Notice of the 2021 Canberra Art Workshop Annual General Meeting

2021 President’s Report

 Amanda Adrian, President, October 2021

Membership

CAW currently has approximately 250 members. The extension to membership granted last year to compensate for the reduced services being able to be offered during the pandemic has been much appreciated.

Art Groups and Convenors

Events

The CAW Events Team have had to adopt the principles of flexibility, agility, good humour and optimism this year as our careful planning and scheduling has constantly needed to be changed!
Workshops, Art Groups, Courses and Exhibitions have all been affected and required rescheduling where possible or, sadly in some cases cancelling.

CAW Events Team

• Prue Power – Coordinator
• Sallie Saunders
• Paulina Piira
• Amanda Adrian
Our thanks go to Julie Spencer who has been on the Events Team for a number of years and resigned during this year. Also our gratitude is acknowledged to Prue Power who has had the unenviable task of managing the scheduling and re-scheduling of workshops and courses this year and last year during the lockdown periods.

Graphic Designer

The colourful and delightful CAW posters and exhibition catalogues are the work of the very
talented volunteers, graphic designers Glenda Wakeham (now resigned) and Carolyn Brooks (new
to the team in 2021). Thanks to both of them for their professional and creative work!

Art Groups and Convenors

I particularly want to extend great thanks to all Convenors who have striven to keep their groups on track and informed of the constantly changing landscape.
We missed the usually enjoyable annual get together where we have a chance to thank you in person, but the Art Groups have all had strong attendances while they could be held; and as you will see from the table above, five have ventured into the Zoom zone for life drawing and portraiture with models and experimental.
Our great thanks to the models and to Michael Creagh who coordinates their recruitment, induction and management. We now have developed policy for convenors and members using models to ensure privacy and respect of the models is maintained at all times.

Workshops 2021
As always, the Events Team scheduled a wonderful array of professional artists to conduct workshops for the CAW.
Workshops to be tutored by Chan Dissanayake, Anne-France Fulgence, Chelsea Lehman and Ann Rayment have had to be postponed, once the ACT COVID-19 lockdown was called in August. Thanks to the CAW members who coordinated each of these.

Courses

This year we have renamed the tutored groups to ‘courses’. These are generally conducted by CAW members and a number have been and will be conducted before and after lockup.
Unfortunately, we have missed out on a whole term due to 2021 lockdowns. I want to express our great thanks to the following Course Coordinators:
• Rick Cochrane
• Kate Scott
• Leigh Walker

CAW Exhibitions

Exhibition Team
• Rick Cochrane
• Jill Mail
• Francis Johnson
• Amanda Adrian

On Show 2021 Exhibition

The CAW On Show 2021 Exhibition took place from Saturday 17 April to Monday 24 May 2021 and was held at the Link Ginninderry, adjacent to Strathnairn Arts Association.
Our thanks to the remarkable Ilona Lasmanis who curated this two part exhibition; and to Berend Kraak who was on hand to professionally hang the exhibition for us with the assistance of the Exhibition Team.

Testamur 3 2021 Exhibition

The Testamur 3 2021 Exhibition was to take place from Friday 13 August to Sunday 29 August 2021 and was successfully hung at M16 Artspace but was not opened as the ACT COVID-19 lockdown occurred the day the opening was to have been held; though a digital exhibition has been available.
It is hoped that the Exhibition may be open to visit in person for a short time if the lockdown is over as mooted, at the end of October.
Once again our thanks go to Ilona Lasmanis who curated this exhibition; and to Berend Kraak and CAW member Francis Johnson who professionally hung the exhibition.

Hush Competition

Eighteen CAW artist/members took up the challenge to design a CD cover for a music CD being compiled by prominent musicians for mothers and children in hospital. It was an exciting initiative for CAW to be involved with the Hush Foundation, which raises money for hospitals through sales of its CDs. We congratulate Carolyn Brooks for her winning design.

The CAW Studio

The improvements to the CAW Studio reported on in Annual Report last year – kitchen, storage, library, printing cupboard and change space for models are being enjoyed by all members (when the studio is open). This year, the flooring has been replaced. This means the health and safety risks have diminished significantly. We are also employing a cleaner weekly which has reduced the
burden for members.
Our thanks to Dennis Bentley, Rick Cochrane, Jill Mail and Prue Power for all their hard work. Jill Mail is the CAW Studio Officer and has continued to liaise with the M16 team in relation to all repairs, maintenance and replacement – thank you Jill.

CAW Library

Our thanks to Dennis Bentley who has brought the CAW Library up to a much higher standard for members. A thoughtful investment in new editions provides members with a much wider range of resources to explore.
Website developments This year, the CAW Board has committed to investing in significant improvements to the CAW website to improve accessibility for members and the community and to enable one-stop-shop financial transactions for all CAW activities – membership, Art Groups, Courses, Workshops and Exhibition Entries. The aim is for all payments to come in through the website to improve accountability and efficiency; and reduce the burden for Convenors, Membership Coordinator and Treasurer in the money handling.
While there have been early difficulties and glitches, the goal has been achieved!
Our great thanks goes to Chris Gray who has supported CAW over the past years in setting up a wonderful resource centre for the CAW; and now we see the value of future proofing it and making it even better.
We are working with a new organisation (OPF) making the changes and improvements and I wish to acknowledge the enormous investment of time by Prue Power, Sallie Saunders, Peter Pickernell, Richard Heaney and Paulina Piira in making this happen – thank you team!

Communications

With the Website improvements we are also working on further developing our overall communications strategy – we already have regular Newsletters; occasional blogs on the website and our social media, however there is a need to improve this and integrate it into a rational plan.

Social Media

Our thanks to Michael Creagh for managing the CAW social media Face Book and Instagram. At times it has been challenging for him as he is dependent on input from members, so hopefully we can assist him better in the future by providing him with a richer array of material to post. There is much talent within CAW and we need to show it to the world.

Newsletter

Sallie Saunders has taken over the management of the Newsletter from Prue Power. This has been an important conduit for information going out to members, particularly over this unsettled time and I want to acknowledge their contribution.

Finances

The Financial Reports for CAW are comprehensive and self-explanatory. However, I do want to express my thanks to the Finance and Membership Teams – Richard Heaney, Prue Power and Paulina Piira with the able assistance and scrutiny of our Keeper of the Books, Richard Cobden and our Reviewer, Sharon Sidhu.
An application for charity status has been submitted to the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission. This may provide CAW with some financial support; and the outcome of this submission will be reported next year. Thanks to Richard Heaney and Sallie Saunders who have invested an enormous amount in preparing this application.

Inaugral Mavis Hall Trust Grant

The end of August brought CAW six applications for the first ever Mavis Hall  Trust Grant. Mavis Hall was a longstanding and active member of CAW. She died on 29 July 2017 and named CAW as one of the beneficiaries of her estate. The CAW Trust, set up to administer the scholarship, must use the interest generated from the capital for payment of the scholarship.
Thanks to Prue Power for organising the selection process; and our thanks also go to Roger Beale, Ilona Lasmanis and Kerry McInnis who made up the 2021 independent selection panel. These judges also provided us with important feedback on how the application information and process can be improved in the future.
Our thanks to the six applicants who provided detailed and carefully considered applications.  The value of this first grant is $2,000 and the successful applicant will be announced at AGM

CAW Board

There has been some movement of members of the Board this year; the most notable of which was the resignation of Rick Cochrane, the long-time CAW President.  I want to take this opportunity to convey my sincere thanks to Rick for his long term and continuing commitment to CAW; his leadership; his ‘can do’ attitude; and his good humour, despite all challenges.
We have welcomed Paulina Piira and Peter Pickernell onto the Board to fill several vacancies; and already they are making a significant difference in sharing the load of CAW work.
So my thanks also go to the current Board in run up to AGM:
• Jill Mail – Life Member, Vice President, Exhibition Team member and Studio Officer
• Sallie Saunders – Secretary, Public Officer and Events Team member
• Richard Heaney – Treasurer, Mavis Hall Trustee
• Prue Power – Life Member, Events Team Coordinator, Mavis Hall Trust Trustee and CAW achiever across many other aspects of CAW business
• Kishwar Rahman – Communications
• Peter Pickernell – Website Liaison
• Paulina Piira – Membership Coordinator, Events Team Member
• Amanda Adrian – President, Events Team and Exhibition Team member, Mavis Hall Trust Trustee.

CAW Board Governance Charter

The CAW Board Governance Charter was reviewed and updated recently and I urge all Board members and CAW members to check it out. My thanks to Sallie Saunders for undertaking the coordination of this review, it has been a major and important task.
In the meantime I am including the CAW Code of Ethics for you information:
The Board is committed to the adoption of ethical conduct in all areas of its responsibilities and authority. Directors will:
• act honestly and in good faith at all times in the best interests of the CAW
• declare all interests that could result in a conflict between personal and organisational priorities
• exercise diligence and care in fulfilling the functions of office
• make reasonable enquiries to ensure that the CAW is operating efficiently, effectively, legally and ethically in the pursuit of its corporate goals and strategies
• maintain sufficient knowledge of the CAW’s business and performance to make informed decisions
• prevent the CAW incurring obligations which they believe cannot be met
• attend Board meetings and devote sufficient time to their preparation to allow for full and appropriate participation in the Board’s decision making
• ensure scrupulous avoidance of deception, unethical practice or any other behaviour that is, or might be construed as, less than honourable or lawful in the pursuit of the business of the CAW
• not disclose to any other person confidential information other than as agreed by the Board or as required under law
• act in accordance with their fiduciary duties, complying with the spirit as well as the letter of the law, recognising both the legal and moral duties of the role
• not make or be associated with any public criticism or statement having or designed to have an effect prejudicial to the best interests of the CAW
• ensure that all Directors are treated on an equitable basis
• meet its responsibility to ensure that all personnel working/volunteering with CAW are treated with due respect
• carry out its meetings in such a manner as to ensure fair and full participation of all participants.