Voice AGM
8th September 2024
AGM
Held at the Apollo Bay Community Hall at 2pm on the 8th September 2024.Thank you to everyone who attended in person today or submitted proxies or apologies. The meeting was extremely well attended.
The following Committee was elected for 2024-2025:
President: Jane Gross
Vice President: Graham Costin
Secretary: Graham Hill
Treasurer: Fran Roberts
Ordinary members: John Marriner, Beth McLoughlin, Edmond Shea, Tony Webber
We look forward to working together this year and welcome Graham Costin to the committee, who we know will be a great asset to the Community Voice, as he retires from local government.
Karlijn Sas gave a most informative presentation about the Food Pantry here at Marrar Woorn, our neighbourhood house. Some 850 kg of food per week is delivered from Foodbank Victoria and distributed to the community via the Food Pantry. For more information or to volunteer or donate to this amazing initiative, please contact Karlijn by email to
President's Report
The past year has been a busy one and has seen many changes.
Changes to the committee since the election at last year’s AGM, in that four of our committee members have stepped down for individual life reasons. Seamus Fillmore didn’t have the time to commit alongside his work and other community projects. Similarly, Mick Wright’s new role as President of the Football & Netball Club along with a full-time teaching position prevented him from continuing. Sally Cannon’s busy work and family life, well-known to the whole community, understandably left her insufficient time to continue in her role as Vice President. Steph Goodlet moving to Queensland with her family, made it difficult for her to stay on the committee but she still contributed by phone to our discussions, and we wish her and her family well. And, finally, Bill Hurley Fraser has just decided to take a year’s break from the Committee to focus on his work and his new home. Thank you to Seamus, Mick, Sally, Steph & Bill for their contributions.
Tony Webber joined the committee recently and has been a welcome addition to the group. Tony is well-known for his involvement with the Otway Forum, Community Radio, Landcare & the Ag Show and is a regular attendee at the monthly Council meetings and has been for many years.
At the last AGM, portfolios were discussed and over the year were allocated to committee members and advertised accordingly. These portfolios will be revisited by the new committee for the coming year.
Our membership has grown over the year now boasting over 330 members with a further 100 followers on our mailing list.
We have developed ways to ensure that we communicate on different platforms. Within the committee we use WhatsApp for quick response items. Thanks to Mikhala McCann, we have a website abcvoice.com.au on which Beth and Bill post reports and news items regularly. Along with a facebook page, we also post regular reports in the newssheet and directly to members by email. We subscribe to the Colac Herald online to ensure that we stay informed about the region.
In addition, as President, I have been a guest speaker at the Chamber of Commerce AGM, the Skenes Creek Advancement Association AGM and attended various community discussions with the Colac Climate Action Team and with the newly formed Kennett River Community Action Group.
Recently we reached out to our members to develop a register of the many skills that are in our midst and upon which we can call when the time or issue arises. We thank those that have responded and look forward to working together.
The committee has represented our community in many ways.
We meet with the Colac Otway Shire Mayor & CEO 3 times per year, and we meet with GORCAPA managers every second month. These community engagement meetings have proved to be most beneficial in relationship building and reinforcing honest mutual communication.
Following an invitation from Council, our secretary, Graham, represented our community at the South West Victoria Alliance launch of its vision for the region at Parliament House late last year. The Alliance includes the shires of Colac-Otway, Corangamite, Glenelg, Moyne, Southern Grampians & City of Warrnambool.
We joined the Great Ocean Road Communities Network (GORCN) and attend their regular meetings, acknowledging the benefit to be gained from working with groups from Torquay all the way to Port Campbell who share similar community and environmental issues. GORCN was formed in 2020 and now has a membership of 18 community groups from along the Great Ocean Road. Their AGM will be held in Apollo Bay early next month.
Southern Otways Sustainable (SOS) approached us to work together on the interruption to Power supply for Apollo Bay and Graham Hill joined SOS reps at a Powercor workshop via zoom re Resilience of supply, stressing the importance of the connectivity of the two independent feeders into AB. He is looking forward to making a further contribution to a Powercor, Citipower and United energy Strategy Meeting later this month.
Also, along with SOS, we look forward to hosting a Forum for prospective Candidates for the forthcoming Council election on Sunday 6th October.
The committee is regularly contacted by media from the ABC to the Colac Herald to seek local views on current issues.
We are proud to have successfully built important relationships with key bodies in the region and have earned respect as an organisation that is representative of the Apollo Bay community.
Our greatest achievement in the last year and one that has taken a great deal of time and effort is Council gifting 69 McLachlan Street back to the community. At the last AGM we discussed trying to halt the sale of the property and to lobby Council to consider much needed housing or other community uses for the site.
After much lobbying, a 900 signature petition, a community protest, numerous meetings with stakeholders, the community and council, the formation of a charitable Trust, meetings with GORH, submissions to Council, last December the Council decided against selling the property and instead to gift it to the community. This is an unprecedented win for the community and provides an exciting opportunity for our future. In brief the owner of the property as of settlement in the next week, will be the Apollo Bay Community Charitable Trust whose role it is to protect the property from being sold and to ensure its use for the community. Furthermore, GORH will manage the use of the site via a management contract yet to be ratified.
Finally, the 2 issues that were stressed at the last AGM as pressing for our community and for its sustainability, namely Childcare and Affordable housing, remain of paramount importance as they do for so many regional communities.
ABCV continues to lobby for both issues at every available opportunity and led by Fran, we are currently working with other bodies in the community to investigate much needed after school care and school holiday programs for primary age children.
I would like to sincerely thank the committee who have been a pleasure to work with and in particular, Graham Hill, with whom I have worked more closely over the past year and whose motto we have aimed to abide by: namely to consult, collaborate, confirm and communicate with courtesy!
Thank you all for your support as our members and for attending today.
New Memberships
Thank you to all those who have submitted membership applications. Currently, we have about 330 members and growing.
Please go to our website abcvoice.com.au and tap ‘Join Us’ if you would like to secure your membership.
Jane Gross
President
(03) 5237 6335
Apollo Bay Community Voice
PO Box 155, Apollo Bay VIC 3233
Email general concerns, queries, or comments to
Please note that at times, we receive a large volume of emails and as volunteers we cannot guarantee immediate responses but we endeavour to respond in a timely manner.