Chairperson’s Report

 

With a great deal of pleasure, I present the Chairperson’s report of Edmund Rice Camps (SA) Inc for activities carried out during the period from 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2004.

 

 At the last AGM on 7 September 2004 .there arose 5 vacancies on the Board and these were filled by one re-electing member, Trish Giannini and by new members Br. John Webb, Maria Dimitriou and Patrick Coyle. A warm thankyou goes to the retiring members Justin Chung, Jadynne Harvey and John McInnis.

 

 At the first meeting of the new Board in September 2004, the positions of Chairperson, Deputy Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer were elected.  Membership of the Board for the ensuing period was as follows:

 

Chairperson                               Trish Giannini

Deputy Chairperson                    Peter Caporaso

Treasurer                                   Angelo Fantasia

Secretary                                   Br.  John Webb

Provincial Representative            Br. John Ahern

Members                                   Maria Dimitriou

                   Patrick Coyle

                   Natasha Siebert (resigned 31 January 2005)

                   Andrew Woolman (resigned 28 February 2005)

Visiting Non-members                 Br. Dean McGlaughlin

 

Accordingly, the matters dealt with by the Board during the period included:

 

  • Continued focus on the fundraising needs of the organisation in order to achieve financial independence.  Initiatives such as the adoption of low cost camps at Rostrevor College continued to be successful.  Other initiatives by the fundraising team included chocolate drives, garage sales, a fundraising ball, entertainment books, and the City to Bay fun run.

 

  • Continued support for the activities of the Consultative Committee. This committee , which has its own terms of reference reports to the Board via the Executive Officer.  The committee provides constructive and valuable feedback for the Board to consider. It is also a means for promoting the practices of the Board to volunteers. Current membership comprises Cara Garnaut, Leah Anderson O’Loughlin, Jeremy Campbell-Hand, Maureen Kropinski, Mason Sommerville, Jason Thomas and Nathan Sherman.  The forming of this committee has eliminated the need for our annual think-tank which was not held in February 2004 for the first time.

 

  • Address feedback received from volunteers at the management level.  This process now includes feedback from parents as well as participants.

 

  • Continued reporting of Board activities on a quarterly basis in the newsletter in order to promote transparency and communication between the Board and volunteers.

 

As we entered 2005, the Board’s focus has been to:

 

·         Deal with the continued turnover in staffing, experienced over the past 5 years.  Our primary focus has been to establish stability in all roles and the first step towards this was securing the Executive Officer – Melanie Tate for a further 3 years.   Following on from this, in April 2005 we appointed Elise Wessling to the position of Youth and Development Coordinator and in May 2005 Ry Johnston to the position of Camps and Activities Coordinator, bringing our FTE to 2.2 for the first time.  We extend a very warm welcome to both Elise and Ry in their newly created roles.

 

·         Request set up funding from the Province for the provision of Mandated Notification training to outside organisations for fee income.  This has been successful, already resulting in fee income in 2005 as well as the receipt of a $10,000 grant from the Christian Brothers to fund the resources needed to fulfil this service.

 

·         Recognise the need for the formation of Board Members, as well as the need to develop a Strategic Plan to provide direction for the Board and the organisation as a whole.  The Board is preparing to set up both of these forums in response to those needs.

 

·         Preparing to manage the results forthcoming from a Child Protection Audit which is currently being conducted by Archbold Budiselik & Associates under a directive from the Province.

 

·         Manage the recent resignations of two Board Members.  Recruitment has been via a volunteer matching website, which has been successful in terms of providing applicants.

 

·         Continue to anticipate the results of the ERC management review performed by the Province.

 

 I wish to thank all those who continue to support and contribute to the organisation.

 

 In particular I wish to thank our Executive Officer who continues to be an important driver within the organisation.  With her recent commitment to the organisation for the next 3 years, this will indeed be an important factor in helping the organisation reach its potential.

 

Thankyou.

 

Trish Giannini

Chairperson