Sydney City Farm Annual General Meeting, including Special Resolution
Saturday Dec 5, 2009 Cane Room, Callan Park, Rozelle
ATTENDANCE
19 non—voting members
21 Financial voting members including
Committee:
President Andrew Jackson
Secretary Elsa Evers
Treasurer Liesje Clement
Commitee Member Anthony Sheedy (Trustee)
Committee Member Carolin Wenzel
Committee Member Carolyn Matthews
Proxies
Vice President Rod Simpson
Apologies
Committee Member Brandon Saul (Trustee)
Committee Member Michael Beaumont
Sky De Jersey
11:00 Members arrive
11:20 Chair welcomes members
Hello, on behalf of Sydney City Farm I’d like to extend a warm welcome and thank you for attending our second Annual General Meeting.
My name is Anthony Sheedy and it’s my pleasure to serve as both a Committee Member and a Trustee of Sydney City Farm.
I would like to acknowledge that we are here today on the land of the Gadigal people, of the Eora nation – who are the Traditional Custodians of this land. We pay respect to elders past and present and extend that respect to any Aboriginal people present today.
At this AGM we will hear reports on developments of the organization through the year, including our audited financial statement.
We have given notice that we need to vote on a Special Resolution to make necessary amendments to our constitution.
We will elect some new committee members, and all our office bearers for 2010.
And we’re delighted to have with us a special guest speaker, Alex Graham, who will talk to us about the Australian Conservation Foundation’s Green Home program.
So the first item on our Agenda is to confirm the minutes of last year’s AGM
- you should all have a copy, or be able to see one.
11.13 Confirm minutes of last AGM
Mover Anthony Sheedy
Seconder Andrew Jackson
11.16 Introduce President Andrew Jackson
We’ve had some great developments for Sydney City Farm in 2009 and I’d now like to welcome our current President, Andrew Jackson to tell us all about them.
11.17 Andrew gives President’s Report – significant developments of previous year
- Involve membership more with Public Meetings
- Set up subcommittees – Seedling Project, Investigating finding another site,
Led to meetings with City of Sydney council – Council voted unanimously to investigate suitable sites and models. Keen for it to continue to be a community organization. We are keen for a form of partnership with council.
The closest we’ve been to the farm starting to become a reality,
The org is really about to change from lobbying focus, to deciding what we’re going to do there.
- Not giving up on Callan Park, ultimate vision is for a network of Sydney farms, or one City Farm spread over several sites.
Realising the City Farm is more important than ever. Right now while Australia’s and world leaders are trying to come to agreement on changes that need to be made to deal with climate change, the groundswell of community concern and action on reducing our ecological footprint needs support.
11.27 Chair introduces Treasurer Liesje Clement
Our finances have been audited and I’d like to now hand over to our current Treasurer, Liesje Clement, to take us through the financial statement – which you should also have a copy of.
11.28 Liesje presents audited statement (Appendix 1. See below)
Accept President’s and Treasurer’s reports
Moved Anthony Sheedy
Seconded Andrew Jackson
11.30 SPECIAL RESOLUTION (Appendix 2. See below)
Now we have a very important procedural matter. When we went through our constitution we noticed that it needed to be updated, especially so that we could expand the number of committee members to increase our effectiveness. We’d like to acknowledge the pro-bono help of legal firm Wolfe & Associates in preparing the Special Resolution.
In checking the rules of Association, we discovered that we need 75% of eligible voting members present, plus any proxies to pass this resolution. This is why we were very particular when you arrived to make sure that people had renewed their membership if they wanted to be a voting member.
For the purpose of voting on this resolution I’d like to now ask your cooperation – can anyone who is sitting at the front who is not a financial member please move towards the back, and anyone who is a financial member who arrived later, please come forward.
You might like to read your hand out while Committee member Carolin Wenzel reads it out.
11.35 Motion to accept Special Resolution: (requires 75% of voting members present)
Mover Jeanette Cudmore
Seconder Liesje Clement
Motion carried unanimously
11.40 Announce resignations and vacancies
Resignations
Michael Beaumont – from committee
4 Offices bearers – resigning some to stand for re-election
- Pres –Andrew Jackson
- Vice Pres – Rod Simpson trustee
- Treasurer – Liesje Clement
- Secretary- Elsa Evers
Announce nominations for committee members & office bearers
Now that we have passed the resolution we would like to expand our number of committee members and we have the following nominations:
David Gilligan
Sky de Jersey
Carla Thackrah
Rest of Committee
Anthony Sheedy – Trustee
Brandon Saul – Trustee
Carolin Wenzel
Sky de Jersey
Carla Thackrah
“In accordance with the rules of association – these 11 committee members are considered to be elected
We also have the following nominations for office bearers
Pres – Andrew Jackson
Vice- Pres – Carolyn Armstrong – qualified horticulturalist, Both Andrew and Carolyn have served the committee well in their negotiations with City of Sydney Council, Leichhardt Council, Friends of Callan Park and the Callan Park NGOs precinct.
Secretary – Liesje Clement – Keeps all our organisational matters up to date, and generally takes care of everything
Treasurer – David Gilligan – who is an accountant
As the number of nominations for office bearers equals the number of vacancies to be filled, the people nominated are taken to be elected.
Moved Jeanette Cudmore
Seconder Carolin Wenzel
Vote by acclaimation – Unanimous acceptance
11:50 Chair introduces Guest Speaker – Alex Graham, Green Home program
It gives me great pleasure now to introduce Alex Graham, who is the Coordinator of the Banksia Award winning Green Home program run by the Australian Conservation Foundation.
GreenHome helps people help the environment by making simple changes to the way we live. Alex will share some practical tips with us on how we can make changes at home and at work to reduce our ecological footprint. And she will give us her insights into how City Farms support a more sustainable approach to urban living.
11.51 Alex speaks about Green Home program, relevance of City Farms to
reducing the carbon footprint of cities and practical ways to save water and energy
How City Farms can contributre to Sustainable Living
What’s the Vision
- a place that attracts a lot of people – show them active examples of sustainable living
- there all the time, not a one off event
- come because they want to, exciting, things happening, a café
- everything that’s done on City Farm is done because it’s sustainable
Everyone has a different entry point to sustainable living for a lot of people it’s food – 50% or our ecofootprint
We can do a lot to reduce our energy use for heating and cooling
Switching to solar hot water cuts our greenhouse emissions and can hearly halve our electricity bill
to address that
Greenhome is about facilitating local solutions for that community. Facilitators, not necessarily experts– have lots of information available for free,
Produce guides on real changes people can make in the home
Greenhome guide – Sydney specific
http://www.acfonline.org.au/uploads/res/Sydney_web.pdf
Greenhome Guide
http://www.acfonline.org.au/uploads/res/NSWGreenHomeweb.pdf
Incl cleaning, shopping, energy saving, dealing with waste
Challenging to live in a society driven by consumption
So taking fewer flights, reducing amount of animal products we eat makes a massive difference.
12.05 Chair thanks Alex – Liesje gives Alex present
Chair calls for Any other Business or questions for clarifications
Request by SCF member Liz
Sydney Food Fairness Alliance AGM on next week, asking is there anything that SCF wants presented, or support we need
http://sydneyfoodfairness.org.au/alliance-to-act-on-food-security/
Sydney Food Fairness Alliance coordinates the efforts of rural producers, health professionals, community workers and community-based advocates active in developing a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable food system in the Sydney region.
Carolin to draft request and email to Liz
Member suggests SCF vision includes project similar to one in Nth England – a regional food centre
Incl cookery classes, cottage industry for making jam, cheese, bread etc
Tim Jackson from Friends of Sydney Botanical Garden
Brought cuttings of Plectranthus Agentatus
Committee to meet late Jan or early Feb
Date for first Public Meeting
Saturday 20 or 27 February 2010
12.25
There being no further business, I now declare the meeting closed
Thanks to everyone who brought a plate for morning tea. Let’s enjoy chatting over cups of tea and cake.
Appendix 1
Audited Financial Statement
Profit & Loss Statement
July 2008 through June 2009
Income
Donations $831.00
Activities Income
T-Shirts sold $1,960.00
Membership Income
unwaged members $105.00
Standard members $1,120.00
passionate members $150.00
business members $70.00
other members $6,380.00
Total Income $10,616.00
Cost of Sales
T-Shirts manufactured $2,893.84
Total Cost of Sales $2,893.84
Gross Profit $7,722.16
Expenses
Supplies
Merchant Fees $839.34
Hire of premises $244.00
Insurance $766.71
Late Fees Paid $21.00
Legal & Accounting $544.00
Promotion & Advertising $731.00
Training $75.00
Website $280.45
Employment Expenses
Contract Staff $5,139.10
Staff Amenities $38.59
Total Employment Expenses $5,177.69
Postage & Email $103.71
Printing & Stationary $658.34
Total Expenses $9,441.24
Operating Profit -$1,719.08
Other Income
Other Expenses
Net Surplus / (Deficit) -$1,719.08
Appendix 2
SPECIAL RESOLUTION
To amend Sydney City Farm Constitution
2. To consider and if thought fit to pass as a special resolution pursuant to clause 37 of the Constitution the following alterations to the Objects and Constitution of the Centre:
Objects:
1. To add a further object (1.h) as follows:
“(1.h) To operate independently from any other group and be wholly devoted to the creation of a working urban farm and centre for sustainable urban living.”
Constitution:
1. To alter Rule 14(1) as follows:
Delete sub-paragraph 14(1)(b) and insert instead:
“(b) a minimum of three and a maximum of seven ordinary members each of whom is to be elected in accordance with Rule 15.”
Insert at the end of Rule 14(1): “A member shall not be entitled to be a committee member unless the member has paid the member’s annual subscription payable for the then current year.”
2. To insert at the end of rule 14(2) the sentence:
“Office bearers hold office as office bearers until the conclusion of the annual general meeting following their election as office bearer and are eligible for re-election as office bearer.”
3. Delete Rule 14(3) and insert instead:
“14(3) At the annual general meeting in every year one third of the committee members, or if their number is not a multiple of three, then the number nearest one third, shall retire from office, the retirement to take effect upon the conclusion of the meeting. A retiring committee member is eligible for re-election.
14(4) The committee members to retire in every year shall be those who have been longest in office since their last election, but as between persons who become committee members on the same day those to retire shall (unless they agree among themselves) be determined by lot.”
4. To re-number Rule 14(4) as Rule 14(5).
5. To insert in sub-paragraph (a) of Rule 15(1) after the words in the second line: “two members of the association” the words “who have paid their annual membership fee for the then current year”.
6. To add at the end of Rule 15(6) a further sentence: “Only members who have paid their annual membership fee for the then current year shall be entitled to vote.”
7. To add new paragraph 17(c):
“17(c) A certificate by the Treasurer as to payment of any monies due by a member including any membership or subscription fees shall in relation to the right of the member to vote, be conclusive evidence.”
8. To amend Rule 32(4) by deleting from the fourth line the words “other than” and inserting instead “including”.
Notice sent to members November 13, 2009
Special Resolution passed at AGM Saturday Deccember 5, 2009-12-15
Passed unanimously by 21 voting members present and all proxies.