1. Annual General Meeting 2017
Regional Association of Neighbourhood & Community Houses

2. Agenda
1. Welcome and Acknowledgement of Country by Chairperson: Helen Douglas
2. Apologies
3. Confirmation of Minutes of Previous AGM 22nd September 2016
4. Chairpersons Report: Helen Douglas
5. Networkers Report: Combined Networkers Report from David Perry and Sue Birch
6. Treasurers Report
Appointment of Auditor
7. General Business
8. All Position Declared Vacant
Election of New Committee:
9. Welcoming of new Committee members

3. Chairperson of Echuca Neighbourhood House Inc.
AGM Guest Speaker
2016 Senior of the Year
&
Chairperson of Echuca Neighbourhood House Inc.
Gwen Smith
“Active Citizenship”

4. Results from RANCH members
RANCH Forum
NH Survey -2016
Results from RANCH members
David Perry

5. Helen Douglas & Sue Birch
RANCH Forum
The RANCH Charter / Defining member obligations
Helen Douglas & Sue Birch

6. Why have one?
By signing up to a series of minimum standards, principles etc, you demonstrate your organisation is serious about quality.
Any failure to meet reasonable standards by one Neighbourhood House reflects on the others. This is particularly true in the Local and State government arenas. It can also impact on the willingness of funding bodies to give grants to other Neighbourhood Houses.
The reverse is also true. When Neighbourhood Houses are seen to perform well, the reputation of other Neighbourhood Houses is positively affected.
A charter also demonstrates respect for the values and the hard work of our colleagues

7. What would a charter contain?
This is up to the members to decide. However, to be meaningful it should be more than just a few motherhood statements. A charter could include things like a commitment to:
Certain practices e.g. use of the good governance guide
Applying values or principles e.g. Neighbourhood House sector principles or codes of ethics
Minimum standards e.g. auditing, reporting and acquittal of grants
Participation e.g. participation in Professional Development, network activities etc.

8. How would it work?
Signing up to and complying with a charter would be voluntary. How it would work is a decision for members but there are options including but not limited to:
Compliance with the charter would not be monitored. However, breaches of the charter could be referred to RANCH Committee and sanctions applied if the breach is not remedied. One obvious sanction would be removal as a signatory to the charter.
The charter could be linked to membership and the constitutional dispute processes could apply
There could be no action for breaches but this limits the value of the charter

9. The issues
Do we want to invest time and resources into developing a RANCH Charter although we do not have the capacity to monitor compliance?
Could we achieve better outcomes by making certain practices requirements of membership?

10. The Age Friendly Communities Project
RANCH Forum
The Age Friendly Communities Project
Martyn Shaddick , Castlemaine Community House
Amy Atkinson, Maldon Neighbourhood Centre  

11. How can we improve our current meeting structure?
RANCH Forum
How can we improve our current meeting structure?
Sue Birch

12. RANCH Forum
Open Forum