Fleet Air Arm Association of Australia

2009 AGM - Secretary's Report

3 October 2009

Well members, it's that time of the year again, our Annual Federal Council Meeting is currently taking place at the Museum at NAS Nowra. After the hustle and bustle of last year's reunion, things have gone relatively smoothly over the past 12 months although there is still plenty to keep us occupied.

It is pleasing to see that the disabled access to the White Ensign Club, namely the footpath, has been completed. Thanks must go to the WEC Management Committee for their efforts in this regard. (The Management Committee is made up of both our Association and the Nowra Section of the Naval Association). The Access Ramp into the club is currently being assessed and it's hoped to have it completed in the near future.

Membership of the Association currently stands at 1055 full Members and Life Members; this has remained fairly static over the past two years that I have been in the job and whilst reasonable I am sure that there are a lot of ex-birdies out there that we haven't reached and it should be an ongoing task on both the National and State Divisions to try and improve on these numbers.

Slipstream still takes up a considerable amount of our workload and thanks must go to the dedicated band of volunteers that appear each time we are getting ready to distribute the magazine. Our current distribution rate is in the order of 1120 - this includes members, overseas members, internal copies and official copies (Navy, Government etc). Again the main problem is members not making sure they inform us of their change of address either to the State Secretary or just by emailing me and I will ensure it is passed on to their State Secretary.

I feel I must make mention of the good work done by Harley Dadswell in controlling our website - he is always available and this year has achieved in cutting our web fees considerably. I encourage our State Divisions and all members to make full use of this valuable communications tool.

All that's left from me is to let members know that I have recently changed my email address to the one shown below.

Regards to all.

Return to AGM report.