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April 2024 General Meeting Minutes

Written by Narellan Chamber Admin on . Posted in Minutes.

General Meeting

10th April, 2024
Held at Camden Council Chambers

The meeting was opened at 6.00 pm

Welcome & President’s Report – Anne Parnham, President

Anne thanked all the sponsors for being part of The Greater Narellan Business Chamber.

Acknowledgement of Country “I would like to acknowledge that this event is being held on the Traditional Lands and Waterways of the Dharawal people, and also recognise surrounding Dharug, and Gundungurra people and pay my respect to Elders past, present and those emerging.

Anne welcomed our VIP’s

Mayor of Camden Councillor Ashleigh Cagney

Deputy Mayor of Camden Councilor Therese Fedeli

Councillors Usha Dommaraju, Eva Campbell, Russell Zammit.

Cindy Cagney and Peter McLean.

Andrew Carfield General Manager, Camden Council

Tony Perich AM Life Member and his wife Cathy Perich

Pania Gregson VP of Picton Chamber

All our Sponsors and Members and guests of the Chamber and thank you for your ongoing support.

APOLOGIES:

Councillor Lara Symkowiak

Councillor Paul Farrow

Life Members Adriana Care, Ian Wolfe and Paul Mingay

Sandy Quinnell State MP

Judith Hannan State MP

Carla Upfill-Meeting Director of our Chamber

Senior Constable Greg Louden

Housekeeping of toilet location, phones on silent and emergency evacuation plan

Anne noted:

that the Chamber is a not-for-profit organisation made up entirely of volunteers and there isn’t anyone standing to gain financially from being on the Board and we purchase our own event tickets

  • she introduced the members of the Board and asked them to stand so that members could recognise them if they have any matters to raise;
  • We are currently looking for a secretary director please see me after the meeting if you are interested.
  • We are currently looking for a   sponsorship director please see me after the meeting if you are interested.
  • There are expressions of interest papers on your tables if you are interested in either of these positions.
  • There are pamphlets on your table to see what is happening with our chamber.
  • Our meeting minutes are on our website.
  • She recommended that members get out and about in the community “
  • Get involved in your Community and your Community will get involved with you” by doing voluntary work with eg Carrington Care, IC Care and Macarthur Anglican School and other schools involving Mock Interviews and Careers days.
  • Anne attended meetings with Aeria Management who manage both Bankstown and Camden airport to get updates on flight paths.
  • Anne had meetings with South West Tourism Task Force who announced they are holding their inaugural Tourism Awards for Western Sydney so members in the hospitality and tourism sector should get involved.
  • Congratulations Eva Pavlakis from PNP Constructions for sponsoring the International Women’s day event put on by Camden Council.
  • A few laws in business have changed eg parental leave is to increase to 22 weeks in 2024 and then to 26 weeks in 2026.
  • Reports have come out to say that employees are taking more sick days than ever 13.8 days per employee per year.
  • Terminating employees for poor performance can be very complicated so please seek assistance from your HR consultant or from Business NSW where you can get some free advice being Affiliate members.
  • Meetings with the Regional Advisory Council of Western Sydney continue to grow and be very informative the topics being shortage of housing, shortage of tradies and hospitality staff and cybercrime.
  • Small Business month is again going to be in October 2024 and Camden Council will be hold various training courses to assist small businesses.

Membership Update – Sandra Bartlett, Membership Director

Member Spotlight Presentation

  • Robert Proietti – The Alternative Board Macarthur

New Member Introduction

            Lachlan Gelder-Peter’s Lawyers

            ADM Projects-Anthony Di Maio

Member Spotlight Presentation for next month

          Joshua Costlow- Marsden’s Law

Sponsorship Update – Presented By Anne

Silver Sponsors                Invictus X – 5-minute presentation

Silver Sponsors                Coutts Legal – 5-minute presentation

Bronze Sponsors             Pestgo – 2-minute presentation

In-Kind Sponsor              Brick Studios – 1 minute presentation

In-Kind Sponsor              Alpha IT – 1 minute presentation

What’s On – Roland Blackstone, Vice President

Details about the above What’s On are available on the Chambers website.

NETWORKING BREAK

A Vision for Camden to 2036

Rachel  introduced Mayor Ashleigh Cagney and GM Andrew Carfield

Mayor spoke about

  • She was born and grew up in Helensburgh near Wollongong
  • Single has 4 children.
  • She has always been a soccer/football enthusiast.
  • She loves Camden because it’s a family friendly region and reminds her so much of Helensburgh
  • She noted that there are 135,000 residents in Camden, 600 staff in Council, more than 100 services are provided, 39,600 dwellings, 23% born overseas, 51% have mortgages and there are more than 10,000 businesses in the LGA.
  • Visualize what you want in detail and focus on it.

General Manager Andrew Carfield spoke about

$170m awarded to Camden by State Government

$130m of that is the West Invest Program

Council has 4m bins

33,000 new resident over the last 5 years.

$1b special infrastructure program over the next 4 years

Medium age of residents is 33 years it’s a young population

$1b in building approvals

33 days DA average time

Spoke about different areas ORAN PARK, CAMDEN, GREGORY HILLS, SMEATON GRANGE AND LEPPINGTON details of these developments can be found on the Camden Council website.

Q&A segment – Roland Blackstone

Questions were raised on registration and asked of the GM

Small thank you gifts were given to the Mayor and GM by Roland and Rachel

Lucky Door Prize

Narellan Chamber Lucky Door Prize won by Melissa Care

  • Coutts Legal Lucky Door Prize won by David Johnson- Finance for Growth

Closing Remarks – Anne Parnham

Anne thanked our Sponsors

Gold

Greenfields, Narellan Town Centre, Carrington Care, Marsden’s Law Group and Menangle Country Club

Silver

Kelly Partners, Coutts Legal, Invictus X, Gregory Hills Hotel, Wests Leagues Club, Fusion Shutters, Kinetic Health, Office Builders, Access Law and Sydney Drafting

Bronze

Grimes Financial, Macarthur Ladies Funerals, Century 21, Pestgo, Sydney Web and Tech, and Guardian Funerals and thanked Sue-Ann Collings for her continued attendance and support of the Chamber while representing Guardian Funerals and we wish her well in retirement but we will miss her support.

In-Kind

  • Handprint Photography – Kylie Lyons
  • Brick Studios – Daniel Fenech
  • Alpha IT – Garth Lewis
  • Tony Wolf and Sons Printing – Ian Wolf
  • Hamper Culture – Peta Borg
  • Private Drivers Online – Tony Bonano

The next meeting will be May 8th with “The Perfect Pitch” guru Sarah Bauling presenting at Woodlands at Harrington Grove.

There being no further business, the meeting was closed at 8:40 PM with more networking done until 9.10PM.