Club Incorporation Details

[carniebrew]

As discussed at the meeting tonight, here's a link to the "Should your club incorporate" information on Consumer Affairs Victoria's website.

Also, here's the link to CAV's "Incorporated association rules" page, which outlines why you need rules, and has a link to the "Model Rules" that we can simply accept as our constitution (which makes incorporation cheap and easy).

Take some time to look through those pages, and in a little while we'll look to start the process for nominating people for the various committee positions, to be elected at our next meeting.

 

[New_guy]

It's a given - this is essential to operate the club

 

[carniebrew]

Well, I was surprised at how easily we all agreed on the desire to incorporate tonight, it shows just how enthusiastic everyone is to see this new club work. Very impressed. There's some really passionate blokes already doing some great work for the club, so getting a committee together should be a cinch.

 

[pomsaleius]

Thanks for this. Quite a bit of reading. I downloaded the model rules and will have a go at filling in the blanks at some point, maybe at the weekend. Then I guess post them up for agreement.

 

[New_guy]

Had a read - most of it makes reasonable sense.

Interesting points:

4 Required positions on committee
President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer

Committee must meet 4 times per year and have a majority quorum

Must have minimum 5 members

Any general meeting that is not an AGM is defined as a special general meeting and only needs a quorum of 10%

 

[wynnum1]

What are the clubs objectives.

 

[technobabble66]

What are the clubs objectives.

Really?

Talk Beer
Make Beer
Drink Beer
:lol: B)

 

[zeggie]

Really?

Talk Beer
Make Beer
Drink Beer
:lol: B)

This is brilliant and simple. Should be the club motto!

 

[New_guy]

This is brilliant and simple. Should be the club motto!

With three figures - one talking, one stirring a keggle and one lying on the ground

 

[wynnum1]

May be better calling it a religion then a club .

 

[pomsaleius]

OK, but seriously folks..
There are essentially 3 bits to fill in in that docco.
- The name of the club ("The Merri Mashers Homebrewing Club Incorporated" ?)
- Purposes of the club - ("to share and promote knowledge and information associated with brewing beer, to hold brewing competitions, mentor and advise homebrewers and to promote beer and brewing" ?? - read "Talk Beer, Make Beer, Drink Beer")
and
- Financial year ("12 months ending on 30 June" ??)

And it's probably worth bringing this up now - so who wants to be on the committee, and in which roles? As well as President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer, what other roles do we want to have? Event organiser? Competition organiser? Glass washer?
I'll put my cards on the table. I have been both a treasurer and secretary in other clubs previously (not brewing - ..... well, OK, if you must know, a CB club and a Tarantula keeper and breeders club back in the UK in the 1980s and 90s - yes really). I didn't enjoy those particular roles much. But I did quite enjoy the other aspects of being on the committees.
I personally think carniebrew would make a pretty good President, but if anyone wants to nominate someone else, or even themselves, then please speak up (for President, or any other role). I'm happy to take on any role you good folks think I'd be good at, except for Secretary or Treasurer. Just that my work occasionally (like now) gets pretty crazy, and I come home knackered and not feeling like giving any left over energy to the running of a club. But hopefully that's not forever.
But then, I've been pretty impressed with pretty much everyone who has contributed to getting this club going so far. I'll personally have full confidence in anyone who ends up on this committee.

 

[carniebrew]

Cheers Kevin, I'm definitely keen to throw my hat in the ring as the Merri Mashers inaugural club president. I have developed a real passion for home brewing and the craft beer industry in general over the last few years, and am ready to invest the time needed to get this new venture up and running quickly.

As you've mentioned, the President, Secretary & Treasurer roles will be the most regularly active and likely take up the most time, but given the effort already put in by quite a few guys on this forum I don't imagine we'll have any trouble filling those roles. The club secretary will need to get our incorporation documents into Consumer Affairs, and look after the administrative details once incorporated. The Treasurer will of course need to organise our bank account, collect membership fees and manage the finances as and when needed.

Other than that, we could look at appointing a Vice President, to cover the President during absences, as well as getting involved in a lot of the event organising, etc. Maybe that would be a good role for you Kevin given your work commitments at the moment? Then we need a few general committee members, who can be involved as much or as little as they need as we go along.

So anyone else want to put their hand up for the various committee roles? As discussed at our last meeting, If we have more than one person nominate for Pres, VP, Sec or Treasurer, then we will have a secret ballot to decide the position at our AGM on April 29. However we can have as many general committee members positions as we have people put their hands up, no vote required. So here's the list of nominations for the AGM, add your names in a reply:

President: CarnieBrew (Justin),
Vice President:
Secretary:
Treasurer:
General Committee:

 

[pomsaleius]

Yep, Ok. I can do Vice (as long as I delete my browser history now and then) if the members agree. Anyone want to put their hand up for other roles?

 

[brouhaha]

Awesome, Justin and Kevin sound like great candidates for Pres and Vice Pres to me. I'm generally pretty flat chat running my own business so I think that Treasurer or Secretary gigs might be a bit of a stretch for me but I'd love to get involved with the general committee (if we have one).

 

[carniebrew]

We'll definitely have a general committee, hopefully with 3 or 4 members at least.

 

[New_guy]

Happy to put up my hand for treasurer

 

[DU99]

Ok..who is the person that is going to do the hardest job in a club..sec...

 

[New_guy]

I second the votes for Justin as President and Kevin as VP

 

[brouhaha]

President: CarnieBrew (Justin),
Vice President: Kevin
Secretary:
Treasurer: New Guy
General Committee: Brouhaha,

Looks pretty good so far. Just need a couple more general committee members and a secretary...

 

[Forever Wort]

I feel like I haven't been brewing long enough to deserve a place on the committee yet, but it is something I'd be interested in doing down the track.

I'd be more than happy to help out with club organisation/events/fund-raising more informally, though.