Committee -2008
President: Dr Harry Cohen Vice-President: Sandra Cotton Treasurer: Meg Durston
Minute Secretary: Alison White Committee Members: Karen Treanor, John White, Frank Calabrese,
Myrna Tonkinson, Lindsay Smith.
An important date for your diary!
Sunday 19th October: FABC (WA) Annual General Meeting. Details to come.
President’s Report:
In the last edition of FABC (WA) Update, I expressed cautious hope that the election of the new Federal Government might mean better times for the ABC. So far it’s a bit of a mixed bag: no additional funding for the ABC in the May Federal Budget, but a commitment to a more open and transparent process of appointing members of the ABC board. This means that we must keep up the pressure; keep writing letters and making representations to Federal MPs and the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator the Hon. Stephen Conroy, in support of our ABC. Your Committee has accepted an invitation to set up a stall at the State Conference of the ALP. We felt this was a good opportunity to promote the ABC and FABC. Members of our group will staff the stall and make available copies of our information kit that includes the leaflet ‘Speak Out for Your ABC’, information on letter-writing, facts about the ABC. Membership forms will also be available. Elsewhere in this Update you will find a report on the very successful luncheon held on Saturday May 10, with guest speaker, Dr Norman Swan.
There’s also a report on the FABC and the Australia 2020 summit. The efforts of the two delegates who attended on our behalf have been acknowledged by offering them a year’s subscription to FABC (WA).
We hope to see as many members of FABC (WA) as possible at our next film afternoon on the 3rd of August (details overleaf).
Harry Cohen
NEW POSTAL ADDRESS FOR THE FABC (WA):
The FABC (WA) has a new postal address and will be changing from the Darlington box over the next few months. The Darlington box was commenced some years ago when a number of then committee members lived in the Hills area. Since then the committee demographic has changed and most now live in the Western Suburbs. We have had to rely on the kindness of former committee members to clear the Darlington box and re-address mail. We will have to continue to impose upon them to continue this task until after the AGM, when we can organise altered stationery and make general change of address advice. However we wish to thank the Hills members for the great job that they have undertaken in sorting the mail for us. The new address is:
FRIENDS OF THE ABC
PO Box 534
Subiaco WA 6904
Please address any correspondence to the new address from now on. Thank you.
LUNCHEON WITH DR. NORMAN SWAN
The FABC luncheon with Norman Swan at the University Club of WA on Saturday, 10th May, was a great success. Sixty people attended despite rain and blustery conditions, and all enjoyed the chance to meet and socialise with other members, as well as listen to the guest speaker. The venue of the UWA Club was lovely, giving a comfortable setting and views out over Matilda Bay.
Norman has a lot of fans among the Friends, but his address was one of the best speeches I have heard. It was humorous, informative and gave insights into how he thought that the Friends could best help the ABC. His anecdotes about his life, and his time at the ABC, were priceless.
He considers that Radio National and FM Radio most follow the ABC Charter, in that both contribute to a sense of national identity and reflect the cultural diversity of Australia. Both stations also encourage and promote the musical, dramatic and performing arts in the country, and contribute to the education of its citizens.
Sadly we forgot to take photographs, which is an indication of how much we enjoyed ourselves.
Film Afternoon:
Time & Date: 1.30 pm Sunday 3rd August, 2008, At the Windsor Theatre, 98 Stirling Highway, Nedlands.
A pleasant afternoon tea with friends and family, then at 2.30pm enjoy the film:
“How About You” starring Vanessa Redgrave: Imelda Staunton: Brenda
Fricker: Hayley Atwell: Joss Ackland. From the producers of My Left Foot and My Beautiful Laundrette. Featuring music by Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and Bobby Darin.“Charming….heartwarming……hilarious. Vanessa Redgrave is superb” (FILM IRELAND)
Entry: $12.00
FABC and the Australia 2020 summit. (April 2008)
FABCs across Australia recognised that the Australia 2020 summit presented a valuable opportunity to actively lobby for the ABC. Various states prepared formal submissions to a range of the topic groups, including Creative Australia and Australian Governance. Western Australia supported these submissions. The Western Australian branch of FABC also directly lobbied local delegates to the summit. They did this by alerting delegates where their particular topic had been in receipt of a formal submission by FABC. Contact was also made with delegates for the Rural Australia summit as we are particularly mindful of the significance of the ABC to Australians living outside the major population centres. We were heartened by the responses of in particular Mrs Mary Nenke from the Rural Australia topic group, and Ms Sheila Magadza who attended the Creative Australia topic group. Both these significant West Australians are now very much more aware of the FABC. We hope to actively engage them and other 2020 delegates in the work of the FABC in our future endeavours. Any members who are interested to follow up on the relevant proceedings can do so by using the following web address: www.australia2020.gov.au.
Friends Email Contact List
FABCWA is trying to establish an email contact list of members. Currently the only way we have of contacting and informing members is via the newsletter - ‘Update’ - which is only published periodically. With an email contact list, we will be able to inform and contact members on email when necessary. If you would like your email address to be on the list, please send it to (this is the Secretary Alison White’s address) jaandal@bigpond.net.au with the Subject line marked. FABCWA email list.