Minutes of Annual General Meeting held on Sunday 12 September 2004

Welcome and Apologies

John McKenna opened the Annual General Meeting at 2.50pm, welcomed all in attendance, and noted the following apologies:

Carol Duane, Brian Duane, Tiffany Duane, Melissa Duane, Audrey Murphy, Leah Armstrong, Margaret Childs, Eileen Clarke, Lillian Ford, Gwen Kearns, Jean Shaw, Noelene Pascal, Russ Werner, Merle Warwick, Margaret Moulds, Shirley Donohue.

Confirmation of Minutes of the First Annual General Meeting held on 14 September 2003

The minutes of the First Annual General Meeting were accepted.

President's Annual Report

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Linnwood once again. We are having our meeting out here in the big room today, back where we had our first meeting in July 2002, before the floor fell apart, and I hope you took particular notice as to how clean and shiny the floor is now! With thanks to John and Christine McKenna for organising it, we have had the whole floor, here and in the kitchen, stripped and polished, and doesn't it make a difference!

I know this is supposed to be an "Annual Report" but I thought I would just do my usual - I think we keep you pretty much up to date at each meeting as to what's happening, so there's not much point in going over it all again! I'm sure you would rather hear the current news, not the old.

Not much to show but a lot to tell today, so my 'show' segment will be very short. Jan and Stan Thomas have kindly donated a silver cigarette case and watch, which both belonged to Jan's grandfather - thank you Jan and Stan.

You might notice over against the wall there, some large display cases. Well, with many thanks to Fairfield Museum who very kindly donated them, they finally arrived yesterday - and didn't that take some doing! As the cases were to be donated, and you can see they are quite large and very heavy, we thought we would pay to have them moved professionally, which turned out to be a long story just in itself. The cases are originally from the Australian Mint, and you can see that they are made of beautiful timber. Fairfield Museum obtained them some time ago, and with some major reorganising in their big shed, found that these 3 were no longer needed, so wondered if we were interested, which of course we were! On arrival at Linnwood yesterday, we noticed that they would appear to need some repairs to the doors and as they certainly didn't look like that when we inspected them at the museum a few weeks ago, we're not quite sure what has happened in the mean time! Anyway, if there are any handymen out there who would like to help us out with some carpentry work we would be very grateful. We hope to be able to have various things on display in them and they will be very handy for groups such as the Lace Guild etc. to be able to use.

We have had some other donations - and these I can't show you as they are too numerous to show or mention individually, but from Kevin Woodward of Wentworthville we received lots of tools and farm implements, from scythes to horse collars, to sulky steps, to tyre pumps, to a copy of a 1916 receipt from the Trolley, Draymen and Carters Union for 2/6. So to Kevin, a very big thank you.

From Susan McCredie Miles, grand-daughter of George McCredie, with her membership renewal came a donation of $100, and from the estate of the late Joan Dowling who passed away recently, and who was Member No. 10 of the Friends, we received a cheque for $200. Joan lived in Byron Road and we thank her for thinking of us in her will and offer our sincere condolences to her family.

Stan Thomas has offered to make a new gate for the front entrance, trying to match the one that was there. The idea for gates came about because we - meaning any female, last to leave and having to do battle with the large, heavy chain and padlock that are there now - were fast becoming tired of fighting it, so we thought that gates would look good - and we would be able to manage a smaller chain to lock them. Stan came to our rescue with his offer, so to Stan, a big Thank You, and we look forward to being able to close gates and not have to battle with the chain any more.

When you have your afternoon tea today, you should notice that the water is in a brand new, BIG, urn. With all the cups of tea and coffee we serve on Open Days, for tour groups, and when we catered for the wedding guests recently, it became very apparent that the smaller urn we were using just couldn't cope with the large work load, so we purchased this one this week - so you will be the first to christen it and hope that it works!

Our August Open Day for Kids was very successful, both financially and with numbers through the door. It was great to see the SES, Fire Brigade and Police here, contrasting with the Marines who set up camp, fired their muskets and small cannon, which was a great hit with the crowd, and we had lots of activities inside for the younger folk as well. Many thanks to Christine McKenna for organising these, and to the Embroiderers Guild for running the children's workshop which was very popular. To all those members who volunteered their time on the day and to those who made 'old fashioned' sweets to sell, and they did, very quickly! - a huge thank you. There were many of you here on the day, so please accept our sincere thanks - we couldn't have done it without you.

October's Open Day is coming up fast and you will see by the flyer that again, we will be having some interesting exhibits on the day, so please come along and have a look and tell your friends to come too!

As part of Holroyd Council's Open House Day on 7th August, we went down and put up some displays for the Friends of Linnwood, Friends of Mays Hill Cemetery and Holroyd Local History Research. It was a great day, we made lots of contacts and created quite a lot of interest with our photographic display and also the fact that Helen, Pat and I 'dressed up' in our period dresses. It was quite funny really, a case of 'let's make a deal' - we could have a really good position just inside the front door for our display IF we dressed up. We thought it a good idea, we really wanted a good spot - and it worked out really well. We have a couple of photos here if you would like to have a look before they go into our album - some also of the August Open House.

We have a few tours and workshops lined up for the next couple of weeks, with next weekend being extremely busy. Both the Australian Miniatures Enthusiasts and the Lace Guild are holding 2-day workshops here, and then on the Sunday we have tours by both the Prospect Trust and also the Historic Houses Trust.

The weekend after, we have a very large tour group coming through on Saturday morning from the Marrickville Heritage Society, and on Sunday the Humber Car Club is having a Concourse of Cars in the grounds.

The week after our October Open House is the Guildford Festival and as mentioned last meeting, we will open the house on Saturday 16th with local history displays and refreshments, and also the Holroyd Family History Group will be on hand to help anyone who might be interested in starting or may have hit a brick wall in their family history research.

As part of the Festival and History Week, which is this coming week, we have distributed a colouring competition to 7 local primary schools. We used the original line drawing by local artist Reg Young which forms our logo and hope that we will have some very colourful entries sent in. We hope to have the entries on display at the October Open House and then they will go down to the IGA Supermarket in Guildford to be displayed during the Festival. We are offering book vouchers as prizes in 4 categories and the winners will be presented with these on the main stage just before the parade on the 16th. We would like to thank Tim Lu of Eazy Printing & Copying in Guildford Road who did all the printing for us, and then very generously subsidised the cost by 30%. So, if you want or need any printing done, we can certainly recommend Tim.

Again, we would like to ask for volunteers to help on any of the days mentioned, we need help with the serving of refreshments and that wonderful job of washing up! Apart from the chores, it's usually a really nice social time for us all, but - the committee cannot do it all, all the time - we need some help or we won't be able to continue doing these things. Please think about it, and come along and lend a hand.

The Garden Committee has been busy, as you have heard, and we thank them most sincerely for all their hard work, the gardens and grounds are looking so much better now.

Some good news regarding the grounds. The Delphin group of companies - the ones building all the units on the brickworks site in Merrylands, have a policy of donating 1 day a year to a community group and do a kind of 'backyard blitz' type of thing. Well, with thanks to Debbie Killian at Holroyd Council who steered them towards Pioneers, we had a meeting with representatives from Delphin, Pioneers, L.J. Hooker and Council, and the plan is that they will be here on Thursday 23rd September to do some major cleaning out and landscaping of the area on the southern side of the house outside the laundry, cleaning out all the undergrowth etc. and making it much easier for Pioneers' clients to move around. This will of course be of great benefit to Linnwood as well, something that would have been a huge undertaking for our Gardening group. Members of the group will be more than welcome to come on the day and join with the 30 or so Delphin workers who will be here. So hopefully by the Open House, that whole area will be much neater and tidier, and we certainly thank Debbie for recommending Linnwood, and thank Delphin for taking on such a big task.

The Holroyd CityFest is in April next year and again we have been asked to participate by holding a function at Linnwood. We tossed around a lot of ideas but came back to doing the same as this year - another Rhymes, Rhythms, Writings and Refreshments afternoon. We all enjoyed the one this year so much we thought it would be good to make it an annual event as part of CityFest. The New Writers Group and the U3A Writers are all keen to come back and we hope to try and have a few more performers as well. We will keep you posted as time goes on. Our event will be held on Sunday 17th April, the week after our April Open House - so make sure you note those dates in your 2005 diaries!

Recently I was invited to attend a seminar at Fairfield Museum, run by Museums Australia. It was a full day seminar on 'Raising Money for small Museums & Galleries". The speakers were excellent and I could hardly keep up with them, madly writing pages and pages of notes and ideas to bring back to the committee - I was well and truly 'brain dead' by the end of the day, but it was very worthwhile. The Committee discussed membership of the Sydney Chapter of Museums Australia, and agreed that it would be worthwhile joining for one year to gauge the benefits - a good networking exercise to learn more about how other organisations achieve their goals.

We also discussed and agreed to join the Australian Garden History Society for one year for much the same reasons, see how other groups work and what help these organisations could be to us with our hopes and goals for Linnwood.

Hopefully you all received your letters from the Heritage Office regarding the proposed sale of the rear of the property to raise much needed funds for the ongoing maintenance and upkeep of Linnwood. A public announcement was also in recent editions of the local papers and to my knowledge there have been no great objections to the proposal. Since then, a 'brief' has been prepared by the Heritage Office for distribution to interested parties as part of the tendering process to engage consultants for this project, and I will be sure to keep you informed of any further developments as they occur.

Well, I think that just about sums up what has been happening over the past 2 months and what is coming up in the future. In closing, I would just like to thank you all for your support over the past 12 months, it has certainly been a very busy, but also I think, a very positive year. We continually have remarks made to us about our Open Days - what a lovely, friendly atmosphere there is here, which makes visitors feel very welcome and happy to come back - so thank YOU for that. If our visitors didn't get that 'warm and fuzzy' feeling, our days would not be the success they are.

We also thank Holroyd City Council for their continued support, by keeping the grounds looking as good as they are and also covering the cost of mailouts to members - the postage cost of this alone, with the membership numbers we have, is a considerable saving to us. Thank you also to the Heritage Office for allowing us to continue doing what we are doing, and Murray Brown in particular, for being at the end of the phone or email when we, or mainly me, have questions or queries that need answers. His help has been invaluable - he must really dread receiving calls from me by now so, sorry Murray, but thank you for being there.

Also, Justine Maher at L.J. Hooker - what a dynamo - whenever there has been a maintenance problem Justine has seen to getting it fixed as soon as possible and so far we have been very happy with the new security company contracted to look after the property.

With our Open House Days and all the other events that have been held here over the past 12 months and what is planned for 2005, we continue to prove just what a community asset this property is and I not only thank you all for your support but more especially thank each and every one of the committee for all their time, ideas, enthusiasm and patience to see all these plans come to fruition. So to Helen, John, Christine, Pat, Pam, Michael, Dane, Dave and Gerry, thank you all so much for your work over the past 12 months, it has been much appreciated.

Today as you know is our AGM and I would like to thank those committee members Dane Bastian, David Mondy and Gerry O'Brien who will not be seeking re-election - thank you for your support over the past 12 months, we are sorry to see you go but wish you well in your new endeavours.

Their leaving means that there are now some vacancies on the committee - hint, hint, - so if there are any of you that would like to stand for a position on the committee, please do so - it really isn't that bad, truly!

To finally finish with, I would like to share with you a comment that was made at a meeting I went to some time ago, by someone who has dealt with many community groups such as ours, committed to saving a heritage property - that with the things we have done and what we have achieved in such a short space of time, the Friends of Linnwood is the most successful group he has ever come across - so take a bow or pat each other on the back, it's only through your efforts that this has happened. Thank you.

Treasurer's Unaudited Report for the Year Ended 30 June 2004

John McKenna advised that his report will be audited and then forwarded to the Department of Fair Trading. He then gave a brief overview of major expenditure for the year:

Chairs	$2178
Merchandise	$1,077
Refrigerator	$820
Trestle Tables	$780
RAHS Insurance and Affiliation	$666
Funding for Gardening Committee	$500
Cups & Saucers etc	$278

John noted some exceptional income we had received over the past 12 months:

BBQs	$2,578
Door Entry	$2,017
Membership	$1,174
Refreshments	$948
Raffles	$942
Donations	$850
Tours	$720
Merchandise	$621

John advised that the new Committee to be elected would formulate a budget for the 2004/05 year, and will determine the forecasted revenue and expenditure.

Election of Office Bearers

The Friends of Linnwood Committee then stepped down from their positions, and Vanessa McNeill took the role of Returning Officer. Vanessa told the meeting that the Friends of Linnwood Committee have achieved wonders over the past year, and also congratulated Winston Tattersall on his amusing report as well as the Gardening and Cataloguing Committee for what they are doing.

Vanessa then declared all Committee positions vacant.

Position of President

Dorothy Warwick was nominated - Moved by Kaye Weaver, Seconded by Michael Griggs - Agreed by all.

Position of Treasurer

John McKenna was nominated - Moved by Pam Zopf, Seconded by Kaye Weaver - Agreed by all.

Position of Secretary

Helen Olde was nominated - Moved by Winston Tattersall, Seconded by Pam Zopf - Agreed by all.

Committee Members

Pam Zopf, Pat O'Brien, Christine McKenna and Michael Griggs were re-appointed. Coral Hamilton and Joan Flood nominated themselves, and Dorothy Warwick nominated Carol Duane in her absence. Coral, Joan and Carol were duly appointed to the Committee - Agreed by all.

Public Officer

Peter Warwick was re-confirmed as Public Officer - Moved John Walz, Seconded by Kaye Weaver - Agreed by all.

Vanessa McNeill once again thanked the Committee and welcomed its new members, and said that the citizens of Holroyd were in their debt.

John McKenna then declared the Annual General Meeting closed at 3.05pm.