When's Clarence Landcare's next AGM ?
When's Clarence Landcare's next AGM ?
Members and their families now look forward to our next AGM because in 2013 we changed the format for our Annual General Meetings (AGM's). We had so much fun this is now how we do it every year.
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The issue
Clarence Landcare, like most community groups struggled to get numbers to their AGM's, we were lucky to get 10-15 people, even though we always made an effort to invite an interesting speaker as the focus for the gathering. The Clarence Landcare office is in Grafton - so this is where we usually held the meetings. We often worried about not being able to fill the executive roles.
The solution
In 2013 Iluka Landcare, one of our member groups were having their 25 year Anniversary Celebration so we decided to piggy back the event by running our AGM the day before. Iluka is 77 kms from Grafton and well over 100km from many of our committee member and staff homes. So we decided to stay at the Woody Head training facility on the Saturday night. We had our AGM meeting, a social BBQ for dinner, stayed the night, had a social Breakfast on the Sunday morning together then we attended Iluka Landcare's 25 Year celebration.
The impact
We all had so much fun, which included staff and committee members bringing their families along to this weekend. The location was in Bundgalung National Park a beautiful coastal park with magnificent beaches and a rainforest walk. Our families enjoyed the scenery whilst we had our meeting, then we all got together afterwards.
So this is how our new AGM format was born - and since then we have had 'Clarence Landcare AGM Weekends' every year in different locations - most hosted by the local Landcare group of the area so they can showcase their local projects as part of the program. Now instead of members dreading the next AGM - we get asked - "when and where is the next AGM going to be ?"
Learnings
By making the AGM weekend's fun and interesting for the whole family we now have people looking forward to it. Our numbers have jumped up to 20-30 people attending. And it seems to be easier to get committee members because a greater diversity of people come along from the hosting Landcare groups in a variety of localities. The weekends are a lot of work to organise but definitely well worth it.
Key facts
- Below are locations of our past AGM weekends:
- 2013 Woody Head - Iluka
- 2014 Nymboida - (which included a raft trip)
- 2015 The Clarence Gorge (which included a boat trip to the falls)
- 2016 Diggers Camp
- 2017 Wooloweyah/ Angourie
- 2018 Brooms Head (which included a Cane Toading Night)