To keep you up to date with what is happening at Management Committee (MC) meetings we will be providing a summary of the important points discussed at the meeting every month.The Management Committee meetings take place on the 3rd Friday of each month. We kick-off with the January meeting highlights. 
The month of January is the close of the 2018 budget and the finalisation of the new budget for 2019. The teams have been working hard for the last two months to prepare their budgets and plan all the new grants that have been received.
We also welcomed two new staff members in October to our team and appointed Shane Litherland in a job sharing role with Tony James as the new Nursery Manager. Shane will be taking over from Tony once he retires in July 2019.
At the January meeting we focused on the following:
- Preparation for the delivery of 25000 trees for the grant work received. Both the CLS and Nursery Managers developed a plan to ensure that the trees will be delivered on time.
- We are currently upgrading our hardware, network and IT infrastructure and the management committee approved the quotes presented by the Administration Manager
- The team are currently revising the evacuation and emergency procedures and discussions were had on how to communicate with staff working on the far side of the property and what our OH&S classification is. The classification determines what procedures are required to be in place.
- Seed saving was high on the agenda as the nursery requires seed to propagate. It was proposed that a more formal seed savers group be established and that workshops be held for people who want to learn to save and propagate seed. Shane our Nursery Manager will be working up a proposal for the MC to look at
- The 2019 budget was approved and the MC are looking forward to a good and productive year
- Our Bio-control area has seen an upsurge in requests for Jewel Beetles and this has meant that Yvonne our Bio-Control Manager has had to do a lot of work reviewing the bio-control facility to improve production. To keep up with demand the MC has approved an additional staff member (2 days/week) to support Yvonne.
- Yvonne has also put up her hand to organise a bio-control conference in the next few months. We will be inviting people involved in bio-control to come and learn and share their problems and solutions and in so doing we hope to build a stronger bio-control community. We will let you know how this is progressing.
- As per normal procedure we approved new members and we would like to welcome: Leesa Millard, Rick Clarke, Jason Sawrey, Shakya Jemison, Janice Mortimer, Christine Jefferies, Antoinette Augustinus, Evelyn Morrisson, Nicole Taylor and Graham Pratt
- We continue to refine the management of your membership database and have made some significant headway with this project. A list of members is up in the office for viewing.
- Our all important “Blockies” course (how to take care of your rural block) is starting on Wednesday 6th of February. The committee were happy to hear that preparations and sign-ups were progressing well.
- Contract Land Care Services (CLS) through grants has more than doubled the work required for 2019. To enable Carl Schefe, our CLS Manager to get through all the work we have approved the recruitment of an additional team. This team will also require an improved work space and equipment which Carl is getting quotes for.
Please give us feedback if you found this summary helpful. Also, if you want to receive a copy of the minutes let us know. To send feedback or indicate you want to receive the minutes of the management committee meetings please email admin@gympielandcare.org.au