March General Meeting Minutes
General Meeting
12 March 2025
Held at The Woodlands Harrington Grove
The meeting was opened at 6.40pm
Welcome & President’s Report – Roland Blackstone, President
Roland welcomed everyone to the meeting including Life Member Tony Perich AM and Cathy Perich, Life Member Adriana Care, Past President Shaun Pereira, Past President Anne Parnham, Mayor of Camden Cr Ashleigh Cagney, General Manager of Camden Council Andrew Carfield, Camden Councillors Eva Campbell, Abha Suri, Eliza Rahman, President of Wollondilly Business Chamber Pania Gregson. He also welcomed all members, and guests to the meeting.
Roland provided an update of what has happened during the past month:
- Pania Gregson being awarded Wollondilly Local Woman of the Year 2025
- The Blind Sea being released now on Netflix
- Tropical Cyclone Alfie
- ATO – under reported income “cashies omitted”, small business misunderstanding the major bonus deductions, and dodgy GST reporting
- Nissan / Honda – merger possibly back on, Nissan CEO forced to back down to get deal back
- USA – 25% tariffs on Australian steel/aluminium
Apologies
Cr Vince Ferreri – Camden Council
Membership Update – Tony Bonanno, Director Membership
New member introductions:
Clean & Green Organics
Loan Market Specialist
NR &J Consulting
Membership Challenge – welcomed visitors Jasmine Bow of JB Graphic Designs (introduced by David Johnson), and Blake Fogarty of Outstanding Installs (introduced by Geoff Ellis).
This challenge has been introduced – How do we get more people, growth plan. 5 tickets per meeting will be issued by Tony for you to bring a guest.
Sponsorship Update – Jason Haworth, Director Sponsorship
Bronze Sponsors C21 Pereira Group
What’s On – Rachel Elliott, Director Events
- 16 March Highlands Cruise
- 18 March CareFlight Movie Night
- Camden Council Grants available
- 23 March Lift the Lid Walk, Rotary Clubs of Macarthur
- 9 April Rotary Club of Gregory Hills Next-Gen Golf Day
- 21 June Lifeline Masquerade Gala
Networking Break
Speaker Presentation
Camden Mayor Cr Ashleigh Cagney and General Manager Andrew Carfield presented Advocating for Camden – The Time is Now
Q&A session
- Wendy White – Raby Road
- Working on it with other stakeholders
- Sandra Bartlett – Aged care, homeless and veterans
- Currently on exhibition for affordable housing, lobby and advocate when possible, grants
- Anne Parnham – ?$15m of Nathan Hagarty money, can we get any
- Rob Elliott – Where can community groups go to hold events and entertainment due to the growth
- In partnership with business, look at different options in addition to renovated Civic Centre, emerging spaces with Skills Australia ie new schools sport halls and carparks for afterhours use
- Tony Bonanno – passengers from the new airport, what attractions are in the planning in Camden or conference facilities
- Plent on offer – Mt Annan Botanic Gardens, historic Camden, close to CBD, hotel built before the airport, as a wider region, promoting tourism, need to get them from the airport, talk the place up
- Anne Parnham – ?Destination NSW – are they getting involved
- Need help advocating
Lucky Door Prize
Maureen Thorpe – NTC voucher
Paul O’Neill (Flagstaff Group – NTC voucher
Erin Fuller (Inglis Property Macarthur) – NTC voucher
Blake Fogarty (Outstanding Installs) – C21 Pereira Group gift
Closing Remarks – Roland Blackstone
- Roland thanked everyone for attending and especially Camden Council for tonight’s presentation.
Thank you to all the sponsors and the InKind Sponsors. - The next meeting will be on Wednesday 9th April at Camden Valley Inn with Kim Payne “Unlock The Hidden Value In Your Business”.
There being no further business, the meeting was closed at 8.35pm.