Happy new year from the PCV!

Now that the fruitcake is half eaten and we’ve slept off our egg-nog hangovers, we would like to take this opportunity to join the rest of the committee in wishing all PCV members a safe and happy new year!

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped us get this venture off the ground. Thanks especially to Jess from the Tasmanian Pagan Alliance for her input and advice when the group was in its very early stages, and to everyone else who encouraged us to take the plunge and form the PCV. Thank-you also to everyone who contributed to the newsletter in 2014: Mel, Bret, Adrienne, Joy, Hawthorn, Selene, Philippe and White Sophia.

The support and enthusiasm shown by the Victorian Pagan community has been nothing short of inspirational this year, and we are so proud of what our collaboration has already brought to life. In only six months we, as a community, have proven that Victorian Pagans are more positive, more intelligent and far more collaborative than any of us suspected. Just imagine what we’ll achieve in another six months! So rest up, party safely, and we’ll see you in 2015!

– Ryan and Josie
PCV Secretary and President

Meeting minutes, November 2014

Getting down to business (and lunch!) at the PCV meeting in November 2014. Photo courtesy of Ryan M.

Date: 15th November, 2014, 1pm

Location: Cured café, Mostyn Street, Castlemaine

Present: Josie, Ryan, Mark, Mel, Des, Mei, Joy

Apologies: Charlie

1. President’s Report – We’ve had overwhelming support from across Victoria, and positive feedback from interstate and even internationally.
2. Secretary’s report – PCV had a big presence at Mount Franklin this year. People were keen to hear about us and many people joined up that weekend.
3. Treasurer’s Report – Incoming $0, Outgoing $0. Current balance $0. Josie and Ryan have paid for the membership cards, stickers, website and Incorporation as a donation to the group.
4. Memberships – 56 new members approved.
5. Newsletter – Joy to provide Litha article. More submissions needed from other members. Hawthorn’s letters column will not go ahead until we get some letters for him to answer!
6. Coffee meetups – Is the Upwey meetup still going ahead? Meetups need to occur at venues that are accessible to all and close to public transport. What about Pagans in the Park? Josie/Mei/Mark to organise a Ballarat meetup. Ryan to organise a metro meetup. Both meetups to occur in early 2015. Ryan has a list of themes we could use to direct discussion.
7. PCV Family Friendly Events – The Kids’ Maypole we hosted at Mount Franklin was a success. Let’s do it again next year, but with more volunteers – Josie and Ryan almost ran out of time as they are also on the MFPG Organisers Committee. Volunteers will have to have a valid WWC card.
8. Code of Conduct Review – No feedback from members as yet. A drafted “no troublemakers” clause was rejected by the committee. It was agreed that we would adopt the ACCC’s Model Rules of Association for now, and revisit them again at the end of 2015.
9. Samhain Ritual 2015 – Will be hosted by Seline. What do we need to contribute as an organisation? What will attendees need to contribute? Date? We will need to check all this with Seline before the next committee meeting.
10. Yule Dinner 2015 – We brainstormed!
    Music – Des and Mel to sort. A variety of Pagan/Pagan-ish acts
    Food – 3 course dinner covered by admission price. Awards – similar to the TasPA’s Silver Broomstick awards. Mark to brainstorm categories.
    Raffle – But what could we raffle off?
    Venue – Ryan to investigate costings. The Clarkeville Hotel was suggested as a venue to investigate.
    Ticket Price – around $50 for dinner/drinks? We need to figure out the minimum amount of tickets we’d need to sell to break even (and cancel the event well in advance if we couldn’t sell that many tickets).
    Organisers will need to investigate these things and report back at the February meeting.
11. Communications channel for committee – It was unanimously agreed that Slack was not an effective tool for the committee to communicate. From now on committee conversations outside of committee meetings are to take place via email. Emails to be cc’d to pagancollectivevic@gmail.com. Obviously major decisions cannot be made via email. They must be voted upon at committee meetings as usual.
12. Members’ survey – Mark suggested a surveymonkey/google forms survey would be a good way to gauge what members want/need from the PCV, and would ensure we were directing our energy to where it was required. The committee voted in favour of this. Mark/Mei to organise a members’ survey and present the questions at the next meeting.

Meeting closed – 2:40pm

Next meeting – Saturday, 21st February, 2015 in Melbourne (Venue TBA)