AGMs & Annual Reports
There are about 200 community organisations in Port Phillip.1 Those that are incorporated associations report to their members at an annual general meeting (AGM) held within 5 months of the end of the financial year.
There are many facets to an AGM. It’s an opportunity to showcase the activities and achievements of the year, report on the financial status of the organisation and to acknowledge and thank people in the presence of others.
Whereas some people may have a notion that an AGM is a dull affair, many organisations conduct their AGM with efficiency as well as flair. Annual Reports are not just retrospective dull documents but the platform for future funding pitches.
The Port Phillip EcoCentre’s Annual Report is an outstanding example. It’s packed with impressive data – 20,632 volunteering hours were contributed over the year – and inspiring stories of change.
Port Phillip EcoCentre works with many affiliate organisations, including Yalukit Willam Nature Association. The relationship between the organisations goes back a long way.
Throughout his boyhood Gio Fitzpatrick spent time at the Elsternwick Golf Course observing the creatures that made the place home. In 2016, he hatched a scheme. (He continues to hatch schemes that involve biodiversity by the way). He and April Seymore, newly appointed Executive Officer of the EcoCentre set out to count the number of species at the Golf Course and compare it with the number of species at Melbourne Zoo to demonstrate the golf course’s biodiversity values. In a bioblitz from sunrise to 1am, they counted 372 species.
This was the start of a long running community campaign to persuade Bayside Council to transition the golf course into a nature reserve. This would not have been achieved without the EcoCentre’s advocacy.
In March 2018, Bayside Council committed to the creation of the Elsternwick Park Nature Reserve, now the Yalukit Willam Nature Reserve.
The Yalukit Willam Nature Association (YWNA) brings ‘restorative care’ to the compromised Elster Creek. It works in a constructive partnership with Bayside Council to deliver the Reserve masterplan. The chain of ponds has been created. The wildflower meadow has been sown.
Their annual report takes the form of an ebook brought together by outgoing President, Natalie Davey.
Cherished former member Geoff Love (d 2023) is remembered at the beginning saying ‘No person achieves change on their own. It always happen has a collective group.’ Pretty much sums it up for all community organisations.
Just a few of the highlights from the Annual Report include
- Plant Lab: 25,000 plants and 50 species were propagated, some of them rare, difficult or inconspicuous plants that are not available from other nurseries.
- Fly by night surveys of nocturnal invertebrates. As plant communities change and vegetation structure changes, so too might be the insects visiting the reserve.
- Bird surveys – birds were observed in the area not seen for a generation such as Baillon’s Crake and Buff-banded rail.
- Conditions were created that made it possible for the Growling Grass Frog to find a home in billabong 1 of the Chain of Ponds.
Now, 8 years after that crazy bioblitz, Gio Fitzpatrick has stepped into the role of President of the Yalukit Willam Nature Association. His vast knowledge and intricate, intimate understanding of the needs of different species will be invaluable and essential to the future evolution of the Reserve.
1 City of Port Phillip Community sector resources
Anne Callaghan
Lovely acknowledgement of two great organisations.