What a terrific Annual General Meeting! (seriously)
Last Saturday’s AGM at the Norma Richardson Hall in Woodend was a marvellous event. MRSG members were treated to a highly informative and irenic 30 min panel session with the candidates from the three major parties (Ralf Thesing - Greens, Amanda Millar - Liberal, and Mary-Anne Thomas - Labor) sharing their own personal views on human-induced climate change and what they would do to address this issue should they be successful in entering government.
Members agreed to small increases in membership fees to meet rising insurance costs which will be put into place on the 1st of January 2019:
Individual from $25 to $30 per year
Family (2 partners) from $30 to $40 per year
Business from $50 to $100 per year
However, in order not to disadvantage low-income earners, members voted on the introduction of a new concession rate of $10 per year for pensioners, students, and health-care cardholders. This will come into effect immediately.
A new committee of six members was nominated to govern MRSG in the coming year - Peter Lane, Christina Hill, David Gormley-O’Brien, Bruce Mildenhall, Anna Haines, and Robert Bruhn.
Members heard from the President, Peter Lane, and action group leader, Anita Foerster, a long list of successful achievements from each of MRSG’s twelve action groups. Sharon Kittson, who is planning to study next year and thus to relinquish the role of Farmers’ Market manager at the end of this year, was presented with a bouquet of flowers as an expression of our appreciation, which made a perfect segue to celebrating the past year with wine, cheese, and fruit platters.
A special thank you to our Secretary, Christina Hill, and action group leaders, Sue Barker and Anita Foerster, for preparing and running the event so smoothly. AGMs are not meant to be that much fun!
