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The Pagan Collective of Victoria inc
Committee Meeting Minutes – 16/08/14
Meeting convened: 1:15pm
Location: The Wesley Anne, Northcote.
Attendees: Josie, Ryan, Rosanne, Cosette, Chantelle, Sarah, Seaumus, Lisa, Seline, Hawthorn, Brett, Charlie, Fiona, River, Bret, Allison.
- President’s Report – Josie
Josie welcomed everyone to the meeting, and explained what had been done for the PCV so far – that we are a new grass-roots organisation focused on providing networking and information to the pagan community in Victoria. She also announced that the current membership base consisted of 30 people, about half of which reside outside Melbourne. This illustrates the need for us to host events outside of Melbourne as well as within the city.
- Treasurer’s Report – Ryan
Ryan said that as we are not currently charging for memberships, we do not currently have any funds. The fees for the website and incorporation have been donated by Josie and Ryan. The funds for the membership packs will also be donated by Josie and Ryan.
He suggested that we open a bank account soon, so that if we are handling money in the future that there will be clear records.
The committee indicated they would be more comfortable dealing with the Bendigo bank, as it is a community-run bank that does not invest in the mining of coal.
Ryan will open an account with the Bendigo Bank before the next meeting.
Ryan also said that as we currently don’t have any funds and are not running any workshops for the public, we will not be seeking Public Liability Insurance at this time. Any events we do run will need to be insured, though.
- Secretary’s report – Ryan
Ryan announced that this week we received notification from Consumer Affairs that the PCV has been accepted as an incorporated association (we are officially called the Pagan Collective of Victoria incorporated).
Now that our name has been confirmed, we can order the membership cards, etc for the membership packs.
- Approval of new members – Josie
Thirty new members were approved by the committee, raised by Josie, seconded by Ryan.
- Planning events for 2014/2015 – Josie
Josie suggested that we keep things small for our first few years: the key to our longevity will be not expending all our energy and “burning out” as a group.
With that in mind, she suggested a couple of coffee meetings over the next twelve months.
Rosanne suggested a child-friendly Beltane themed Maypole Dancing workshop. A discussion ensued about current Beltane events (ie Mount Franklin), sourcing a Maypole, insurance, etc. Roseanne, River and Fiona all expressed interest in assisting with such an event.
Sarah and Seaumus volunteered to run coffee meetups in the Belgrave/Upwey area.
ACTION:
- Josie will approach the Mount Franklin organisers about the possibility of running a children’s Maypole at the gathering.
- Sarah and Seaumus will investigate a venue for the Belgrave/Upwey coffee meetups and advise us of a date so that they can be advertised on the website/facebook/calendar.
- Yule 2015 proposal – Ryan
Ryan proposed that we organise/host a catered Yule dinner in June 2015 to celebrate our achievements, possibly in line with our AGM.
Discussion followed, and it was decided that we form a working party to organise for this closer to the date.
ACTION:
- The Working Party for the Yule dinner is currently Ryan, River and Fiona.
- Spokes of the Wheel – Josie
Spokes of the Wheel is our members’ e-newsletter. It will be distributed to members a couple of weeks before each sabbat.
ACTION:
- Members can email their submissions of writing, poetry, articles, gardening tips, photos, artwork, etc to pagancollectivevic@gmail.com
- Josie to find a member to profile for the first issue.
- Josie to advise a deadline for submissions via the PCV website.
- Josie to devise an editorial policy for the newsletter (possibly with help from Rosanne and Cosette)
- Conditions of membership/code of conduct – Josie
Discussion was had around whether or not we need to devise a Code of Conduct in addition to the Model Rules of Association, which we have adopted as part of our incorporation. As part of this discussion it was decided we needed more clarity in our conditions of membership.
Concerns were also raised that the conditions of membership could be used to “branch-stack” by outside non-pagan groups.
It was decided a working party was required.
ACTION:
- The working party for the Code of Conduct/Conditions of Membership currently includes Josie, Ryan, Brett, Bret, River, Seaumus, Hawthorn and Charlie.
- The working party will take a look at the Model Rules and come up with some suggestions before the next committee meeting.
- Kid-Friendly Events – Rosanne
Rosanne expressed a need for more balance of adults only/kid-friendly events within Victoria. Fiona, Cosette and Rosanne agreed that family-friendly events should be advertised as explicitly kid-friendly, and that adults-only events should also be advertised as such.
It was also agreed that if the PCV did run kid-friendly or specific events for children, all facilitators would need Working with Children checks.
ACTIONS:
- When advertising our events, we will try not to be ambiguous over whether children are welcome or not.
- Fiona/Rosanne to write a “Pagan Parenting Corner” section for the newsletter.
10. Safer Spaces Policy – Rosanne
Rosanne suggested that we should have an explicit policy on safer spaces and inclusion, that we abide by and commit to as we would the Model Rules.
River suggested the committee investigate Starhawk’s Empowerment Manual as a source of information for new groups.
ACTION:
- In our planning of events for 2014/2015, we will ensure that some of the events we run are alcohol-free.
- The Code of Conduct/Conditions of Membership working party can be mindful of Safer Spaces and Inclusion as they review the Model Rules.
- Rosanne will bring a copy of a Safer Spaces policy from another organisation for us to look at for the next meeting.
11. Next meeting date/venue – Josie
As half of our members do not reside in Melbourne, Josie proposed we do not hold every meeting in the ci.
It was decided that our next meeting would be in November, in Castlemaine.
12. Any Other Business
- Communications – Rosanne: Rosanne suggested an online way for the committee to communicate and manage working parties would be the use of Slack, a communication tool.
ACTION: Rosanne to organise Slack for the PCV and invite committee members. - Sabbats – Many members expressed an interest in running public sabbats for the Victorian pagan community at large. It was agreed that these public sabbats should not be on exact sabbat dates, so as not to clash with personal celebrations. It was also agreed that these sabbats should not clash with existing events.
ACTION: The working party for PCV sabbats is currently Josie, Ryan, Seline, Sarah, Lisa, Fiona, River and Brett. They will catch up on Slack to discuss this further.
- Committee – Some members volunteered to join the committee.
ACTION: These people will remain committee members until the next AGM, unless they decide to step down beforehand: Josie, Ryan, Rosanne, Seaumus, Brett, Bret, Charlie, Fiona, River, Lisa and Allison.
Meeting closed: 4:15pm
The Pagan Collective of Victoria 