1:00pm, Friday, 19th October 2007
Cominos House, Greenslopes Street, Cairns

President's Report - Chris Gloor

A lot has been accomplished this last year. With funding provided by the National Landcare Program, NSDA met or exceeded virtually all of the objectives of the original grant proposal, in many instances by substantial measure.

Between workshops, field days, newsletters, the website, print and broadcast media opportunities and classes delivered to State High School students, we were successful in delivering on all of our grant commitments, with sufficient funds left over to essentially deliver more of the same, as well as some new projects in 2007 - 2008.

Details of most of our activities are well described in our Final Report to FNQ NRM Ltd (terrain - Natural Resource Management), subtitled WT NLP04-5 - "Agricultural Sustainability Best Management Practice," by our Secretary, Sinan Ogun, dated July 2007.

Sinan not only secured the NLP Grant funds, but also delivered many of the products and services specified in the grant as well as managing the relationship with FNQ NRM Ltd, including reporting against the objectives and benchmarks of the program. This was a substantial endeavour, as described in the Final Report and was undertaken on top of the requirements of his position as Secretary. I suggest that the report be included on our website with links prominently and strategically placed on the Homepage and elsewhere.

Besides looking after our booths and displays at numerous events, Kath Anich managed to construct and circulate more than 50% more newsletters than were anticipated in the grant proposal. We continue to receive positive feedback from many recipients of these newsletters, especially with regard to Kath's format of brief descriptions of the latest topics, with web-links to more detailed sources.

As Treasurer, Sarah Rizvi has kept our financials well organized, appraising the group regarding grant money acquittals and showing new project proposals against the budget. Between our well-kept financial books and grant outcomes and reporting, we should be in a great position to access additional funding support in this financial year.

Kate Sutcliffe managed and brought together all of the perspectives expressed in our letter to the Minister, regarding the Biodiversity Act.

Our relationship and potential collaboration with CSIRO has been strengthened through the efforts of our Vice-president James Butler.

And similar potential partnering with DPI programs has been developed and promoted by Peter Holden.

Our website represents a very accessible, user friendly and versatile communication device with a framework that will allow us to expand and grow according to the needs and demands of our numerous clusters. It is hoped that they will all soon be taking advantage of the great opportunity for them to promote their own NRM issues and management practices.

There are several others including Bood and Rosemary and the rest of our current financial members that have contributed time, expertise and effort during the year.

Our sponsorship and participation in the Global Eco Design Dialogues late last year contributed substantially to the event's success.

One event that saddened us all was the demise of CREDEC (Cairns Regional Economic Development Corporation). CREDEC, together with several of their members and staff, were integral to the early success of NSDA with their networking and in-kind support. The untimely (and many believe unfair) dissolution of CREDEC was a loss to NSDA and the community.

Based on the foundation built to date, there will be many opportunities for NSDA to continue and expand its activities in this financial year, including the potential of finding some office space and employing a part-time community liaison.

It is my hope that while we continue to develop as a ‘network' and continue to deliver our various projects and programs that we will be able to increase the size of our voting membership this year.

Thank you to everyone for what we have achieved to date and for your patience and support for my role in NSDA this last year.