Out-going Presidents Report.

Proo Pyke September 2007

Members have been involved in a wide variety of activities this year. Starting with the annual Ptilotus count, I think all of us were surprised to find any, given the extraordinarily dry conditions.

This was followed by the enormously successful Beyond Smoke Festival thanks to the very hard work of two of our members, Margo and David.

There have been several very enjoyable threatened species activities despite some inclement weather and rather varied success in finding the sought – for species. So, thanks to Sylvia for organising these.

The “Thin Green Line” film night was successful and raised around $150 to support rangers injured in their line of work across the world.

We have had several information sessions; weed spotting, the fire operations plan 07/08 and research into the fire response of grass trees in the Mount Zero area. We were also invited to make a presentation to the Parliamentary Enquiry into Bush Fires, which Margo and I duly attended with some trepidation. We seemed to be well received and felt the points we made were listened to.

The printing of our new membership brochure was exciting and hope it will attract some new members to the group. Thanks to Frank, we now have a very friendly to use Web Site which we hope members will become familiar with, and that it will become an important means of communicating within the group.

Stan generously agreed to become President of FOGG at our AGM and I wish him as much enjoyment as I had in the position. We all agreed at the meeting that it was important for the health of the group that the positions of responsibility are shared around. So we hope members will consider seriously offering to take on the positions of treasurer, secretary or newsletter editor next year. We try to ensure these jobs are not too onerous and it is a good way to get to know and influence the work of FOGG.

I’m very pleased to report that Graham has been given funding to appoint a team of ten to continue work on restoring tracks in the park and that he is fairly confident that it will be possible to do the restoration work necessary for the Red Gum Walk during the year 2008.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone for their help and support over the last two years, especially Kathy , Margo, Dot and Stan.