June General Meeting Minutes

General Meeting

12 June 2019
Held at Harrington Grove Country Club

The meeting was opened at 6.36pm.

1            Welcome – Shaun Pereira, President

Shaun welcomed everyone to the June meeting – VIPs, life members, Chamber members, guests and acknowledged tonight’s guest speaker – Andrew Lock OAM. 

2            Apologies

Amy Woodley – Start Fresh Accounting
Polly Grundy – Campbelltown Chamber of Commerce
Damon May – Maytek IT
Trevor Robinson – The Strictly Limited Company

3            President’s Report

Shaun advised:

• Locked in key events moving forward – some really exciting things happening.
• Good network of people happening at all events.
• Held first social drinks recently at Gregory Hills Hotel – Thank you John Payne.  40 people attended.
• Going around with Sue Robinson meeting all the sponsors to find out about them and their businesses.  Recently met Raad from Carrington Care – understand why they were recently declared the best aged care organised in NSW.
• Members of the Board recently attended the presentation at CRET on the future of business.  Pay attention to the trends that are happening.
• Proud to announce that TGNBC has been announced as a finalist in the NSW Business Chamber Awards.  Other members announced as finalists are John McDonald Building Services, GFP Wealth Group, Club Menangle, and Wakeling Automotive.

4            CIN Update – Ian Wolf, CIN Chairman

Ian Wolf provided the CIN update:

• The team are busy working away for a great event.
• Jade Edney (Marsdens Law Group) is looking after the marketing.  Linda Carmagnola (Camden Mowing) and Steve Grabowski (Grabowski Financial Planning) are looking after sponsorship.
• Sponsorship to date $37,000.  $55,000 short of favoured level.
• Sponsorship brochures and Ian Wolf business card on the tables for everyone to consider.

5            Secretary’s Report – Jean Galloway, Secretary

Jean advised the Minutes from 8 May 2019 were on the website and were moved by Pania Gregson, seconded by Renee Garcia and accepted.  No business was arising from those Minutes.

6            Treasurer’s Report – Jean Galloway

Jean presented the Treasurer’s Report on behalf of Amy Woodley, as at 31 May 2019.  Current net profit is $9,954 and funds held $111,585.  The report was moved by Ian Wolf, seconded by Shaun Pereira and accepted.

7            Membership Update – Renee Garcia, Membership Co-ordinator

Currently 181 financial members. 

A reminder that a lot of renewals are currently happening – so please when the reminders come out, make sure they get paid to keep your membership current.

New member – Combined Commercial, was introduced to the meeting.

Member’s spotlights drawn in May were introduced – Maytek IT and Imageology Photography.  Also, CBA who unfortunately were not present to present their business spotlights.

Members Facebook promo from the last meeting was Peter Roberts.

Member spotlight drawn out for the July meeting is John Butler of Mr Rentals.

Members Facebook promo draw – Paul Mingay.

Two Shoutouts of thanks to current members – Imageology Photography and The Strictly Limited Company.

8            CRET Update – Debbie Roberts

Western Sydney University at Camden Council – Technology.

Finalising the 3 minute video of Camden LGA – launch in August.

In March, 19 businesses were invited to be in the video – discovered the abundance of local businesses within the community.

MWLP partnering with CRET for a long business lunch on September 6^th at Camden Civic Centre.

Remember to register on the CRET Newsletter list.

Range of workshops coming up at no cost and some have cost associated.

Naidoc Week – Danielle Mates-Sullivan artist event at the Civic Centre.

Have sponsored a My Community project through the NSW Government.

9            Business Tip – Mario Zannettou of Zannettou Wealth

5 Tips

• Instant asset write off
  • A reduction in profit at financial year end if guidelines met.
  • 1 July 2018 to 28 January 2019 – Assets less than $20,000.
  • 29 January to before 7.30pm on 2 April 2019 – Assets less than $25,000.
  • From 7.30pm on 2 April 2019 to 30 June 2019 – Assets less than $30,000.
  • Is the purchase a necessity – the tax write off should be a bonus.
  • Tax position should be considered – timing is important.
• Superannuation top up at year end
  • Can be used to minimise your tax.
  • Concessional contributions limit needs to be considered.  From 1 July 2017, the general concessional contributions cap is $25,000 for all individuals regardless of age.
  • Strategically superannuation should be considered as a wealth vehicle for retirement – it is your money.
  • Unless you meet the conditions though money in super stays within environment – cash flow consideration and opportunity cost.
• Business structure
  • Assess whether your business structure is tax effective – what was effective last financial year may not suit this year.
  • Whether you are operating as a trust, company partnership or sole trader there are tax and business operational consequences that need to be considered.
  • There can be substantial tax savings in legally changing your business structure.
• Assess Director Loans
  • Director loans either from or to your operating structure need to be a consideration.
  • Focus on Director loans owed to the company which are any monies not taken as wages but used for personal purposes that are required to be paid to the business – Division 7a.
  • Do you have director loans on your balance sheet?  If so, what is the strategy here?
• Payment of taxation debts
  • Where you do incur a taxation debt and are unable to pay due to cashflow considerations.
  • Depending on the size of the loan can be considered a minor debt by the tax office so ie  will not attract interest and can be paid off in a time frame negotiated by the tax office.
  • Cashflow management should be considered with all business debts including the tax office – failing to plan means you plan to fail.
  • Ultimately the tax office wants to see you in business.
• Summary – as your Accountant the following questions:
  • What is my taxation bill at 30 June looking like and based on cashflow consideration should I be looking to enter into a payment arrangement?
  • Is the instant asset write off beneficial to me?
  • How much should we be looking to strategically contribute to superannuation?
  • What is my director loan position?
  • Is my business structure effective based on current operations?

10          What’s On – Elisha Crismale, VP Communications

Elisha advised the following upcoming events:

• Campbelltown Chamber – 19 June
• Business Owner Boardroom – 20 June
• Youth Solutions Charity Event – 27th July
• CRET Social Media – 12 August
  • Social Media 101
  • Business Connect workshop to be held at Camden Region Economic Taskforce
  • Date:  Monday 12th August 
  • Time: 6.00pm – 8.00pm
  • Tickets: $25
  • Tickets available on the CRET website

• OCAGI Night of Knights – 17th August

11          Local Update – Shaun Pereira

This agenda item is for anyone who has something local they want the Board to have the members updated on eg a local development that’s occurring in the area or an issue that may positively/negatively impact on locals.

Tonight was Barry Grimes of Team Kermit and Narellan Rotary Club on the Camp Quality esCarpade.  This is the 9^th year Team Kermit has been involved.  So far raised $530,000 for camp quality.

Barry then presented TGNBC with a Certificate of Thanks.

12          Sponsorship Update – Sue Robinson, Sponsorship Co-ordinator

Sue updated everyone on the benefits of being a sponsor and that the new packages were available.

Sue then introduced the nights Silver Sponsor for their presentation:

• Stanfords Solicitors

13          Speaker presentation

Shaun introduced tonights guest speaker – Andrew Lock OAM.

Andrew spoke on his Summit Secrets – High Performance at the High Altitudes.

Andrew Lock is the most accomplished high altitude mountaineer in Australian history and one of the world’s most sought after remote area expedition leaders.

He is the only Australian, indeed the only member of the British Commonwealth, to have climbed all of the world’s 8000 metre – death zone – mountains, an odyssey sixteen years in the making. But success did not come easily. He survived avalanches, crevasse falls, frostbite, bivouacs at extreme altitude without equipment and lost more than twenty of his friends to the mountains.

Andrew has also guided numerous teams to the summit of Mt Everest and to the most inhospitable environments on every continent on earth. He has trained and led members of the Australian Government’s National Antarctic Research Expeditions on multiple Antarctic expeditions, and guided commercial groups across Antarctica and the sub Antarctic.

Andrew’s story is exceptional because he comes from a humble, urban background, with no family links to the mountains. Yet he pursued his dream of climbing all of the world’s highest mountains for sixteen years, actually living on the sides of those frozen monoliths for 4 years! His exceptional achievements in the face of such adversity have demanded supreme levels of resilience, perseverance and leadership.

Shaun presented Andrew with a thank you gift.

14          Lucky Door Prizes

Donated and won by:

Narellan Town Centre                 Belinda McLean of HR Focus

                                                         Ken Wong of Coutts Solicitors & Conveyancers

Andrew Lock                                  Barry Grimes

15          Closing Remarks – Shaun Pereira

The next meeting is a breakfast (6.30am for a 7am start) and will be held on Wednesday, 10 July 2019 at Harrington Grove Country Club.  The speaker is Kirk Duncan on Powering Innovation – Changing the way modern business works with innovative solutions.  Book Early.

Shaun thanked everyone for another great meeting – the Board for all the work they do behind the scenes, the sponsors for being supportive and Kaisha Gambell for the slide presentations each meeting.

There being no further business, the meeting was closed at 9.00pm.