President’s Report 2016-17

What a year!

Thanks to the board and to all members for their support during the year ….. wasn’t sure that I would make it at times!

• Thanks to PP John and VP Ralph
• Thanks to Incoming Pres Yvonne – apart from being a bundle of laughs I greatly appreciate the support you have given me during the year
• Thanks to Secretary Vicki – minute taking, handling all the mail and emails
• Thanks to Treasurer Liz – a quiet achiever in our club –looking after all the finances and ensuring we are in good shape
• Thanks to Club Service Director Janine. We moved back to Hall this year and have settled back into our Club Rooms at the Hall Primary School. Thanks for the wonderful job with the catering and ensuring we have been well fed. Thanks for organising dinners at Gold Creek Station, Daughters of Hall and the Wandering Goose.
• Thanks, Janine and the Community Service committee for work on the clubrooms it is looking fantastic – please come to visit.
• Thanks also to Chris for maintaining the website and producing the bulletin.

Visioning

• Thanks, Sonny – quite a few cups of coffee in Civic.
• Some key decisions were made and promulgated via our governance documents and a revised budget for the year.
• In the words of Dennis G: .. “enough talking .. let’s get on with it”.

Capital Region Farmer’s Market (CRFM)

• Big thanks to our co-directors Clive and Tony H as well as the committee – Peter and Keith.
• Thanks to our market manager Adrienne and assistant Nynka. We farewelled Adrienne last Saturday and we wish her well in Coolum.
• The Capital Region Farmer’s Market has become a Canberra institution and it continues the thrive.
• Thanks to the Rotary Club of Jerrabomberra for the work you do with the front of house/shed and parking. It is a fantastic partnership with your Club and is greatly appreciated. President Liz, can you please extend our thanks to all?
• Good luck to John and the new committee in 2017-18 and with the recruitment of the new market manager.

Community Service

• Thanks to Roger and his team on Community Service
• Roger was very excited when we increased his budget this year to $50k
• BBQs at Fraser Primary School
• BBQ to assist Crime Stoppers

Major projects

• Marymead – donation of a mulcher (part of ongoing support since 2012)
• Lara Jeans Association – Special needs children
• Care for kids
• Custom build wheelchair in Yackandanda (Home of one of our stallholders, GumTree Pies)
• Pegasus
• TADACT
• Yass River Rural Fire Brigade
• Rotary Club of Leeton project
• Rotary Club of Orange project
• Indigenous Funding Community Education
• Other projects in Hall and the surrounds
• Continued regional support focus – Cootamundra, Tumut, Batlow, Young, etc
• Presentation to  Rotary Club of Leeton – Monique – Cheque $8,000 and signed MOU
• North Orange Rotary Club – MOU to be signed – cheque this year
• Local indigenous project –SOLIDS

Youth & Vocational

• Thanks to David and his Team
• Martta from Finland (left last week) – thanks to all the host families
• James – outgoing to Germany
• US Rotaract – Emma, Erin, Edie – support for training incoming board – congrats to Edie as Incoming President
• RYLA – Emma, Erin, Edie & Kelsey – thanks to Yvonne, Tony T and Barbara for their help in running the program – well done Rob Uhl and a fantastic RYLA dinner- good luck to Lyndall for 2018
• RYPEN, MUNA, NYSF
• Continuing support for MCSS – Flex Program

Scholarships and Awards given

• University of Canberra Scholars – 3 new scholarships offered for 2017 = now have 7 ongoing
• CIT Apprentice Chefs and MBA – thanks to all involved in interview process
• Assistance Dog for Bryton Johnson – 10-year-old boy from Murrumbateman – $12,000

International

Thanks to Fiona and her team.

Major activities:

• Rotary Foundation
• Rotarians against malaria
• Shelterbox
• Operation Cleft
• Books for Schools in Afghanistan – Ali Reza (former member)
• RAWCS Sulawesi child sponsorship

Supporting ROMAC – thanks also to Sandra and her sidekick Yvonne

Looking forward – Supporting  REACH for Nepal, Bridgeworks and others in the pipeline.

Investment Committee

• Thanks to Bill and his team.
• Improving the governance arrangements and ensuring the security of investments.

Major Projects

• Visioning – PP to take the lead – Thanks JK
• Barnados (Bernie and John) – MOU committed $20,000 and spent over $10,000 this year.
• Presentation to Amanda Fintan for Cure Brain Cancer $50,000  – Tony H
• Trachoma Project in Central Australia – Joint project with Rotary Clubs of Melbourne and Alice Springs – $30,000 committed per year for the next three years.
• JJF – respite facility in Garran – Bernie – Phil Greenwood spoke to the club. A commitment of $100,000- MOU to be developed
• Parkinsons ACT – the club initiated employment and support of a Community Nurse at $150,000 per annum for 3 years to commence in 2017-18. Bill W the key player – MOU to be developed and looking for assistance from other Canberra clubs

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• Thanks to Janine and other helpers for organising the changeover dinner
• Thanks to Versatile
• Good luck to Incoming President Yvonne

CO-DIRECTOR CRFM REPORT

– 2016/17 –

With a record operating surplus last year, 2016/17 has proved to be a financially challenging but nonetheless successful year for our market that can only be confirmed after the annual audit of the club’s financial records anticipated in Oct later this year.

The duopoly directorship arrangement first established in Jul 15 to share the increasing executive management workload between Co-Directors Clive Badelow and Tony Howard has proven most successful.  This shared arrangement has worked particularly well with a greater workload share being actioned offline among a leaner, more agile, and responsive committee underpinned by an experienced and well-organised Market Manager in former HRC Rotarian, Adrienne Moss.

The past year has been one of investment and consolidation necessarily incurring some increased operational costs.  In particular, the appointment of a part-time Assistant Market Manager (Nienke Lucas) to provide occasional relief and support to the Market Manager, has necessarily incurred an increased fee-for-service cost.  Also, the 2016 mid-winter rain and subsequent high 2017 summer temperatures prevented some of our regular stallholders from getting to our market thereby contributing to a reduced attendance and revenue loss.  Similarly, a belated and backdated UC Rotaract Club bin cleaning invoice helped put a dent in our market’s end-of-year profitability.  Subsequently, a new, more reliable bin cleaning contractor has been appointed at similar contractual rates.

Early in the year, the committee agreed to forego any stallholder fee increase in 2016/2017.  This decision was made in lieu of imposing a dedicated $5 per stall TV advertising levy generating approx $35k pa for a local TV advertising campaign to be rotationally split between local TV stations.  This has proven to be both effective and popular among contributing stallholders, as reflected in our marginal market patronage increase in both our summer and winter census.

As our patronage has increased, so has our need to provide support and information services to our public now provided by our sister Jerrabomberra RC.  Most importantly, ‘Jerra’ RC has become the welcome Rotary ‘face’ of our market, providing important weekly WHS vehicle/customer control and ‘front office’ information/advisory services.  They perform this function for a for a renegotiated annual fee of $25,000 paid quarterly under upgraded MOU arrangements.  Jerra RC is a vital market asset and has been recompensed accordingly, to the broader benefit of Rotary as well as our market.

Our current contract with our landlord EPIC was renegotiated in mid-Feb 16 and will expire in Feb 2021.  It continues to underpin a supportive commercial arrangement with an empathetic and cooperative landlord.

Meanwhile, our monthly cooking demonstrations continue as part of our MOU with the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) and its underpinning ‘For Chefs’ program including the annual $10k apprentice chef award that continues to be managed by the CRFM committee.

February saw the launch of our new market ‘app’.  Developed by our marketing gurus, 3Sides and updated weekly by our Market Manager, it allows subscribers to explore a host of features from intending stallholder attendance and product range to weekly ‘specials’.  To date, just under 1,800 subscribers (approx 25% of our weekly patrons) have downloaded the app with a positive indication of continued growth.  We are the first and only farmers market in Australia with such an app.

Our two 6-monthly customer census counts have confirmed our solid customer base on Dec 16 (approx 8,000 patrons) and again on May 17 with a small 3% growth (7,066 patrons) this year.

Lastly, we regret that we will be farewelling our Market Manager, Adrienne Moss who, after two years in her appointment, has decided to move to warmer QLD climes.  We wish her all the best for her future and thank her for her considerable contribution both to Rotary well as our market.  She will be greatly missed.

With the imminent end-of-Rotary year changeover, the market committee will hand over to an incoming committee led by John Kenworthy as Director.  We wish them every success.

Meanwhile, we are confident that our club can look forward to yet another successful year to help Hall RC meet its growing community funding and stallholder dependency needs.