A Year in Review 2011-2012
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North East AgCare, trading as Alpine Valleys Community Leadership Program A Year in Review 2011-2012 1 Our Vision: “Empowering people to build resilient communities” Our Purpose: Provide the annual Alpine Valleys Community Leadership Program, an experience and skills based program that develops the leadership capacity of people and organisations in North East Victoria Develop and strengthen networks which benefit the program Provide a platform for community conversations about issues affecting the region Enable people to make a difference and enhance their contribution to community Provide support services to rural communities Our Values: Excellence: In the development and delivery of our activities Responsive: Relevant to the needs of our communities Collaborative: Relationships that deliver mutual benefit and value Integrity: Transparent and accountable to ourselves and our stakeholders Respect: For our diverse communities Caring: For each other, our communities and the future of our region 2 AVCLP Board and Staff Nerida Kerr Anthony Griffiths David Roff Kim Scanlon Chair Deputy Chair Treasurer (Res: March 2012) Executive Officer David Guy Neil Clydsdale Chris Howe Anne Shaw Assistant Treasurer Alumni and Projects Lisa Mangelsdorf Graham Nickless Ann Telford Susan Benedyka Facilitator Patron “Effective leaders who can inspire people, organisations and governments to collaborate for the collective benefit of everyone are essential to the process of building the community and environment that we all aspire to live in. AVCLP is developing leadership skills to enable those who want to make a difference to do so in a constructive and cooperative manner” John G Brown John G Brown, AO 3 Chair’s report It has been an exciting and busy year for North We will be able to develop a series of leadership East AgCare and the Alpine Valleys Community master classes in the coming year, and can now Leadership Program (AVCLP). provide on-going support for our alumni. The The Alpine Valleys Community Leadership Program funding has also enabled us to increase our proudly celebrated the graduation of its twelfth presence in the region through an upgrade of our group this year, swelling our alumni to 253 and website and marketing. providing the North East region of Victoria and This is a wonderful position to be in. However we beyond with a diverse group of willing and skilled will still require the generous support of our leaders to positively influence our future. We wish sponsors and the community to continue to them well with their future endeavours. deliver our leadership program. Without the We also successfully delivered a number of short ongoing support of all our sponsors and the leadership programs, including a Rural Women’s community, AVCLP would not be here today. On Governance Program in partnership with Goulburn behalf of the Board I thank you all for your Murray Hume Agcare and with funding from the contributions in cash and in-kind. Department of Primary Industries. This year we welcomed Lisa Mangelsdorf, David As a result of funding that AVCLP secured from the Guy and Anthony Griffiths, (who are all AVCLP former State Government’s Developing Regional alumni) to the Board. They have all made valuable Leaders Program, we commenced the financial contributions. Lisa has guided our marketing and year with certainty that we could deliver another website development, David has stepped into the leadership program for the year, albeit on a shoe- Treasurer’s role and Anthony is Deputy Chair. string budget. However we were facing a very Sadly our long serving Chairman and Treasurer difficult year as the effects of the GFC continued to David Roff stepped down from the Board due to impact on our ability to attract sponsorship. work commitments. On behalf of the Board and everyone associated with AVCLP I wish to thank We were then presented with the opportunity to David for his outstanding contribution to the apply for additional funding under the current program over many years. Victorian Government’s Regional Community In recognition of his service to the Leadership Leadership Program. The absolute highlight of the Program, David was presented with AVCLP’s year was the announcement of $560,000 of inaugural Honorary Graduate Certificate at the program funding over four years from the Victorian graduation evening in May. We will greatly miss Government. On the behalf of the Board and David’s wonderful sense of humour, wise counsel, everyone associated with AVCLP I wish to sincerely expertise and funny stories. thank the Minister for Regional Development, Hon. Peter Ryan and our local members of Parliament I also wish to thank and acknowledge Graham for this wonderful support. Nickless, Ann Telford, Chris Howe and Neil Clydsdale for all their ongoing dedication and The funding will underpin the delivery of the work on the Board throughout the year. annual program, giving us the ability to devote Chris Howe is also stepping down from the time and energy towards program development, AVCLP/NE AgCare Board at this AGM. Chris has and will increase the program’s long term been a stalwart of both AVCLP and North East sustainability rather than the focus being on the AgCare, representing our interests since their financial survival of the organisation. inception. Our thanks go to Chris for his sus- tained interest and support of all our programs. 4 Most importantly, on behalf of the Board I wish to The Board thanks and acknowledges our acknowledge our wonderful staff and facilitators facilitator Susan Benedyka who just keeps on who make the program as great as it is. lifting the leadership bar every year for our program. We wish to thank Susan for the Firstly our Executive Officer Kim Scanlon. Kim has support she generously provides our staff, done a great job this year, under some very trying participants and the Board. times. We thank Kim and look forward to continuing the ongoing leadership and stewardship Thank you also to Sheree McKenzie our ever- she provides the program, the participants and the reliable bookkeeper who has kept us on track wider community. financially this year. Our Projects Officer Anne Shaw has put in another Finally I would like to express my appreciation tireless year of work supporting the program, for the time that our many presenters give to our delivering a range of projects. Anne also continues program. We really appreciate the effort that to provide leadership and mentoring throughout they make on our behalf, and their generosity the region. Thank you Anne. when sharing their expertise. I look forward to another exciting year of development for North East AgCare and the Alpine Valleys Community Leadership Program, and to seeing the participants of program year 2013 proudly graduate. Nerida Kerr Chair, North East AgCare Member for Murray Valley Tim McCurdy, Deputy Chair of AVCLP Anthony Griffiths, AVCLP Board member Graham Nickless and Member for Benalla Dr Bill Sykes at the announcement of State Government funding for AVCLP. John Brown cutting the ribbon to open AVCLP’s first ever office. 5 Executive Officer Report The 2011-2012 year has seen an enormous The signature Alpine Valleys Community amount of behind the scenes development of Leadership Program enjoyed increased patronage North East AgCare, which has manifested in great during the year. Twenty-three participants results for the organisation and our signature completed AVCLP during 2011-2012, an increase offering, the Alpine Valleys Community Leadership from 18 participants the previous year. Program. The participants represented communities from Highlights of the year included: Mansfield to Wodonga, were from a diverse range Securing of Victorian Government funding of occupations and held varying degrees of leader- from the Regional Growth Fund– Victorian ship experience. Regional Community Leadership Fund. This The group travelled to locations across the length very welcome funding of $140,000 each and breadth of North East Victoria, from Corryong year for the next four years has enabled the to Mansfield and all points in between. Among the expansion of the services we provide AVCLP range of places they visited, the participants were participants and alumni, as well as privileged to meet with prisoners within the walls enhancing the quality of our signature of the Beechworth Correctional facility, were taken program. on a personalised tour of the Winton Wetlands and Development of an AVCLP office in were treated to a VIP tour of Brown Brothers wines Wangaratta. at Milawa in order to understand this high profile Appointment of a staff member to support international business. They met with many of the AVCLP alumni for one day per week. region’s most inspirational leaders, and developed Development of a new AVCLP website. their personal leadership skills through active Re-branding of our products and the participation in a number of skills days and introduction of an integrated marketing retreats. strategy. The Alpine Valleys Community Leadership Program Introduction of a Christmas function to is a not for profit, community based program, acknowledge and thank sponsors and developed by the people, for the people. It can supporters. only be implemented with an enormous amount of Introduction of a Community Leadership goodwill, and contributions from its dedicated Forum Board, staff, supporter and sponsor base. The creation of a variety of projects and opportunities for alumni engagement. Thank you to everyone who has helped to make Significant