2008 CAFCA Annual General Meeting Minutes

The 2008 CAFCA AGM was held at the Christchurch WEA on September 15. 22 members were present (a higher turnout than for several years, which is encouraging). Bill Rosenberg chaired. Apologies were accepted from Lynda Boyd, Paul Piesse, Bill Willmott, Tony Orman, Joe Hendren, Daniela Bagozzi, Gillian Southey, Gilbert van Reenen, Kay Murray, Trish Murray, Matt Morris, Denis O’Connor, Luke Trainor, Tony Suddaby, Warren Brewer, Martin and Lois Griffiths, and Patricia Morrison. The 2007 Minutes were read by the Secretary, Murray Horton, and accepted.

The 2007/08 audited accounts, which had been distributed with Watchdog 118, August 2008, were accepted (Liz Griffiths, the retiring bookkeeper, personally presented them). As of March 31, expenditure was $1,500 over income, but this is nothing to be concerned about. The end of the March 31 financial year coincides every year with a period of major expenditure, specifically on the April Watchdog. Plus CAFCA has an additional $30,000+ divided between three term deposits, which has never had to be touched yet, so we are in a very healthy financial situation. Liz said that keeping the accounts had got easier over the years that she had been doing them, and thanked Murray Horton for his financial record keeping which has provided her with the raw data from which she has done the books.

The meeting thanked Liz Griffiths for her essential work as bookkeeper since the mid 1990s, and Bruce Finnerty for his work as the honorary auditor. As we have been unable to find a replacement volunteer bookkeeper, CAFCA has hired an accountant/bookkeeper for the first time ever, to prepare our 2008/09 accounts. At this stage, this is on a one year trial but may become a long term arrangement. We won’t know how much it will cost until we get the bill, as the accountant doesn’t how much it will be until he’s seen how much work is involved. Bruce Finnerty is happy to continue as the voluntary auditor.

Bob Leonard reported on the CAFCA/ABC Organiser Account, which pays Murray Horton – his gross annual income is currently $28,080 ($13.50 per hour). In the 2007/08 year, the Account spent $27,967 and income was $26,699 (a deficit of $1,268). The Account currently has $14,000 on term deposit. That is after $2,000 had to be transferred from the term deposit to the Organiser cheque account (the one used to pay Murray) to boost it when it fell to a lower than acceptable level. As of the September 08 bank statement, that cheque account had $1,700 in it.

Donations accounted for 34% of the Account’s annual income (as opposed to 22% the previous year). Regular pledgers now comprise 66% of annual income (77% the previous year). There were 47 pledgers (up from 44 the previous year) but the size and frequency of some of those pledges has fallen, indicating the financial strain being felt throughout the community. There was an inquiry from the floor as to whether the Account can sustain a pay rise for Murray and Bob undertook to investigate ( Murray’s pay has since been increased to $14 per hour). The meeting passed a vote of thanks for Bob Leonard, who has been in charge of the Organiser Account since the early 1990s.

Election of officers. Murray Horton was re-elected as Secretary/Organiser. The committee was re-elected unopposed - Bill Rosenberg, John Ring, Reg Duder, Jeremy Agar, Lynda Boyd, Quentin Findlay and Colleen Hughes. Liz Griffiths has resigned as bookkeeper; Bruce Finnerty remains the honorary auditor.

Murray Horton presented his annual Organiser’s Report (see below). He paid special tribute to both Liz Griffiths and the late Reg Duder, a long serving Committee member, who died in January 2008. Murray warned of the possibility of an increase in the membership fee in 2009, certainly for overseas members, because of the 50% increase in domestic postage rates (we postponed the impact of that for a year by stockpiling a year’s worth of postage paid envelopes for Watchdog, bought at the old rate). Overseas postage has gone sky high and it is now costing us close to the annual $30 overseas membership fee just to post three issues per year of Watchdog to some overseas members (depending on where they live), not including any other costs involved in its production (such as printing).

General Business. Bill Rosenberg had very recently received his Personal File from the Security Intelligence Service, spanning the period 1968-98, and it includes extensive material about both CAFCINZ and CAFCA, most recently a report from inside the 1998 CAFCA AGM. He quoted from it, spoke about it at length and there was extensive discussion from the floor. CAFCA is seeking details of its organisational file from the SIS (we have since received 400 documents from the SIS, comprising its censored file on CAFCINZ/CAFCA, spanning the decades from the mid 1970s to the late 1990s, with the possibility of a bit more to come. The SIS Director assured us that it no longer keeps a file on CAFCA as we are ”no longer of interest”. Because of the remarkably indiscreet personal nature of some of the material about named third parties contained in this file, the committee is still mulling how best to make it available to members, the public and the media).

The AGM concluded by screening the interview with Nicky Hager on the DVD of “The Hollow Men” (which was not included in the film as screened in cinemas in 2008).


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