Australian Wiccan Conference 2019 Logo Unveiled

Check out our beautiful AWC19 logo, hand drawn by the very talented Sarah Morgan!

We will be hosting the 35th annual Australian Wiccan Conference this September 13th – 15th in Central Victoria, about an hour’s drive from Melbourne.

Follow the AWC 2019 Facebook page for updates.

Meeting Minutes – July 2016

Thankyou to our intrepid secretary Mark for preparing these minutes. 🙂

 

Pagan Collective of Victoria

 

Meeting Minutes 23/07/2016

 

Present: Sarah, Josie, Ryan, Nikole, Dorian, and Mark

 

Apologies: Shaz, River, Fiona, Ang, and Lucas

 

Absent: Belinda, Mei, Ben, Ceilidh, Luca, Buck, Cossette, Ceilidh

 

Meeting Location: The Wesley Anne, Northcote

Meeting Open: 12.31PM

Minutes of previous meeting read and accepted

1. Presidents Report – The meetups have run well on their own, people have come to rely on them and expect them to run like clockwork. The PCV is three years old and hopefully is now out of the honeymoon period. Its been great to see how popular the calendar has been, it is now the most visited page on the website.

 

2. Secretary’s Report – Memberships have continued to come in and be added to the database. We are now sitting over 200 registered members, it was pretty exciting to see.

 

3. Treasurer’s Report – We haven’t been raising new funds, our current balance is $310. Ryan needs to be added to the bank account at some point to bring us up to 3 signatories. Also needs to transfer the money from Paypal across to the account.

 

4. Meetups – The CBD meetups are going to move from every second month to monthly to accommodate the wishes of the attendees, the organizers are going to shop around for a possible new venue. The meetup organizers for the CBD are now Ryan, Sarah and Nikole to help with any issues of running the event monthly now.

 

Sarah motioned that as part of the inclusiveness we need to start finding out a lot more about accessibility of venues that host meetups and events so people know what to expect regarding things like wheel chair access, toilets etc. Seconded by Jo and passed unanimously this will start to be phased in as soon as possible.

 

Central Victorian meetups are continuing on a bi-monthly system, they have been growing slowly and we have seen some new faces as well as familiar ones at the meetups.

 

Ballarat PitP is still running along, although it is now being run by Evelyn who lets us know the dates for the calendar.

 

The Frankston area meetup is starting to get steam and will be keeping us up to date as things are worked out.

 

Central Vic Heathens, like the Central Vic meetups are slowly gaining traction and interest.

 

The Hills meetups have been running great at the new venue with a great turnout

 

5. Membership’s – All new memberships were approved unanimously.

 

6. 2016 & 17 Dates –

 

Jo motioned for a change to the regularity of committee meetings, that committee meetings are now going to be every two months and that the additional meetings be tacked on to days that meetups are happening so the committee can gather early have a meeting and then enjoy the meetup. Mark seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.

 

The remaining meetings for the committee in 2016 will be on the 26^th of November (Hills location) and 10^th of September (Country location, possibly Castlemaine)

 

The CBD meets for the start of next year will be (future meet dates for 2017 TBC):

15^th of January (First committee meeting of the year)

19^th of February

19^th of March

16^th of April

2^nd of May

 

7. Samhain 2016 – The ritual was an amazing success, as always Seline hosted an easily accessible ritual that fostered a great atmosphere. It was nice to see new faces, some of which were people that had never attended any public ritual before. It looks like Seline wants to host next year’s Samhain too. Unanimously agreed that if Seline wants to host 2017 Samhain then it is hers to run with again.

 

8. Pagans in the Park/Pagan Pride Day – Continuing on from previous discussions the idea of Pagan Pride day was raised again. A small working group was assembled (Nikole, Sarah, Shaz and Dorian) to start getting the ball rolling for a possible February date.

 

 

9. Yule Dinner 2016 – Unfortunately due to circumstances beyond our control (including the sale of the planned venue) the Yule Dinner this year didn’t happen. However we are keen to have another one next year, new venues to be explored and the possibility of a lower price (whether that means only a 2 course meal this time or other options to be explored futher)

 

10. PCV Crafts – A new A4 or A5 handout is to be designed (by Mark) and bunting is to be attached so we can start pushing this project. It would be great to have the first section ready for Pagan Pride Day in 2017.

 

11. Workshops – There is still a call for workshops that are cheap/free and accessible. We need to approach workshop people and try and see if we can get some of them on board to help with this. We will need to explore what avenues are available for free venues. There could be themes like divination day. Sarah had offered to be co-ordinator for this.

 

12. Policy Finalisation – Policies were accepted unanimously as the date for proposed changes had been and gone.

 

13. Any Other Business – Dorian has offered to write regular pieces for the newsletter about a different local animal each month.

 

We are going to trial a What Are You Reading segment in the newsletter, get reviews of what is being read.

 

The suggested reading page needs an overhaul with some content to be cut and other areas to be expanded, this will happen gradually over the next few months.

 

Calendar – If a venue or date for an event changes Jo needs to know about it so that she can change it on the calendar so that it is correct. We also need to consider a ban list for people or groups that keep cancelling at the last moment and no longer advertise their events. The calendar gets a lot of hits and we don’t want people getting bad info.

Jo proposed an action that we review the policy for calendar by next meeting, we need to consider redefining what suits the calendar for paganism and have parameters or a policy to cover it. Some of the events being sent for the calendar don’t seem to fit under the pagan umbrella.

 

MFPG – It would be great if the PCV could supply a person again to run the kids maypole (or a few people)

 

Sabbats – it would be great if we could run more sabbats, if we could run an event on each of the big sabbats that would be great.

 

Moons – it was discussed whether we need to offer moon or dark moon rituals, the committee already runs a lot though. The conclusion was that we run a half page ad for the newsletter and see if there are groups interested in running an accessible moon/dark moon ritual preferably in a city location.

 

A proposed change of wording to PCV friendly businesses so that the policy now reads that when possible a donation would be appreciated.

 

Meeting End: 2.10PM

 

March 2016 Meeting Minutes

These minutes were prepared by our hardworking Secretary, Mark. Thanks, Mark! 🙂

Pagan Collective of Victoria

Meeting Minutes 21/2/2015

 

Present: Cosette, Sarah, Josie, Ryan, Nickole, Dorian, Ang and Mark H

Apologies: Shaz, River, Fiona, Al, Ceilidh, Lucas

Absent: Mei, Ben, Buck, Belinda, Mark L

 

Meeting Location: The Wesley Anne

Meeting Open: 2.17PM

Minutes of previous meeting read and accepted

FB policy read and acknowledged

1. President’s Report – The collective has kept rolling quite nicely in the absence of meetings, with coffee meet ups, rituals and other events continuing on.

2. Secretary’s Report – Nothing new to report, memberships have continued to come in and be added to the database.

3. Treasurer’s Report – We haven’t been raising new funds, our current balance is $310 (TBC). Ryan needs to be added to the bank account at some point to bring us up to 3 signatories.

4. Announcements – All

– Deepest sympathies to Melbourne Reclaiming, who lost one of their own in tragic circumstances recently

– Meeting quorum policy

– Other Policies

– WWC Cards

– PCV Committee Facebook Group

5. Memberships – As the PCV isn’t really where we want it yet, due to delays caused by lack of meetings, it is moved that we do not charge for memberships yet and continue to have free memberships. All existing memberships to be rolled over until they contact us to be removed from our memberships. Due to the costs of making membership packs there will no longer be mailed out packs.

Movement was accepted unanimously.

6. 2016 Dates –

Confirmed Dates:

Sat, 19/3 – Mabon Ritual

Sun, 20/3 – CBD Pub Moot

Sun, 27/3 – PitP Ballarat

Sun, 24/4 – PitP Ballarat

Sun, 15/5 – CBD Pub Moot

Sat, 28/5 – Pagans in the café Central Vic

Sun, 17/7 – CBD Pub Moot

Sat, 6/8 – Pagans in the café Central Vic

Sun, 18/9 – CBD Pub Moot

Sat, 19/11 – Pagans in the café Central Vic

Sun, 20/11 – CBD Pub Moot

 

Proposed/tentative dates:

Pagans in the Park – Sun, 23/4 (approved)

Yule Dinner – Sat, 18/6 (approved)

Meeting Dates – Sat, 23/7 (inc. AGM) city; Sat, 10/9 country; Sat 26/11 city. (Approved)

6. Mabon Ritual 2016 – The ritual will be a ritual of abundance with a share and swap of produce. The venue charges a $60 hire fee and a $200 deposit. A small entry fee of $5 will be charged to help cover the hire fee.

7. Samhain Ritual 2016 – The venue to be confirmed on this one, we want to start advertising soon for it. The date is hopefully going to be the 30^th of April. Price to be confirmed.

8. Pagans in the Park 2016 – Labyrinth at Merri Creek is the proposed venue. As a fun activity it is proposed that a spiral dance or maypole will be taking place at the event. The idea of the event is that it will be a picnic – bring food etc to share and run it like a community picnic.

9. Yule Dinner 2016 – Once again it is proposed that a sub-committee forms to help run this and report back to the committee. Nickole, Ryan, Josie and Mark put their names forward to be on the sub-committee. A concern raised was accessibility for wheel chairs, it will be looked at this time around. Price will be worked out once venue is confirmed. The general feeling was satisfaction at the previous venue from those that attended.

10. PCV Crafts – There is not much movement here, no bunting has been returned yet. It is proposed we set up a craft station at the picnic for people to make some.

11. Pagan Expo 2016 – There is not much to say on this front yet, the PCV is very happy to promote when and if it gets off the ground.

12. Any Other Business – A proposal that on the contacts page we can have some kind of way to contact willing groups that don’t do public rituals etc. so people that are looking for mentors and teachers have an extra avenue to explore. In addition it is proposed that we link an article from Magickly about the warning signs to look for when becoming involved in private groups.

The Google Calendar has been deleted because it was too unwieldy to use, we will continue to have the calendar in the newsletter and on the website. It is proposed that we consider re-visiting the site and calendar, and perhaps use a calendar plug-in.

It was suggested that due to the success and interest in the Incense Workshop run by Ryan that we consider trying to have some kind of workshop run once a quarter.

A proposal for a Pagan Pride Day/Pagan Job Fair was put forward. It was decided that Nickole, Sarah, Cosette and Dorian would put together a proposal to be put forward at the next meeting.

Meeting End: 3.15PM

Agenda – March 2016 Committee Meeting

The Pagan Collective of Victoria, inc

Meeting Agenda 05/03/2016

 

Present:

Apologies:

Absent:

 

Meeting Location: The Wesley Anne, Northcote

Meeting Open: 1pm

President’s Report – Josie

Secretary’s Report – Mark

Treasurer’s Report – Ryan

Announcements – All

• Deepest sympathies to Melbourne Reclaiming, who lost one of their own in tragic circumstances recently.
• Meeting quorum policy
• Other Policies
• WWC Cards
• PCV Committee Facebook Group
• Public Sabbat Rituals

Memberships – Josie

2016 dates – Josie
Confirmed dates:

Sat, 19/3 – Mabon Ritual

Sun, 20/3 – CBD Pub Moot

Sun, 27/3 – PitP Ballarat

Sun, 24/4 – PitP Ballarat

Sun, 15/5 – CBD Pub Moot

Sat, 28/5 – Pagans in the cafe Central Vic

Sun, 17/7 – CBD Pub Moot

Sat, 6/8 – Pagans in the cafe Central Vic

Sun, 18/9 – CBD Pub Moot

Sat, 19/11 – Pagans in the cafe Central Vic

Sun, 20/11 – CBD Pub Moot

Proposed/tentative dates:

Pagans in the Park – Sun, 23/4

Yule Dinner – Sat, 18/6

Meeting Dates – Sat 23/7 (inc. AGM), Sat 10/9, Sat 26/11

 

Mabon Ritual 2016 – Josie/Ryan

Samhain Ritual 2016 – Seline/Ryan

Pagans in the Park 2016 – Ryan

Yule Dinner 2016 – Josie

PCV Crafts – Mark

Pagan Expo 2016 – Seline/Ryan

Any other business

 

Meeting End:

Meeting Minutes – May 2015

Pagan Collective of Victoria

Meeting Minutes 9/5/2015

 

Present: Ryan, Josie, Mei, Mark, Ben, Lucas, Seline

Apologies: Cosette, Hawthorn, Nickole, Sarah, Seumas

Absent: Rosanne, Allison, River, Bret, Brett

Meeting Location: Portland Hotel, Melbourne CBD

Meeting Open: 1.15PM

1. President’s Report – The coffee meetups have continued to go strong and is still experiencing new members turning up.
   The first Ballarat meetup/Pagans in the Pub is scheduled to happen and there has been some interest which is exciting.
   The Collective now has a bank account with the Bendigo Bank, more in the Treasurer’s report.
   The Yule Dinner is approaching and the ticket sales are now live.

2. Secretary’s Report – Currently we are approaching businesses to ask about being PCV friendly and those that are for website friendly graphics so that we can get them up on the website.

3. Treasurer’s Report – The new Bendigo Bank account has been set up with Josie and Mark being the current signatories. Bendigo is happy to add more signatories as needed with appropriate minuting provided by us. They also offer the use of the community EFTPOS machine for events.
   Tickets for the Yule Dinner are now selling, to avoid too many transaction fees the money will stay in PayPal for now.

4. Memberships – 15 new memberships approved this meeting, this decrease is probably due to the fact that we are pushing events both for the Collective and other groups more than memberships at the moment.

5. Newsletter – Samhain Newsletter is late due to articles being slow to be submitted. Will be out soon.
   It is possibly worth looking at either getting a newsletter person in the future or more people sharing the job.
   It is proposed that we consider doing a series of intro articles, introducing readers to different pagan paths.

6. Coffee Meet Ups – The Upwey meetup is still getting bigger and seeing a lot of new faces.
   The CBD meetup still needs a venue for the meetup to take place but the potential first date will be June 3^rd, to be confirmed once a venue is found.
   Ballarat is having its first meetup up at Irish Murphey’s in Ballarat, which is the location meetups used to happen in Ballarat. Hopefully using the same location will make it easier. There has been some interested parties in the meetup, which will be held quarterly. The meetup will be on the 23^rd at 12.30.

7. Yule Dinner 2015 – The ticket sales shut off will be the 1^st June, we are self-imposing a minimum of 30 ticket sales to make it worthwhile for the venue. If we don’t get the numbers by the 1^st we will have to consider calling off the event.
   To help make sure we do well on ticket sales we need to share the event as much as possible not just on the PCV page but on other pages as well as our personal walls. All help to share it will be appreciated. Mei kindly made a flyer for the event, with the digital file being available on the Committee page, feel free to share it around.
   Prizes are being sorted for the awards as well as the raffle. It should hopefully make for a good addition to the night.

8. Members Survey – The questions are all ready and Mark will e-mail them to Mei so that the Survey Monkey can be set up with the Members Survey. Hopefully this will produce some interesting results for the Collective and its members.

9. AGM – The AGM is going to be held at Stuzzi in Northcote with nominations for it closing two weeks before the AGM both for named positions and the General Committee positions.

10. Proposed Membership Fees for 2016 – So far the collective has run as a free organisation, however running the organisation has costs and these have been getting covered by Josie and Ryan.
    The proposed fees that the Collective move to will be:

– $15 Student/Concession

– $25 General

– $40 Family (3 – 4 adults all residing at the same address is a family for the purposes of membership fees.)

11. Insurance – So after some hunting around the estimates for Insurance for the PCV is looking to be somewhere between $1,200 – $1,500. Josie is going to hunt around a little more and see if there is a better policy/deal to be had.

12. Imbolc Ritual 2015 – We cannot really discuss the Imbolc Ritual without the organisers present, more details will be shared as it becomes available.

13. Annual Ball – We cannot really discuss the Annual Ball without the organisers present, more details will be shared as it becomes available.

14. Skill Sharing Across the Pagan Community – Nothing new to discuss yet for this.

15. PCV Crafts – The pennants/bunting idea is still being considered and the materials to start making the blanks for members to decorate will be acquired soon.

16. The PCV at Mount Franklin – We should consider doing a $5 off membership drive at Mount Franklin to help kick off the paid memberships for the first year.

Misc. – The next meetings that have been set are:

– The AGM on the 18^th of July to be held at Stuzzi in Northcote followed by a normal meeting at the same location

– 12^th of September and is marked down as a rural meet-up to be held at a rural location that will be advised closer to the date

– 12^th of December and is set to be a Upwey event at the Magpie Café

The website needs a change to fix a broken link, the Consumer Affairs have changed the model rules and as a result the link to them on our website is not working at present.

It is probably worth considering that committee members have or acquire a Working with Children Check for the purposes of ensuring that we are not open to problems at public events that we run/help out with.

As a matter of courtesy to everyone it would be really appreciated if you cannot make it to a meeting that you try to give 48 hours notice. Some of the members travel a long way and it would be terrible for them to do that and we do not have the numbers for quorum. It is also a kindness to the other members who could change their plans if the meeting is cancelled.

Pagan Expo
Seline pitched the idea of running a two day expo that has an evening maskerade ball that we could invite Spiral Dance to attend. The proposed time would be October 2016 to allow all the necessary preparation time. Seline would need a dedicated sub-committee to help her make this a success, they would be needed especially in the intense three month period prior to the event. If the PCV has insurance that can cover it by then we will lend that to the expo as well as any help that we can. Seline has a venue in mind, that will be included in a later information update.

 

Meeting End: 2.51 PM

Meeting Minutes, February 2015

Many thanks to Mark for preparing these minutes. 🙂

Pagan Collective of Victoria

Meeting Minutes 21/2/2015

 

Present: Ryan, Josie, Mei, Mark, Sarah, River, Nickole

Apologies: Cosette, Bret, Brett, Hawthorn, Lisa, Fiona, Seumas

Absent: Rosanne, Allison

Meeting Location: Magpie Cafe, Upwey

Meeting Open: 1.17PM

 

1. Presidents Report – The collective hit one hundred members this month, that’s really exciting given how long we’ve been running. The coffee meet ups have been going fantastically, with lots of new faces young and old.

 

2. Secretary’s Report – Due to some issues with the stickers for the membership packs the posting out of membership packs is slightly behind. The new stickers have now arrived and look great, so we can resume sending out membership packs to everyone again.

 

3. Treasurer’s Report – The incoming and outgoing for the collective has still been $0, everything has been donated by Josie and Ryan so far. The collective bank account hasn’t been set up yet, however with no immediate income expected there isn’t an urgent need. Josie and Ryan will set one up with the Bendigo as previously agreed, it will be a standard not for profit account.

 

4. Memberships – 47 new members have been approved for the Collective

 

5. Newsletter – As always we are looking for people to write new content for the newsletter, submissions will be the 14^th of March and hopeful send out will be the 21^st. Mark volunteered to look into writing an article.

 

6. Coffee Meet Ups – The coffee meet ups have been successful with good attendance, lots of diversity of attendees and amazing levels of enthusiasm.

The potential of a metro meet up was proposed with Sarah offering to help Ryan get it up and running and provide advice. The specifications/concerns people had were that the venue was not too loud/busy, that topics of discussion were provided each meet up and that it didn’t clash with the times Melbourne Pagans in the Pub meet up.

The action decided was that Ryan and Sarah would attempt to get one running before next meeting.

The possibility of a Central Vic meet up was raised with a few locations suggested – Hepburn Springs, Bunninyong and the Botanical Gardens in Ballarat.

The action on that was that Josie, Mark and Mei will look into setting up a meet up before next meeting.

Sarah raised the problem of exposure for the meetups, Facebook Pages and Groups struggle to make it into newsfeeds under the current format. The solution decided was that if people could try and like and share events to help everyone reach a decent audience it would be greatly appreciated and help ensure the success of the events having a good turnout.

 

7. Samhain Ritual 2015 – Selene is available again for Samhain Ritual, the dates will be discussed with her as well as what she requires (bring a plate?, materials, etc.).
8. Yule Dinner 2015 – The venue that looks best from the research Ryan did is called The Last Jar, it is located at the Carlton end of the CBD so is fairly accessible. It has an upstairs function room they would be willing to let us use. The food would allow for a vegetarian option that would also cover vegans.

Ideally the collective would need 30+ attendees to make it worth The Last Jar’s time.

The date for the dinner was tentatively set as the 13^th of June with the venue being The Last Jar.

Awards to be decided on for giving out at the dinner, examples – most distant member, most active, young persons award, daggiest witch etc.

River has offered to help promote the event.

A sub committee consisting of Ryan, Josie, Mei and Mark was formed to meet a few times before the dinner and continue working on the event. The first sub committee meeting was scheduled for March 14^th.

 

9. Members Survey – The survey for the collective was discussed with Mark presenting the brainstorming for questions ideas that occurred between meetings. People were happy with the proposed questions and added a few more to the list.

It was proposed that a breakdown of the survey information be published (all members details to be kept confidential of course) because there would likely be interest in how our community looks as a demographic.

The membership survey was approved and Mark and Mei will to set it up, a link to it will be sent out once it is up.

 

10. Changes to committee – Charlie T’s official resignation was given to the committee and accepted.

 

11. AGM – The collective needs to hold an AGM mid year, the date the committee decided was the 18^th of July at 1PM and the proposed venue (TBC) was Stuzzi. Nickole offered to book the venue.

The offices up for vote will be President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary. Again general committee positions will be available.

 

12. Proposed Membership Fees for 2016 – So far the collective has run as a free organisation, however running the organisation has costs and these have been getting covered by Josie and Ryan. A comparison of other groups fee structure and services was looked at and the breakdown of predictable costs for the organisation were discussed. The categories of membership were proposed as singles, joint/family, Interstate and International. The exact costings will be decided after more research into the issue and cost of insurance.

 

13. Insurance – Josie needs to talk to a few more people about the possibilities and costs for insurance and present the findings to the committee.
14. Dates – Dates for the remainder of the 2015 meetings were discussed with the following outcome:

• Sat 9^th May 1PM (city, venue TBC)
• AGM Sat 13^th June 1PM (Stuzzi TBC)
• Sat 12^th September 1PM (rural, venue TBC)
• Sat 12^th December 1PM (Cafe Magpie, Upwey TBC)

 

15. Imbolc Ritual 2015 – The date for Imbolc is tentatively the 1^st with the venue proposed as the Darebin Parklands.
16. Annual Ball – Sarah proposed the idea of an annual ball, with the proposed first one being in 2016. The idea of it being at Samhain with a suitable theme was suggested as the tentative date.

The ball will be an adult oriented event with music, dressing up and drinks (licensed venue).

Sarah will check with Philippe and Selene to make sure they do not have an issue with a ball running at that time and to ensure no clashing with events they host.

 

17. Meeting Locations – The proposal that there be more CBD meetings was raised by River. Sarah volunteered to look for a suitable city venue for the next meeting, everyone agreed to let her know if they heard of anywhere suitable in the meantime.

 

18. Skill Sharing Across the Pagan Community – Nickole discussed the idea of skill sharing across the community and the possibility of workshops being organised (and better promoted). Possible workshop topics would be skills, ritual, spell and traditions. With the idea of making it more accessible for people to gain cross tradition knowledge and skills.

It was decided to wait until the survey results are in to see what sort of traditions members follow and if there were people willing to run workshops and share skills before more action is taken.

 

19. PCV Crafts – Mark proposed the idea that the PCV start to assemble bunting to have at events it was at, to give more exposure but also as a community exercise. It was decided that bunting will be made up, blank and taken to meetings, coffee meet ups and other events where members can grab one to decorate in a fashion that reflects them or their path, with the final product being returned to us and being attached to the community efforts. Hopefully this will be a nice reflection of the positive community that is in Victoria and will look fantastic at events such as Mount Franklin.

 

Misc. –

• It was proposed and accepted that the PCV logo should be made up into a digital pack that is available for use in a variety of formats -jpeg, gif, black and white/grayscale etc. This will make it easier for other people that want to promote the PCV.
• Earthsong will send a details pack to the PCV so they can receive advertising through the collective.
• To ensure the community (PCV is fine but if you feel ok with it sharing other groups too it would be fantastic) is getting decent exposure please make sure to like, comment and share events and posts that are advertising events and announcements.
• The idea that once paid memberships become a thing in 2016 that the PCV have membership giveaways on Facebook was proposed, to be looked at once its applicable.

 

Meeting End: 3.38PM