Present: Annika, Patsy, Laina, Alyce, Annalise, Shahni, Kevin, Ash, Rowan, Angel (came late)
Facilitator: Patsy
Minutes: Annika
Welcome and Acknowledgement of Country - Patsy
ACTION ITEMS
- Organisation of Informal workshop brainstorming new menu ideas for Cooks and Shoppers during the second week of close. - Annalise and Ash
- Make a public FB post requesting food donations. - Annika
- Make posts on internal and external social media advising of our upcoming 2 week close (last day 7 July and reopening 25 July) - Annika
- Check FB admin add Rowin - Kevin/Annika
- Attend the next Communify meeting with Kevin on July 27, approx 3.30jpm - Patsy (Annika may also attend)
- Organisation of Naidac Flag Raising event 10am - 2pm Sunday 7 July - Angel
- Liaise with Lenine to see if the BrisFest Arts/FashionGroup Project start date can be pushed back to coincide with our reopening after our holiday - Laina
- Revision of SPER policies and procedures until they are ready to bring to the group for consensus - Patsy
REPORT BACK ON ACTION ITEMS FROM PREVIOUS MEETING
- Action: to replace roles of people looking to step down
- We are still looking for people to take on the Office Bearer role(s) of Secretary, and possibly Treasurer, as well as an External Co-ordinator, whose role is to liaise with Communify, BCC and other external bodies, as required. A reminder that decisions are still made collectively and the Officer Bearer roles are only to fulfill our legal requirements.
- President - sign off on reports and financials, can run the meeting (if they want),
- Treasurer - Manages finances including banking and entering amounts in and out of our bank account into a spreadsheet. Prepares a financial report for the AGM.
- Secretary - responsible for correspondence with members including organising and informing members of time and location of meeting. Ensures that an AGM is called and held within 6 months of June 30. Accurately records meeting minutes and maintains a list of members.
- Patsy advised the group that she has been a member of the Greens for ten years which has provided her with knowledge of the Incorporated Associations Act, and experience carrying out the responsibilities of Office Bearers. She is not interested in taking on any of these positions, but is willing to train people and help them with the workload, including banking, financial reporting, minutes and meeting facilitation.
- Patsy spoke about succession planning and the importance of training groups of people in the tasks required for these roles, so that the workload can be shared, and so that we have a pool of people that feel confident stepping up to these roles, should one of the Office Bearers decide they would like to resign.
- Please speak with Patsy if you are interested in these roles, or being part of a group trained to do the work of these roles.
- Patsy advised she is willing to help with the External Co-ordinator role. She would prefer for it to be a shared role. Annika is interested. Patsy will attend the next Communify meeting with Kevin. Annika may attend if available.
- We are still looking for people to take on the Office Bearer role(s) of Secretary, and possibly Treasurer, as well as an External Co-ordinator, whose role is to liaise with Communify, BCC and other external bodies, as required. A reminder that decisions are still made collectively and the Officer Bearer roles are only to fulfill our legal requirements.
- Action: Ask FS Treasurer, Anna to attend the next General Meeting to give a finance report.
- Annika reported that she invited Anna to this meeting. Anna advised that she was unable to attend as she was unwell
- Patsy said she had noticed that a lack of regular financial reporting was contributing to operational difficulties with shopping and knowing what is available to spend. Patsy suggested that it might make our operations easier and more transparent if we had a Treasurer who is willing to provide regular financial reports, whether at the meeting or sent before meetings.
- Laina offered to step up as Treasurer if Anna does not want to continue in the role, and Patsy offered to facilitate a handover with Anna and train Laina if necessary.
Holiday
- Some members including our President, Vicki, have requested that we look at taking a winter break, especially since there have been a lot of change and turnover of key volunteers.
- Patsy suggested that we have a hard close for two weeks, without opening to the public, so that we can take time to reset, regroup and reorganise ourselves.
- Annika and Laina suggested that we close after the school holidays
- It was agreed that we would close the weeks of 11-14 and 18-21 July, making our last day before close 7 July
- It was agreed that the first week of close (11-14 July) would be a hard close for rest if needed, while still being open for casual gatherings, coffee, and chats amongst members.
- ACTION - Annika will post about our close on our internal and external social media.
- It was agreed that the second week would be a time for stocktake, discussions about our future, revision of membership lists, and a series of informal workshops which will include a session to develop ideas for new menu Items that fall within the requirements of the Food Licensing exemption, i.e. that we offer food not ‘meals’ Annalise and Ash will take the lead on organising this workshop, beginning with putting a call out on our Fleurs St Crew FB group for members to get involved and help choose the best date. The workshop is for Cooks, Shoppers and anyone interested in these roles or with an interest in contributing to creation of new menu items.
- Other workshops to be held could include Kitchen Procedures, Revising how we Roster (ensuring lead cook, coffee person and enough clean up crew), Doing the Food Safety Course as a group, Using the Coffee Machine, Gardens, Developing a Manifesto/Mission Statement and perhaps a volunteer booklet containing this and our values. The group agreed that the details of these could be worked on informally between members between now and our close.
BCC Food Licence Inspection Result - Thursday 23 May
- Kevin briefed the group on the outcome of the BCC Inspection. The purpose of the visit was to ensure our practices fall under the exemption of Food licensing. The Inspector Syari was very friendly and helpful and was satisfied with our practices. She is happy to continue to help us maintain our food licensing exemption and available for us to run any new ideas by her.
- The meeting acknowledged the enormous amount of work that many of our members and friends contributed to prepare for this inspection. A huge congratulations to all of us for passing the inspection and avoiding fines.
Communify Report
- Kevin explained the importance of our relationship with Communify and advised that he has been working with them on a Memorandum of Understanding, and should soon have a finalised and signed copy.
- Kevin provided a briefing on his monthly meeting with Miranda of Communify, and explained that this relationship is part of the External Co-ordinator role he is stepping away from. Miranda has requested that anyone looking to be involved in External Coordination be available from Monday - Thursday. Patsy advised she is available Monday to Thursday and reiterated she is willing to work with others to fulfill this role
- Miranda advised that there have been several instances of people using our door codes and being in the building at times that fall outside of the tenancy agreement, which can result in the alarm not setting properly, or the alarm going off. Miranda has requested we regularly remind our volunteers (monthly in our chats) that we can not be in the building before 6:30 am, and we must be out before 9:30pm. Miranda has requested we erect signage with this information.
- Results of the grant application for dishwasher and handwashing sink to be announced in July.
- Kevin advised that Communify are happy for the public event Yala Collective to be a joint initiative with FS, allowing it to be covered by our insurance.
Yala Collective Event 3:00pm Saturday 22 June
- Aleea is running a community arts knowledge sharing/cooking/storytelling/dancing/eating event around Dolmates with the Lebanese and Greek communities.
- This event will take place in the kitchen and meeting space
NAIDOC Week - July 7-14
- Angel requested that we have another Flag Raising Ceremony for Naidoc Week this year
- The group agreed to host a NAIDOC event between 10am and 2pm on Sunday 7 July (our last day before 2 week close)
- Angel advised that she will organise the event including sourcing the flags. Patsy and Annika offered to help if needed.
- Some of Angel’s ideas included asking the Jazz band to play, getting Hatham to dance, a large mural of thumbprints and a bushtucker menu.
- The group agreed Angel could take a blackboard to paint permanent signage.
- ACTION - Angel to take lead on NAIDOC Day July 7th - 10am-2pm - music, murals etc
3rd June is our 4th Birthday??? Ash will bake a cake???
BrisFest Arts/Fashion Group Project
- This Fashion workshop, which is open to everyone, is scheduled for 7 weeks from July 14th from 11am-2pm, however the dates clash with our closing dates.
- ACTION: Laina will check with Lenine to see if the start date can be pushed back.
SPER Update
- We are set up to allow some SPER clients to pay off their debts by volunteering at FS. This offer will not be publicly advertised and is open to our friends and family who may want to volunteer.
- Annika advised that we could offer this to any of our circle who may have received fines for protesting.
- Policies and procedures have been drafted as part of this process, but they require some work in order for them to be applicable to FS.
- ACTION - Patsy to continue revising policies until they are ready to bring to the group for consensus.
Agenda and Action Items from Previous Meeting not addressed this meeting
- Donations from Coles (Stacey not present)
- Investigate possible donations from Annerley Christ (Sue not present)
Meeting closed 3.38pm