The Port Albert Progress Association (PAPA) held its Annual General Meeting last week, marking another step forward in our long-standing tradition of serving the community since 1880.
We’re thrilled to announce our newly appointed committee for the 2024-2025 period:
President:Â Jenny Smith
Vice President:Â Sue Heal
Secretary:Â Sandi Davie
Treasurer:Â Chris Smith
Committee Members:Â Scott Sigley, Collin Kirkpatrick, Warren Curry, Kez Pickard, Emma Kilgower, and Sharon Radon
PAPA is driven by the dedication of volunteers and supported by members, including residents, local businesses, and service organisations.
Together, we organise beloved community events such as the Easter Family Fun Day, ANZAC Day Commemorations, Christmas Lights Competition, and the New Year’s Eve Fireworks.
We also act as a key link between the community and local/state governments, focusing on infrastructure improvements and advocacy for future development.
Port Albert Progress Association - Presidents Report
AGM 2024 November 12
This November sees my first full term as President of the Port Albert Progress Association (PAPA) come to an end.
A huge thanks to the members of the committee for their support this year (Scott, Colllin, Warren, Brian, Kez, Emma and Sharon) and especially for Sue for stepping up to fill the Presidents whilst I was away for 3 months. A baptism of fire this year, but hopefully a bit more streamlined for next year.
Thanks to Chris, Sandi and Sue for their support again this year in their respective exec roles. A special shout out to Chris for working through the extra tasks created this year by starting online purchasing/membership purchases and also with the introduction of the management of the Port Albert Hall.
Taking over the management of the hall has proved a challenge with a huge learning curve on my part, and the committee’s part too. Understanding reporting requirements to the Wellington Shire Council (WSC), compliance requirements and outstanding maintenance issues.
To that end the WSC have been very understanding and very generous when it comes to fixing items to bring the hall up to the required compliance levels. Assistance with these works will total around $10k this year. The WSC also funded major rising damp works on the hall during this term in the vicinity of $100k.
We hope to enter the new year with the hall fully compliant in relation to electrical work/fire prevention etc and also with all outstanding maintenance completed. It will now hopefully just be a matter of fixing things as they come up and completing the required quarterly, 6 monthly and annual inspections.
New gardening and cleaning contracts have now been implemented for the next 12 months too.
Whilst not a member of the committee Rob Durrant continues to do a power of work on our website, developing new accessibility and running regular marketing updates. I am in awe of Robs enthusiasm and dedication to putting Port Albert on the map. Whilst I whine at times about not having enough time to do things for him, I am extremely grateful to have him on board assisting PAPA.
Many of you may not realise the work that Sharon Radon also does behind the scenes with the Visit Port Albert (VPA) FB page and a number of other local Port Albert FB pages. Again, I am extremely grateful to Sharon for the number of hours she puts into putting Port Albert out there in front of the FB public. When I last checked Sharon had recruited over 3700 followers to our VPA page. It is also a quite engaged following.
A shout out to Collin for his unwavering support of the NYE fundraising raffles and for his helpers (Sue and Sandi) who helped him out whilst I was away on holidays.
Brendan and Michelle at the Albo continue to provided us with a fantastic fund-raising avenue for NYE. The Albo are by far our largest fundraiser for NYE, without them we would not be able to hold the event.
Thankyou to Warren for again organising a very successful ANZAC day event, which was well attended and well supported by PAPA committee members.
This year we hope to continue developing partnerships with event hosting, last year the Port Albert CFA and friends of St John’s helped out with a number of events, which helped to ease the load on the day events were held.
We have picked up two large sponsors so far with our sponsorship packages. Both the Yarram Country Club and Southerly 10 taking up packages to help support PAPA and our events for the next 12 months. We have also picked up a number of business memberships which is great to see the support growing.
Our two large projects still in focus ATM are the painting of the water tower and also the construction of an outdoor gym in Rutter Park. Unfortunately, progress has been slow on both projects but hopefully that will change soon. Funding being our biggest hurdle ATM, but working on options.
A quick thank you to Emma for continuing to run with the Playgroup on Wednesdays and to Kez for organising our community night to be held in mid-January – more details to come soon.
Many of our members who are not on our committee still contribute very generously to our fundraising efforts re raffles etc. Thank you for your continued support in that space too.
Regards
Jenny
PAPA President 2023-2024
If you’d like to join our passionate team and help shape the future of Port Albert through exciting events and meaningful projects, we’d love to hear from you! Email us at portalbertprogress@gmail.com to get involved or visit the membership page of the website..
Let’s continue building a vibrant and thriving Port Albert together! 🌟
Port Albert Progress Association (PAPA) Serving the community since 1880
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