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MINUTES OF THE
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Attendance
Mark Worrall President (Meeting Chair)
Mark Mobley
Andrew Beales
Alan Axford
Peter Stone
Steve Friend
Matt Regan
Terry Young
Jaylene Byrne
Andrew Maskell Acting Secretary
Jay Stevenson
Ben Lovett
Apologies
Brian Eagles
Marc Henderson
1. President’s Acknowledgement of Country. The President, Mark Worrall opened the meeting at 1904 hrs by providing an acknowledgement of country, pays his respects on behalf of the RAN Writers Association to the elders past, present and emerging, acknowledging their connections to land, sea and community. He also extended his respects on behalf of the Association to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who have served and continue to serve today.
2. In accordance with the Association Model Rules, Rule # 18 it was agreed a quorum to conduct an AGM was met.
3. President’s Welcome and Report. Mark Worrall welcomed and thanked all those in attendance at the AGM, and tabled his ‘President’s Report’ for 2020 which can be read at https://www.ranwriters.com/news/e-news/32-the-scribbler-81-october-2020.
4 The President outlined he had recently met with Commodore Klenthis, the Head of Maritime Personnel Community (HMPC), and advised that the Committee had agreed to transfer the patronage of the Association from the Head of the Maritime Logistics Community, CDRE Ottaviano, to HMPC following the Scribes transition from the Logistics Community to the newly formed Maritime Personnel Community in March 2020. The President outlined that HMPC indicated he is very keen to ensure the current HR and PERS workforce is connected to the Association and the Association to today’s Navy, and that he is very honoured to be the Association’s patron.
5. On behalf of the acting Treasurer Dale Tomes, , who stepped into the role following an illness of Leonard ‘Knocker’ White, has been recently unfortunately ill himself and undergone surgery. The President provided a summary of the current financial state of the Association accounts held with the Australian Military Bank. He advised a more thorough report of the Association’s financial status will be provided following the handover of the role. The balances as at 31 Mar 21 are as follows:
- $1987.48
- $27961.20
6. The President advised there had been minimum transactions in FY 19/20 and in the fiscal year 2020 due to COVID-19 impacts on the activities of the Association. He also advised that the ‘Advance’ account had a NIL balance explaining this account was used to advance monies from the other accounts for events such as Reunions, enabling the event organisers more ready access to funds.
7. The President thanked Leonard for his contribution as Treasurer and more broadly to the Association, and wished him a speedy recovery.
8. Election of Office Bearers and Ordinary Committee Members. The outgoing President Mark Worrall declared all positions vacant as part of the AGM proceedings as well as formally standing down as the President, and passed the meeting over to Andrew Maskell, Acting Secretary and Voting Returns Officer. Andrew Maskell advised that five nominations had been received as shown below:
|
Role |
Nominee |
Nominated by |
Seconded by |
|
President |
Mark Worrall |
Marc Henderson |
Andrew Maskell |
|
Vice President |
Jaylene Byrne |
Andrew Maskell |
Mark Worrall |
|
Treasurer |
Marc Henderson |
Mark Worrall |
Andrew Maskell |
|
Secretary |
Andrew Maskell |
Marc Henderson |
Mark Worrall |
|
Ordinary Committee Member |
Alan Axford |
Michael Kelleher |
Peter Simpson |
9. Andrew Maskell advised that in accordance with the Association Model Rule # 13 if there were no other nominations from the AGM the personnel nominated would be duly appointed. There was no further nominations and the following members were confirmed:
|
Role |
Nominee |
|
President |
Mark Worrall |
|
Vice President |
Jaylene Byrne |
|
Treasurer |
Marc Henderson |
|
Secretary |
Andrew Maskell |
|
Ordinary Committee Member |
Alan Axford |
10. Mark Worrall assumed the President’s role having been returned for a further term. Following a further conversation the two vacant Ordinary Committee member roles were filled by Matt Regan and Steve Friend. The President thanked the outgoing Committee for their dedicated and loyal service, and welcomed the newly appointed committee.
Other Business
11. Membership Eligibility. It was discussed that the Committee had agreed in 2020 after being approached by Head of Maritime Personnel Community, Commodore Klenthis, the Association’s Patron) to extend membership to the newly established Maritime Human Resources Officers (MHROs) in addition to the Maritime Personnel Sailors (following the name change on 05 March 2020 from ML-P). This agreement included the sponsorship of the Dux of the MHRO Application course. It was agreed at the AGM to further support and formalise this decision. It was discussed options for the perpetual trophies for both MHRO and MPERS are being explored and will be finalised this year. Steve Friend indicated he remains committed to the sponsorship he offered last year from the Warrack Motel for the trophies. The President thanked Steve for the Warrack Motel’s kind sponsorship.
12. It was discussed that all opportunities to educate our current HR and PERS workforce on the benefits of the Association and how members can join be exploited. It was discussed that the Association attendance at Maritime Personnel School and Maritime Personnel Community events may support this. Andrew Maskell agreed in his role as the OIC of the Maritime Personnel School to take this for action. Jay Stevenson advised he has a draft article outlining the ML-P to MPERS transition which occurred in March 2020 to publish and the upcoming MPC community events would also provide another means to connect with the younger members. The President in particular thanked Ben Lovett who graduated in late 2020 for his attendance.
13. Membership Fees. It was discussed that the Association has limited revenue streams as a result of the offering of a lifelong membership option a number of years ago and as a result of the decline of the new membership and the collection of membership fees. It was agreed to restructure the membership fees to offer a smaller annual fee with the intention of enticing younger members to join and a lifelong membership fee. Matt Regan advised this can easily be set-up on the webpage and offered to do this once the Committee had agreed on the new membership fee structure. It was clarified that previous paid lifelong memberships would remain current and not have to repay.
14. Webpage and Communications. The meeting was advised that the Maritime Personnel School were providing historical information of Scribes training as part of their Throwback Thursday communications strategy, which is published on the Associations webpage and then shared across Facebook. It was discussed that this means may not be reaching the widest audience who are not on Facebook or who have trouble navigating the current Association webpage. It was agreed to reinstate the ‘Scribbler’ as an e-newsletter via email, providing links to the pages and posts on the Association webpage as well as a summary.
15. It was discussed that the current webpage requires a significant refresh and that a lot of information was not currently available which is hosted on the retired site. Matt Regan advised he has been working on a new site, but in order to launch the new site and to provide the mechanism for the Association to send out e-newsletters via email it required the separation of a domain for a one-off cost of $49.95 USD. It was agreed to expend the funds to do this at the first opportunity. It was also agreed for Matt Regan to investigate and provide an estimate on the cost (to the Committee) to transcribe and transfer the data from the old webpage.
16. Future Reunion Planning. It was discussed that the Reunion is a fantastic event for the Association to meet and connect. After a discussion it was agreed to investigate a date for mid-late 2022 allowing 18 months for planning and the vaccination program for COVID-19 to be rolled out. It was agreed to discuss this further at the Committee meeting level.
17. With there being no further business the President thanked all for their attendance, again thanked the outgoing Committee for their service, and indicated he looked forward to working with the new Committee and reinvigorating the Association.
18. The meeting was closed at 2000 hrs.
M Worrall A Maskell
President Secretary
April 2021 April 2021