Special General Meeting Focus of Hamilton Incorporated Association 17th February 2016

Minutes of Focus on Hamilton Highway Association Inc. Mt Shadwell Hotel, Mortlake

Commenced: 7.15pm

Present: Ama Cooke (Penshurst), Thomas Cooke (Penshurst), Florence Charles (Mortlake), Sue Stares (Cressy), Bev Jacobs (Cressy), Janette Curwen (Mortlake) , Chris Lang (Lismore), Pat Gleeson (Darlington), Julie Stewart-Murray (Mortlake), Heather Smith (Lismore), Phil Stephens (Lismore), Jan Porter (Darlington), Cheyanne Ainsworth ().

Apologies: Jennifer Lacey (Tarrington), Johanna Siecker (Penshurst).

Welcome by Bev Jacobs, President.

Minutes of the Meeting 4th November 2015 were approved as correct.

Nominated: Ama Cooke Seconded: Heather Smith Carried.

1)_ President’s Report .. see attached

2) Treasurer’s Report

Opening Balance 5th November 2015 $243.50

Income: $100.00 100.00 3 memberships, 2 advertising 343.50 Expenses: 92.14 92.14 Refund A Cooke

Closing Balance 17th February 2016 $251.36

Advertising Income: Petals Plus Gallery & Cressy & District Historical Group

Motion to accept Treasurer’s Report Moved: A Cooke Seconded: Sue Stares Carried

3) Correspondence In:

Resignation from Bev Jacobs of President’s Position. Resignation was accepted. Heather Smith gave Bev a lovely flower arrangement with thanks from the whole Committee.

Heather Smith took over the meeting.

3) Business arising from previous Minutes. b) Special Events to be created for along the Highway i) Xmas offer, free this year – “Highway Christmas Shopping List”. Various shops in each town to be approached to suggest a product or two to be featured on the website and facebook as a Highway Christmas Special. Tom and Ama to arrange. (see President’s report)

4) General Business 1

Special General Meeting Focus of Hamilton Highway Incorporated Association 17th February 2016 a) Recognition of new members of the Association i) Derrinallum Progress Association ii) Derrinallum & Lismore Historical Group iii) Sophy Anastasiadis (Lismore) iv) Janette Curwen (Mortlake) v) Pat Gleeson (Darlington Community Association) vi) Jan Porter (Darlington Community Association) vii) Cheyanne Ainsworth (Derrinallum – Front Paddock Café)

Motion: To ratify new membership of the abovementioned to the FOHHI Association.

Nom: Ama Cooke Seconded: Florence Charles Carried

b) Ideas for activities for the year: i) Art Exhibition and Competition as mentioned at the last meeting.

1) “Open Studio” would be good, depending on how many studios there are in the towns along the highway.

2) A moving Painting Exhibition (and sale?), to three main towns (perhaps Inverleigh, one central town and Penshurst) over three weekends or a month.

3) Competition would have three sections –

Open subject Along the Highway – can be any subject as long as its identifiable as being on the B140 Kanawinka Geotrail – landscape features -

Ama Cooke to contact Ian Lewis after the next committee meeting.

Arrange with the owners of the 12 best paintings to use them for a Calendar for FOHHI fundraising for brochure highlighting the attractions along the highway.

Approved unanimously – much discussion followed – see attached.

ii) Photography Competition

Sections as mentioned above – to be held at a different date and locations.

To be organised once the Art Show has been organised.

iii) Creation of a Historical Book on the B140 to be published by the Association, with the collaboration of all the Historical Societies along the Highway.

Everyone agreed this is a good idea. Ama Cooke to create proposal to take back to the next meeting for discussion. iv) Napier Waller run .. from Penshurst to ……………. Or something like this. A bike race or ride?

Not for the time being.

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Special General Meeting Focus of Hamilton Highway Incorporated Association 17th February 2016 v) At Jennifer Lacey’s suggestion, Ama has created an Instagram account for the FOHHI. She will advise when she works out how to use it.

vi) The Homepage of the website is to be redesigned to bring in more target words for the search engines.

This has been done … you can find it here www.focusonhamiltonhighway.com.au comments and suggestions would be appreciated by Ama. [email protected] or 0402870738.

vii) It’s time to get the Association into the newspapers with media releases to increase our exposure.

Art show will be advertised etc.

viii) Applying to various groups and the Council’s along the highway, as an Association, for funding for our projects. Also to Regional Arts , specific to the art and photography shows, etc. (Regional Arts does not fund this sort of activity – suggested we contact all the Councils. (Ama to talk to Michael McCarthy? Southern Grampians) Also check with Arts Victoria. Could other members of the Association check with their Councils about minor grants for these types of activities please.

iv) Arrangement meetings with the Progress Associations that are not represented at the meeting tonight, and those who have not signed on yet, to increase awareness of FOHHI and bring them up to date with our activities. Also to ask for their actual support for some of the projects, eg. Letters of support for grant applications.

For Tom & Ama to arrange. Towns are Inverleigh (members), Tarrington (not a member – shall send an email to their secretary). Hexham (member) will get a copy of these Minutes. Derrinallum also.

4) Other business: a) Nomination and election of new President.

Ama Cooke nominated Heather Smith, who accepted the Nomination. Seconded by Janette Curwen. Carried by unanimous agreement. b) Due to Heather’s promotion Vice President position declared open.

Nomination and election of new Vice Present.

Jan Porter nominated herself. Seconded by Phil Stephens. Carried by unanimous agreement. c) GORT – Tourism – is having a workshop on the 1st March 11.00 – 3.00pm at the Camperdown Theatre Royal.

Gary Moorefield from Corangamite Shire would like two (2) people from each town’s Progress Association and two (2) from Tourism in the towns (Mortake and Darlington in particular) to go to the workshop. His contact number is 0407 682 603, or 5593 7100. Ama & Tom Cooke are going as FOHHI reps. d) Pat Gleeson suggested that each town create Arts Installations. He will enquire into the process (grants and councils?) and get back to us at the next meeting.

Next Meeting: Mt Elephant Hotel, Derrinallum Wednesday 6th April, 2016. Everyone welcome. Meeting closed: 8.35pm 3

Special General Meeting Focus of Hamilton Highway Incorporated Association 17th February 2016

Ideas for Art Exhibition, Competition and Sale

i) Art Exhibition and Competition as mentioned at the last meeting.

1) “Open Studio” would be good, depending on how many studios there are in the towns along the highway.

2) Three or four towns would host the Art Exhibition, Competition and Sale over a weekend in Septermber – October, to be decided at next meeting.

3) Competition would have three sections –

Open subject or - Local birds -

Check information on Golden Plains Art Trail has Arts Mobile Stands they hire out – Bev Jacobs to check Would the Presbyterian Church at Lismore might be a good location Find out when Hamilton’s Art Show is Find out when Inverleigh’s Art show is?

Art works - Maximum 3-5 paintings Categories – Water Colour, Acrylic, Oils “Paint the town” “People’s Choice Award”, as well as Judges Award

Competition – Spot the location as you drive to or from the towns.

Tom and Ama donation painting for raffle.

All sales 20% commission to FOHHI.

Each town to run their own raffle on the day, and anything else they want to.

Entry $5.00 per person.

FOHHI Expenses: 4 Halls/Locations to rent Advertising – Put signs on the Highway at locations like Cressy, if we use their hall. Community Notice Boards Arts Atlas 3GL and other radions Macca on Sunday Community Newsletters

Insurance – buildings have their own public liability insurance. Artists are responsible for their paintings. Do we need other insurance?

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Special General Meeting Focus of Hamilton Highway Incorporated Association 17th February 2016

Along the Highway – can be any subject as long as its identifiable as being on the B140 Kanawinka Geotrail – landscape features -

Ama Cooke to contact Ian Lewis after the next committee meeting.

Approved unanimously – much discussion followed – see attached.

Some Shires may be more supportive than others.

“Talk to the politicians” about grants?

President’s Report Ms Bev Jacobs

Welcome everyone, including our newcomers and new members.

The Christmas and New Year hiatus is over and we should all be settling back into our usual activities. For Focus this means looking at what we can do to create interest in our towns along the B140.

Over the Christmas period we ran an advertising webpage, which attracted some attention, but does go to prove that we need to advertise more to help people become aware of both our Association and the Highway itself.

There were two webpages created – the first about the Christmas Special (27 views) and the second the Christmas Advertising page itself (30 views). We ended up with 8 advertisements.

The statistics from the website show the number of people who have looked at each webpage from July - December 2015.

The webpages are still online, just not accessible from the main site.

http://focusonhamiltonhighway.com.au/Celebrating%20Christmas.html the page about the advertising.

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Special General Meeting Focus of Hamilton Highway Incorporated Association 17th February 2016 http://focusonhamiltonhighway.com.au/Celebrating%20Christmas%203.html the Advertising page itself.

The statistics below show the total viewers during 2015 from around the world.

We are going to have to work smarter to raise awareness of the Highway and the Association, which is something that we want to discuss tonight.

Thank you for coming, I hope you enjoy your meals and our discussions. All your thoughts and ideas are welcome.

Bev Jacobs

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