasurer:
    • Keeps records of all financial transactions as required by legal requirements
    • Prepares annual financial statements for formal submission
    • Advises the collective on financial matters e.g. the weekly shopping budget based on income
    • Collects and banks donations from box
    • Administers of bank account
  • Secretary:
    • Understands legal record-keeping requirements
    • Keeps membership registry
    • Organises meetings (including monthly GMs and AGM) and keeping minutes
    • Prepares annual returns for formal submissions
    • Sends and receives official correspondence
  • President:
    • Is the legal figurehead for association
    • Overseas submission of annual return
    • Provides overall co-ordination on official and legal matters.
• The voting procedure:
  • All three positions are open.
  • Only current members can be nominated or be candidates for office bearers; only current members can vote.
  • Candidates can nominate themselves or be nominated by others.
  • Nominations must be seconded.
  • Candidate must accept the nomination.
  • Each member can vote once per position but voting is not compulsory so members do not feel compelled to vote for candidates they do not know.
  • To vote, send private message to Kevin on the Zoom chat indicating your choice; members unable to do this discretely can send message by SMS, FB or find an alternative medium during the meeting.

 

President's Report (Vicki)

• Vicki acknowledges the traditional owners and First Nation community elders.
• She gives a brief outline of the initiatives at Fleurs Street: kitchen, free shop, gardens, composting, events, workshops and classes.
• She thanks the instigators and volunteer/participants for their resourcefulness, hard work and perseverance.
• She celebrates the culture of inclusivity, sensitivity and respect in building a unique, mutual aid community.

Treasurer's Report (Anna)

• Anna presented the financial statement for the 2022-23 financial year.
• The financial statement was adopted by members present.

The statement is available as a file attachment below.

Elections of Office Bearers - Nominations and Voting (Kevin)

Treasurer

Candidate	Nominated By	Seconded By	Votes
Anna	Kevin	Vicki	4
Annika	Toby	Vicki	-
Hamish	Toby	Anna	1

Secretary

Candidate	Nominated By	Seconded By	Votes
Toby	Vicki	Shahni	Unopposed
Kevin (Declined)	Anna	-	-

President

Candidate	Nominated By	Seconded By	Votes
Vicki	Toby	Kevin	Unopposed

Closing (Toby)

Meeting closed: 3:52pm