Meeting Minutes, November 2016

Thankyou to our intrepid secretary Mark for putting these together!

PCV Committee Meeting 26^th November 2016

Meeting Start: 1.32

Attending: Ryan, Nickole, Josie, Seamus, Dean, Alex, Mark, Shaz, Ang, Lucas and Fran Apologies: River, Fi, Dorian
Absent:

President’s Report
The PCV has put on over 30 events this year, which is a lot, 25 – 26 of these were coffee and pub meetups. In addition to this we had some public rituals as well as pagans in the park. There is a heap of stuff cooking up for next year which is really exciting.

Secretary’s Report
Memberships keep rolling in, up to about 209 membership now as well as over 900 likes on Facebook.

Treasurer’s Report
Nothing new to report, money in the bank is the same as the last few meetings, the PCV has not been running events that make money.

Meet-Ups
CBD Moot
This moot is getting really busy, with 2-3 new people pretty much every time that have not been met before, it is exciting to see lots of new faces. The moot is changing venues to the Last Jar for next year to accommodate the fact that we need more seats for the events. Should be slightly more disability friendly with a bathroom on the same floor, however there are still the steps at the front and a narrow door. For 2017 the moots will be running monthly but taking a break for September.

Central Vic
The Central Victoria Pagans in the Café had four meets this year, with an average of 4 – 8 attendees at them. For 2017 the Pagans in the Café and the Central Vic Heathens will be combining the coffee meets and aiming for quarterly coffee meets.

Central Vic Heathens
The Central Vic Heathens in addition to combining with the Pagans in the Café are looking at trying to run some different events next year beyond coffee meets. More to be announced as they come.

Hills Meets
These meets are going from strength to strength, running in a lovely new venue (Earthly Pleasures), getting about 10+ attendees at each meet, people attending are happy with the format, these meets will be running monthly for 2017.
Two other meet ups in the works – Hamilton, which is trying to get up and running with some support from us and will hopefully start running next year. Also Frankston which Dorian has kindly volunteered to get going next year, at this stage it will probably be bi-monthly in the Frankston area. More will be confirmed as it is organised. 
ACTION: Need to get a start date sorted with Dorian for 2017
ACTION: Need to make sure that the meets that are near each other don’t conflict with each other, PCV or otherwise so as to not make it too hard for attendees to choose what to go to.

Memberships
Seven new memberships have been received since last meeting, no objections to the members were raised, so all new people were approved.

Dates for 2017

Committee Meetings	CBD Meet-Ups	Hills Meet-Ups	Sabbats	Other
	15th January	8th January
26th Feb (attach to Druid Coffee, Northcote)	19th February	5th February	5th February Lughnassa (Silver Birch)
	19th March	5th March	25th March Mabon (Wiccans)	Pagan Pride Day 18th March Pagan Concert 18th March
8th April (Central Victoria)	16th April (needs to be changed)	2nd April
	21st May	7th May	Samhain (May date TBC)
4th June (attach to Hills Meetup, Belgrave)	18th June	4th June	Yule Dinner 24th June
	16th July	2nd July
20th August AGM (attach to CBD meet-up)	20th August	6th Aug
	17th September (needs to be changed)	3rd Sept	24th September Ostara (Silver Birch/Heathens)
14th October (Central Victoria)	15th October	1st October
	19th November	5th November
3rd December (attach to Hills Meet-Up, Belgrave)		3rd December
PCV Hiatus 24th Dec – 7th Jan

Imbolc – *stare at Reclaiming and Lucas*

Pagans in the Park/Pagan Pride Day
18^th of March is the proposed date for the event. Some of the concepts discussed were – having stalls, a festival feel and less picnic feel, showcase for traditions (someone gets up and talks about each tradition and talks about what they do and who is good to talk to if you want to go further) Need to get the ideas, for location, format etc. then scale back.

ACTION: Shaz will talk to her contacts/arch-druid to get some ideas for running it and what resources are available, possibly Fitzroy/Treasury gardens for the location, if so we need to make sure to follow all the protocols with paperwork etc. for running in such a public location
ACTION: The working group need to have a meeting for this, a date will be set.

Yule Dinner
Going to run as the same format as the 2014 one, it was ritzy, nice and well catered, Ryan is hoping to get the prices down to about $35 – 40
ACTION: Ryan is going to look for a venue and nut out a menu in the next few weeks. Going to see about getting Casey over for it again to do the entertainment.

PCV Businesses/Relationships
Is it possible to get us thinking about our kind of relationships with the businesses, loyalty programs, advertising, think of a way to have a financial exchange, perhaps have a charge for being listed on the website?, or the donation of raffle prizes for things like Yule dinner in exchange for a write-up for them in the newsletter, listings for actual health practitioners for pagan friendly businesses (mental health, physical health etc.), hire a pagan (pagan friendly employers) [Get Witch Quick]
ACTION: receipt book

Newsletter
Due to a number of issues the newsletter has become untenable; a lot of work, hard to get content in and on time from contributors and the amount of time needed to format all the content.
As part of the overhaul we would like to move to a more online format, have it set with schedule of posts hosted on a blog, still have articles and stuff that come on, keep it accessible, drive traffic up more, part of making our resources even more accessible and easy to find.
Action: Josie – make a schedule of posts etc. to try and get the format roughly laid out. Volunteers for articles and content will be organised by the committee.

Calendar
Josie has made a master document for the calendar, if you give Jo an e-mail to sign up, you can then go in and add your events and change them as need be to help with keeping our calendar as current and accurate as possible.

Julie Brett’s Book Tour
Action – Start a conversation on the PCV committee page for locations etc. for the book tour, Sooki Lounge – Hills, Norcote – Druid Coffee, Central Vic/Ballarat as well as seeing if people would be willing to play host to her while she is over to assist in making it a successful venture for her.

Samhain 2017
Seline has asked if she can run it again in 2017 – don’t have a date yet, hopefully not actual Samhain, more will be released as it is known.

PCV Concert
Spiral Dance and Kacey Guy concert at bar 303 on the evening of Pagan Pride day $25 normal entry or $20 concession. Ryan is setting up an Eventbrite, and we are thinking of running a tin around at events prior to get donations to help get this to happen (it will cover essentials for the performers such as fuel/flights, accommodation, etc.) Adrienne is making poster designs, the posters should hopefully be available for January

PCV Morris Side
We now have a Morris Side, who are planning to do their first thing at Mt Franklin, dancing the sun up at Mt Franklin on the Sunday. Any committee members wanting to join let Josie, Sarah or Mark know so they can be added to the planning group.
ACTION: Alex has now joined the Morris Side

New Committee Members
ACTION: Alex, Dean and Lucas are now committee members for the current period.

Working with Children Checks
Action – Can committee members please send copies of your WWC to us so we can make sure that we have a database of proof for legal reasons. They can be e-mailed to the official Collective Gmail account, all details will be kept confidential. Other Business Fundraising – sell the tickets prior to spiral dance and then do the draw and give out at the concert, advertise it well and it will help raise funds for the PCV, potential idea is a pagan hamper with items donated (shirt from Silver Birch and Mt Franklin) items made by committee members etc.

Grants – are there grants that we can get access to as the PCV? Fran is going to look into the grants situation as a friend of the PCV (non-committee member)

Meeting Closed: 3.02

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

February 2016 Update

Happy Lammas!

Our calendar is now live! Click through to see the dates of Pagan events happening across the state this year.

The Lammas newsletter should be out later today for members.

There is a PCV Committee Meeting on the 5th of March. All are welcome to attend and have a say in the direction of the Collective. An agenda will be published shortly. This will be the meeting that we secure dates for the rest of the year, so please bring your diary. 🙂

Bright blessings,

Your PCV Community

 

 

Pagan Events in Victoria – June 2015

What’s happening in Victoria this month?

The public holiday tomorrow will see not only the Mind Body Spirit Festival Australia hit Melbourne, but also our friends over at Muses Of Mystery host their crafty workshop, Stitching Witches: https://www.facebook.com/events/1623697191200512/

Then on the 10th, Geelong Pagans are hosting their monthly Pagans for Lunch – https://www.facebook.com/events/573946169414467/

This Saturday the 13th is our inaugural Pagan Community Yule Dinner (tickets have sold out!) – https://www.facebook.com/events/470736253080986/

The following day is the June edition of our Monthly Hills Pagan Coffee Meets, held as always in the cozy, comfortable atmosphere of The Magpie Cafe Upwey: https://www.facebook.com/events/933035286756887/

The 15th of June sees the Muses of Mystery host their Realms of the Gods and Goddesses workshop: https://www.facebook.com/events/883483035030971/

On the 20th the Melbourne Heathen Moot is happening in Clifton Hill, for folks who identify with Heathen/Asatru paths.

The Geelong Pagans’ Solstice Gathering is taking place on the 22nd: https://www.facebook.com/events/1608148372760303/

Then the 28th is our inaugural CBD Pagan Pub Moot! https://www.facebook.com/events/1474014806223068/

***Did you know our calendar page now has a pricing guide, to help you better plan your events? Check it out here: http://pagancollective.org/whats-on/

To see your event on our calendar, you can get it touch with us at pagancollectivevic@gmail.com

May 2015 Update

We hope you had a lovely Samhain!

The nights are long and dark and the chill has hit the air. Victoria’s Pagan scene seems to be getting bigger and brighter every month, with new coffee meets, public rituals, pub moots, workshops and more springing up all over the state. Long-standing regular events have reported record numbers, too! As always, you can find a comprehensive list of Pagan events, rituals, workshops and social meetups organised by many different groups and individuals across the state over on our Calendar.

The PCV is no exception to this recent flurry of activity. We have been as busy as ever, with preparations for our Yule dinner underway, and the new Ballarat Pagans in the Pub launching this month. We also have our AGM coming up in July.

Ballarat Pagans in the Pub
Pagans in the Pub is back in Ballarat this weekend! Witches and Pagans from Ballarat and beyond, come and join us at Irish Murphy’s from 12:30pm for a drink and a chat with Pagan folk from a variety of paths in a welcoming and friendly atmosphere. Irish Murphy’s is centrally located, and has meals until 2pm. Pagans in the Pub in Ballarat is hosted by the Pagan Collective of Victoria, and will be running quarterly throughout 2015.

Yule Dinner 2015
Our Pagan Community Yule Dinner is taking place on the 13th of June, and is open to all witches, Pagans and interested folk across Victoria. This dinner will be the first of its kind for a while, as it is an open invitation to members of all groups (as well as solitaries!) to join together for a meal. It will be a night of music and merrymaking not to be missed! Click here to see the Facebook event for the Dinner. Tickets are on sale until the end of May (there will be no tickets to purchase at the door, so please book now to avoid disappointment). See you there!

Monthly Hills Coffee Meetups
Our Dandenong Ranges coffee moots are still going strong. Many thanks to those lovely people who braved the chilly Mothers’ Day weather for this month’s meet. The June meet will be taking place on the 14th of June – the day after the Yule Dinner. Come and join us for a healing cuppa and a recovery chat!

Members’ Survey
The PCV is always looking for ways to improve our services to the pagan community and our members. To better help us do this we have created the PCV Members Survey and Census 2015. The survey is completely anonymous and you will be helping us to better understand our community and provide us with feedback on what you would like from being a member of the community. We would really appreciate it if you take 5 – 10 minutes to complete the survey.
Click here to complete the survey.

Annual General Meeting
The AGM for the Pagan Collective of Victoria will be taking place on the 18th of July 2015, 1pm at Stuzzi Restaurant and Bar in Northcote.
Nominations are now open for President, Secretary, Treasurer and Vice President (a new role). We are also seeking nominations for general committee members. To nominate yourself or someone else for any of these roles, please email your nomination to: pagancollectivevic@gmail.com. Before you send it, make sure your nominee is aware that they are nominated, and that they agree to it! 🙂

**NOMINATIONS CLOSE AT MIDNIGHT ON FRIDAY, JULY 3rd 2015**

All PCV members are eligible to nominate and be nominated before the meeting and are invited to attend the meeting to vote. Not a member yet? Memberships to the PCV are free until the end of 2015. Visit www.pagancollective.org/join for more information.
The first committee meeting with the new committee will take place straight after the AGM. It is requested that the current President, Treasurer and Secretary attend this meeting

What’s on in Victoria? March 2015

The Victorian Pagan Scene seems to be getting busier each month! See our Calendar for more events coming up near you. 🙂

4^th: Full Moon Circle at Seline’s Temple (Plenty)
For details visit the What’s Brewing Now? Facebook group.

5^th: Date of Full Moon

7^th: Pagans in the Pub Melbourne (Fairfield)
For details visit the Facebook event or call Philippe: 0402 437 086

7^th: Earthsong Monthly Coffee Meetup (Northcote)
Topic: Stories of Initiation. For details visit the Facebook event.

7^th: Wendy Rule Melbourne Concert (Northcote)
For details visit the Facebook event.

14th: Submissions close for Mabon issue of Spokes of the Wheel
Please send your articles/artwork to pagancollectivevic@gmail.com

15^th: PCV Monthly Hills Pagan Coffee Meet (Upwey)
See the Facebook event for details.

21^st: Mabon

21st: Melbourne Heathen Moot (Clifton Hill)
Asatru/Heathenism. See the Facebook page for details.

27^th– 29^th: Seven Sisters Festival (Mount Martha)
See the Seven Sisters website for more.

28th: Creating Ceremony: The Art of Ecstatic Ritual (Brunswick)
Hosted by Melbourne Reclaiming. See the Facebook event for details.