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Committee Meeting Minutes

MRCCI Committee Meeting
Tuesday 16th March 2010
Australis, Margaret River
 
Minutes
 
1.       Welcome and Apologies:
 
Ray Stocker opened the meeting at 8am
 
Attendance:           Ray Stocker (President), Miriam Avery (Executive Assistant), Roz Cummings, Pauline McLeod, Rebecca Lemm, Gerard Olde – Olthof, Jill Turton, (Treasurer), Greg Stephen
 
Apologies:             Barbara Maidment, Ian Currell
 
 
2.       Minutes of Previous Meeting:
 
The minutes of the previous meeting (9th February 2010) were adopted as a true and correct record. All matters arising from the previous minutes will be dealt with by virtue of the agenda items for the current meeting.
 
Accepted: By consensus of the committee
 
Business Arising
 
§         Smart Events:            They didn’t need the letter of support as they had plenty but Niomi encouraged the CCI to keep in touch with Smart Events with upcoming CCI events.
§         Banking Authority:     Barbara Maidment, Ray Stocker, and Jill Turton are now all banking authorities.
§         Business Awards:      Ray broached the subject at the Industry Leaders Meeting but is going to follow up with the individuals separately.
§         Executive Assistant: The ad has been placed in the local papers and so far 3 people have applied. The closing date for applications is 31 March and then the committee will conduct interviews for the role.
1.       Finance and Membership Reports:
 
Ray Stocker provided a financial statement for 3 March 2010 and commented that further expenditure of $1413 and further income of $6 had subsequently been recorded. 
 
Ray also commented that the Small Business Fightback Program account had now been closed.
 
Membership stands at 115
 
5.   General Discussion Items:
 
Community Website
Ray and Pauline reported that the Margaret River Rotary was comfortable to take on a joint custodian role with the CCI in regards to the community website. The CCI needs to work out how to move forward with the project. Keeping the Site in a Box program is free but very basic whereas there are other programs out there which could benefit the website greatly but have high costs.
 
Ray suggested forming a sub committee for the website and Pauline is happy to drive it.
 
Ray put together a discussion paper regarding the community website and how to move forward with it. See below:
 
1.       Define required outcome.
2.       Define content and functionality of the Community Website – estimate cost and indentify opportunities to generate income.
3.       Design a brief for consultants to provide an expression of interest to build the website.
4.       Call for EOI and interview and appoint consultant.
5.       Consultant to finalise the proposed content and functionality of the website, in conjunction with the stakeholders, users and community.
6.       Consultant builds the website with on going input from the stakeholders.
7.       Review the website, proof all pages and content, check functionality and make ready for testing.
8.       Test the website with some users.
9.       Launch the website.
10. Promote effective use of the community website and train community groups, clubs, general public and business users on how to use and maintain their presence on the site.
 
Motion:             Ray Stocker moved that a sub committee is formed of Pauline, Ian (subject to his agreement), Leon Ryan and George Teasdale from Rotary with a view to progressing the community website project in accordance to the proposal put forward by Ray.
2nd:                   Pauline McLeod                                     Motion carried
 
Small Business Online Program
The AMRTA are starting their program on May 18th and will have engaged their consultants by the end of March. The CCI will be able to attend the AMRTA workshops for the same price as the AMRTA members.
 
Ray proposed that a sub committee be formed to move the project forward. Pauline McLeod has already put training brief together which will be sent out to the committee. AMRTA will provide the CCI with all the required reporting systems.
 
Ray tabled a proposal for the Small Business Online Program for the committee to action. See details below:
1.       Define the required outcome based on the Grant Objectives (noting any obligations under the grant funding agreement)
2.       Identify the services to be provided by the Chamber
a.       One on one training
b.       Mentoring
3.       Define how the services will be provided (who, when, how, cost, contents, timing etc.)
4.       Design a brief for the appointment of a Trainer to provide some if not all of these services.
5.       Interview and appoint the training consultant.
6.       Finalise the overall training program with the consultant. Detail – workshops to be delivered (NB. Need approval for these form the funding agency), what one on one training will be provided (by whom, cost, how, when etc), who the mentors will be and how their services will be provided (time, cost, how, where etc)
7.       Obtain approval for events from the funding agency as required by the funding agreement.
8.       Promote the events and take enrolments
9.       Rune the events in accordance with the approved program, but being flexible enough to change with the demand, attendance, feedback etc.
10.   Provide evaluation and feedback information for the project report and funding acquittal.
 
Motion:             Ray moved that a sub committee of Pauline McLeod, Ray Stocker, Barbara Maidment (subject to her agreement, and Leon Ryan (subject to his agreement) from Rotary with a view to progressing the program in accordance to the proposal put forward by Ray.
2nd:                   Roz Cummings                          Motion Carried
 
Power Tariffs
Ian Knox from Perth has offered to speak at a seminar that the CCI would like to put together on future power tariffs for $500. Miriam contacted a company in Busselton who said they would be happy to do it for free.
 
The committee agreed to run 3 information sessions over the winter period on current issues with Gerard offering the Australis as a venue. Potential issues discussed were Power Tariffs, New Accountancy Rules, and Work Place Ombudsman.
 
Action:              Miriam to liaise with Barbara on organising these sessions starting end of April or beginning in May.
 
New Accountancy Rules
Jill informed the committee of the new accountancy rules where by anyone carrying out BAS services for your business must have Certificate 4 in Accountancy.
 
The committee agreed this would be a good subject for one of the information sessions.
 
Action:              Miriam to follow up with Jill regarding speakers.
 
Margaret River Branding
Pauline asked for feedback on the paper she tabled at the last meeting regarding the Margaret River Branding concept. The committee was ambivalent but feels that it should be investigated further. The committee was also concerned that there were too many issues surrounding it and was it really a CCI issue.
 
The committee agreed that it would be beneficial to have more information form the AMRSC before making any decisions on the matter.
 
Ray agreed to contact the Shire and organise a meeting if they were happy to attend.
 
6.       General Business
 
Silver Chain Advisory Committee
Ray attended the meeting on 22 Feb 2010 but is not sure of how long the committee is going to last. He will monitor the situation and keep the committee posted.
 
7.       Date and Time of next meeting: Tuesday 20th April 2010, 8am, Australis Conference Room
 
Meeting Closure: 
 
Ray Stocker closed the meeting at 9am
MRCCI Committee Meeting 
Tuesday 12th January 2010, 8am 
Australis, Margaret River
 
Minutes
 
1.       Welcome and Apologies:
 
Ray Stocker opened the meeting at 8am
 
Attendance:          Ray Stocker (President), Miriam Avery (Executive Assistant), Roz Cummings, Pauline McLeod, Rebecca Lemm, Gerard Olde - Olthof
 
Apologies:                        Barbara Maidment, Jill Turton
 
 
2.       Minutes of Previous Meeting:
 
The minutes of the previous meeting (11 December 2009) were adopted as a true and correct record. All matters arising from the previous minutes will be dealt with by virtue of the agenda items for the current meeting.
 
Accepted: By consensus of the committee
 
 
4.       Finance and Membership Reports:
 
Ray Stocker provided a financial statement for 4 January 2010 and commented that further expenditure of $15181 and further income of $2275 had subsequently been recorded. These figures reflect the funding for the Small Business Fightback Program.
 
Membership stands at 119
 
5.   General Discussion Items:
 
Distribution of Notices
 
As a result of the verbal complaint to Barbara regarding the distribution of MRCCI information the committee discussed whether they need to increase the distribution methods to more newspaper advertising and posting notices out to members. At present there are no members who do not have an email address and in the past if members have not had an email address then all notices were either posted or faxed to them. The committee discussed the option of increasing newspaper advertising to fortnightly and decided to get prices on various ad sizes. More advertising will be dependant on available funds.
 
Action:              Rebecca Lemm will put together a price list of ad sizes and present at the next committee meeting.
 
Business Breakfast
 
The next business breakfast is scheduled for the 3rd week in February. The committee discussed who should present at the breakfast which would be of interest to the members. Ray Stocker is going to contact the local councillors and suggest a “Meet the Councillors” breakfast to them.
 
Commonwealth Grant Update
 
Pauline McLeod gave the following update:
 
*       The joint application with the AMRTA for the AusIndustry grant has been successful and the AMRTA will receive $324’000. The MRCCI’s portion of the grant will be $128’000.
*       The MRCCI now needs to provide a letter of support to the AMRTA for the grant to be formalised. The MRCCI will need to provide $35’000 in kind and $5’000 in cash to support the grant.
*       The AMRSC has committed $15’000 in kind towards to program.
*       The funds can only be used for training purposes.
*       From here the MRCCI need to advertise for Expression of Interest for someone to take on the role of Project Manager. The Community Website Steering Committee will organise this.
*       The AMRTA have agreed to offer all of their training seminars related to this grant to the MRCCI membership.
*       The steering committee will put together the brief for the project manager.
 
Action:              Ray to draft letter of support for the AMRTA and circulate to the committee. Pauline is to put together a plan of action and present to the committee at the next committee meeting.
 
Shire Branding
Pauline McLeod has been working on a discussion paper regarding the benefits of changing the Shire of Margaret River area. Pauline will present this at the next committee meeting.
 
6.       General Business
 
At 9.30am Greg Stephen (AMR Mail) and Ian Currell (Westpac) entered the meeting.
 
Ray introduced Greg and Ian to the committee and ran through the responsibilities of being on the committee. Both Greg and Ian agreed to be on the MRCCI committee.
 
Greg Stephen
Greg has recently taken over the position of General Manager at the AMR Mail and the Busselton branch. He has worked in Esperance and Kalgoorlie previously and has always maintained a good relationship with the local Chambers. He has also resided on the sub committee for business awards in Kalgoorlie and is keen to be on the business awards sub committee for the MRCCI.
 
Ian Currell
Ian joined the Margaret River Westpac 18 months ago as the Branch Manager. He oversees the running of the Margaret River branch and the Augusta outlet. He has extensive experience in running a small business which is why he was chosen to manage the Margaret River branch.
 
Business Awards
The committee discussed the future of the business awards. Gerard, Rebecca, Greg, and Ray have agreed to be on the sub committee. Greg volunteered to contact Kalgoorlie CCI and ask them for their business award templates. The RCCI has also indicated they will be sending out information on regional business awards which will help.
 
Action:              The sub committee arranged a date to meet next week on Wednesday 20th, 8am.
 
7.       Date and Time of next meeting: Tuesday 9th February 2010, 8am, Australis Conference Room
 
Meeting Closure: 
 
Ray Stocker closed the meeting at 9.45am
 
MRCCI Committee Meeting
 Tuesday 9th February 2010, 8am
Australis, Margaret River
 
Minutes
 
1.       Welcome and Apologies:
 
Ray Stocker opened the meeting at 8am
 
Attendance:          Ray Stocker (President), Miriam Avery (Executive Assistant), Roz Cummings, Pauline McLeod, Rebecca Lemm, Gerard Olde – Olthof, Barbara Maidment (Vice President), Jill Turton, Ian Currell
 
Apologies:             Greg Stephen
 
 
2.       Minutes of Previous Meeting:
 
The minutes of the previous meeting (12th January 2010) were adopted as a true and correct record.  All matters arising from the previous minutes will be dealt with by virtue of the agenda items for the current meeting.
 
Accepted: By consensus of the committee
 
4.       Finance and Membership Reports:
 
Ray Stocker provided a financial statement for 1 February 2010 and commented that further expenditure of $5810 and further income of $1225 had subsequently been recorded. These figures reflect the funding for the Small Business Fightback Program.
 
Membership stands at 119
 
 
5.   General Discussion Items:
 
AMRTA Grant
 
§                     The MRCCI provided the AMRTA with a letter of support to secure the grant jointly applied for to Aus Industry.
§                     The grant monies will generate significant administration and accounting work for the MRCCI.
 
Pauline McLeod tabled “Recommendations to the Executive Committee as regards future progress on the community website.” See attached.
 
§         The monies ($121’000) received from the grant are to be used for online training of local businesses to get them online via the community website.
§         Pauline McLeod agreed to write the brief for the Webmaster who will be responsible for the online training.
§         The committee agreed that the project needed a Project Manager and a Webmaster.
§         The committee also wanted to establish who was going to provide the “In Kind” work from the CCI as part of the grant stipulation. Pauline explained that the steering committee of the community website had already put many hours towards this and would continue to do so.
 
AMR Times Sponsorship
Rebecca Lemm tabled a selection of sponsorship options for the committee to consider. At this stage Rebecca Lemm left the room to avoid a conflict of interest.
 
Motion:             Barbara Maidment moved that the MRCCI accept the proposed sponsorship with the Augusta Margaret River Times for the monthly advert size of 40cm h x 11cm w and that Ray Stocker be authorised to sign the agreement on behalf of the MRCCI.
2nd:                   Gerard Old Olthof                      Motion Carried
 
Rebecca re-entered the room and was updated on the motion.
 
  • The committee agreed to contact the Augusta Margaret River Mail to see whether they would also be interested in proposing a sponsorship deal with the MRCCI.
  • The committee agreed that the MRCCI needed to carry on a strong media presence after the Small Business Fightback Program media program.
 Executive Assistant Role
The resignation of the Executive Assistant has prompted a review of the role. Ray Stocker tabled “Executive Assistant & Treasurer’s Assistant Role” discussion paper and asked the committee to make comment. See paper attached.
 
§         The committee agreed that the roles should be combined.
§         Miriam Avery, Gerard Old Olthof and Jill Turton agreed to be on the sub committee to coordinate the process of contracting a new Executive Assistant by mid May.
 
Margaret River On Show
Rebecca Lemm updated the committee on the progress of Margaret River On Show which was started last year in conjunction with the Margaret River Wine Festival. 
 
§         The organisations and businesses involved in the competition last year have all agreed to be on board again this year including the MRCCI.
§         The prizes are currently being finalised and Rebecca will email the committee with them when they are confirmed.
§         The competition will start in mid March and continue through to the end of the school holidays in April.
 
SBC Vasse Update
 
§         SBC Vasse will be moving into one of the offices when the new AMRSC civic centre is completed.
§         Biz Fit is on in August.
§         Gerard will forward full minutes onto the committee.
 
SBAS Grant Update (Small Business Fightback Program)
The acquittal on the funding has been received and the final financial report will be completed by the end of next week.
 
Barbara Maidment then updated the committee on the project in general:
 
§         The program over spent by about $2000 on speakers but also received an income of around $5000 during the whole program which recovered those costs.
§         Barbara was happy with the outcome of the project and feels it was a success. It was a great project for the MRCCI to undertake and has raised the profile of the MRCCI in Margaret River.
§         The reporting aspect of the project was very complicated and onerous.
§         Ray asked Barbara to prepare a debrief and submit to the committee.
 
Chamber Audit
The MRCCI accounts have been audited. They suggested the following:
 
§         Banking Authorities be increased to 3 people for internet banking and signing of cheques.
§         They have agreed to do the 2010 audit for the MRCCI.
 
Tony Harris – Work Place Legislation
Barbara Maidment was contacted by Tony Harris who is the Fair Workplace Ombudsman Regional Manager. He is able to do free workshops about fair work laws.
 
Barbara suggested asking him to do an after work seminar for the CCI to carry on the Fightback Program. The committee agreed that it was a good idea.
 
Horizon Power Tariffs
Esperance CCI has raised the issue of potential new power tariffs which could dramatically affect the cost of running a business.
 
The committee was unsure how it affected Margaret River at this stage. Gerard offered to follow up with Ian Knox (Energy Consultant), who he has dealt with before on such matters, and ask him if he has any suggestions for the MRCCI which could be passed on to the members.
 
Business Awards
The sub committee met during the month to discuss the future format of the Business Awards. The following initiatives were actioned:
 
§         Ray Stocker will bring up the idea of joining the awards with the MRWIA, AMRTA, and AMRSC at the next Industry Leaders Meeting.
§         Miriam will follow up with Telstra Awards for templates and dates etc.
 
Smart Events
Smart Events approached the MRCCI and asked for a letter of support for their grant application.
 
Motion:             Pauline McLeod moved that Ray Stocker be authorised to write a letter of support subject to more information from Smart Events on the application.
2nd:                   Gerard Olde Olthof                    Motion Carried
 
Margaret River Branding
Pauline McLeod tabled a hard copy (unavailable electronically at this stage) of a briefing paper on “Margaret River Brand: A Case for the Creation of the Shire of Margaret River.”
 
Pauline asked that the committee read the report and communicate back to her with their thoughts on the matter.
 
The committee agreed to read the report and then ratify at the next committee meeting. If the committee comes to a consensus, the general membership can then be consulted on the matter.
 
 
6.       General Business
 
AMRSC Meeting
Ray attended a recent meeting regarding Earth Check Sustainable Communities. They are seeking support from local community groups on the issue. The AMRSC will forward more information onto Ray who will inform the committee of the details.
 
Meeting Date
Barbara Maidment is no longer able to attend CCI meetings on the 2nd Tuesday of the month due to other commitments and asked the committee if the date could be changed.
 
The committee agreed to change the meeting date to the 3rd Tuesday of each month.
 
7.       Date and Time of next meeting: Tuesday 16th March 2010, 8am, Australis Conference Room
 
Meeting Closure: 
 
Ray Stocker closed the meeting at 10.05am