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Journal of the Australian Native Plants Society Canberra region (Inc)

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2024 Annual Report

By Stephen Saunders, Immediate Past President

Dec, 2024

ANPSC is one of eight state-territory members of ANPSA. We are a small non-profit run by volunteers, earning and spending roughly $30,000 annually. The Society’s key purposes are improving the horticulture of Australian native plants, plus preserving these plants and their habitats. Our governing Council had 8 members up to June 2024, then 9 up until the November 2024 AGM. We dipped to 8 again after the AGM, but with all five Office-Bearers in place. The Society has posted an audited surplus of just under $10,000 for 2023–24. Membership numbers are slightly down. We held two successful Plant Sales in calendar 2024, and ran a full program of Members’ Meetings, Activities Group, and Wednesday Walks.

Affiliations and Governance

  • ANPSC’s Annual Return under the ACT Associations Act is no longer required by the ACT regulator, according to advice received October 2024 (#).
  • However, a major development is that under new Tax Office provisions, we will need to investigate registering as a Charity (under federal ACNC legislation) as from 2025.
  • We held all Member Meetings for 2024, and all Council Meetings bar one.
  • Through 2024, it was still challenging to fill key positions on and off Council. However, a new President has nominated for 2025, and the 2024 Treasurer continues.
  • The Society’s roster of Offices and Jobs has been updated for 2025.
  • Retiring President attended the excellent 2024 ANPSA Biennial in Melbourne, posting a summary in Journal Articles. The next Biennial is in SA, in 2026.
    He continues in 2025, as ANPSC Vice President, also as Society’s delegate to ANPSA.

Finances

  • The Society revised its 2023 Financial Arrangements and Delegations for 2024.
  • For accounting purposes, the Society continued with its new Bookkeeper (Keep HQ) and Auditor (MGI Joyce Dickson). The 2023–24 Financial Statements have been finalised.
  • 2023–24 Society operating surplus was just under $10,000, including $3,000 Keyacris expenses. In 2022–23, the equivalent figure was about $15,000, but that includes the initial Keyacris grant of $10,000. Like for like, 2023–24 is an improved result.
  • The main income was Plant Sales (about $20,000 net, well up from 2022–23, with most coming from our Prop Group sales, the rest from Grower commissions). Memberships and Donations realised about $9,000 (slightly down), Book Sales ($7,500, well down), and Interest Received was nearly $3,000.
  • Our main spends were Website, Database and Related (near $10,000, but this includes the one-off “Online Journal” development), ANBG and Related Donations ($8,000), Accounting and Audit ($6,000), and Miscellaneous Admin ($2,000).
  • We renewed our insurance cover in 2023–24, at slightly lower cost than in 2022–23, for Association Liability, Accident to Voluntary Workers, and Public Liability.

Memberships

  • Membership fees, $35 or $18 for concession, have not changed over 2022–24. At the end of December 2024, the total Society ‘active subscriptions’ were just over 210, about 25 fewer than the corresponding figure of 12 months previous.
    This figure includes paid ordinary subscriptions, paid concessions, plus life members.
  • Subscription numbers are being noted quarterly and plotted to discern trends.
  • New members now receive a one-page flyer of membership benefits; this is also being promoted at Plant Sales. The flyer was modified, to distribute at the October ‘ANBG Friends’ Plant Sale and this version can be used at Society events generally.
  • We achieved a full book of Monthly Meetings and Speakers for 2024, promoting some of these speaker presentations as Journal Articles.
  • In 2025, the Society will look to boost activities suiting younger or working members, including if possible Weekend Walks.

Activities and Working Groups

  • In mid 2024, we successfully renewed our five-year MoU with key partner ANBG, the only minor change being that ‘Online Journal’ replaces ‘Quarterly Journal’.
  • Under the CIT agreement, Prop Group activities continued at CIT Bruce. Also, at member premises in Queanbeyan.
  • Prop Group held 15 working bees, average attendance 9 per bee, at the 2 sites. Formal volunteer time was about 430 hours, but this excludes hours for sale preparation, plant and facility maintenance, admin and record keeping. In all, 2034 small and 441 medium plants went to Sales, over calendar 2024. This was much higher than calendar 2023.
  • The Society continued its three-year $10,000 funding agreement with ACT Environment, to survey ACT populations of the Keyacris grasshopper. Roger Farrow completed and acquitted the site visits/reports for the first year.

Plant Sales

  • March 2024 Sale proceeded [as intended] as a ‘Small Sale’, offering about 3,000 plants, well down from March 2023. But it was a generally successful event, with a much higher clearance rate. Apart from Prop Group, 3 Member Growers participated.
  • October 2024 Sale was stocked by Prop Group and 7 Member Growers (##). We offered about 7,000 plants, up from October 2023, with good attendance and near-complete clearance. Wagga (ex-Canberra) Grower Paul Walker made a welcome return to the fold.
  • In June 2024, we renewed our ACT Protected/Threatened Species (TS) licence. We estimate selling 330 TS plants from 20 species over 2024–25, an increase from 2023–24.
  • Noting existing Sale bars on Cootamundra + Snowy River wattle, Council decided to ramp up the cautions in our Plant Database, on several other native species with weedy tendencies.

Wednesday Walks etc

  • Regular Wednesday Walks (WW), Daytime Activities Group (DAGS), and Field Trips, continued as scheduled in 2024. These are among key benefits of Society membership.
  • WW staged about 40 walks in 2024, average attendance 10–15 members, ranging widely around the ACT, and to NSW sites as far afield as Tianjara and Tallaganda.
  • DAGS Committee organised 9 garden visits for 2024 in ACT/NSW, average attendance 20–30 members. Southern Highlands Australian Plants Society was invited to our November visit to the Walcott Garden, 50 people in total attending.
  • There were two Field Trips, a lower number than what used to be the norm.

Website and Other Publications

Website

  • Our website’s (nativeplantscbr.com.au) main topics changed slightly in 2024, with more effort made, to renovate the currency of our articles.
  • As had been flagged, our web provider Giraffe successfully developed and implemented an online ‘Journal Articles’ system, subsuming the printed Quarterly Journal.
  • During 2024, Council decided to merge the ‘Recent Posts’ in with the ‘Journal Articles’. In December 2024, the latter location already hosts over 40 items, but it is searchable.
  • In the Plant Database, ‘Species/Cultivar’ replaced ‘Species’ as a search-field title.
  • The website still advertises our $30 Plant Book, 4th printing of 5th edition. This is our other major revenue-income source, with supplies still on hand from 2021 printing.
  • In 2023, Council had agreed to one more reprint of the existing Plant Book, but this decision was not activated in 2024.

Other Publications

  • The revised (2023) Where to Buy Native Plants in Canberra continued to be a valued asset for Plant Sales and other promotions.
  • The attractive ANPSC Bulletin (monthly, via Mailchimp) continued to be circulated online, as a vital service to members. Quarterly Journal had ceased, at the end of 2023.
  • Under a long-standing Agreement, RMIT continued to republish ANPSC materials.

Other reports under the Associations Act are as per attached.

Four growers are family, but each cultivates and operates, under separate account.

Attachment — Reports as requested, under the current Associations Act

  • Section 73 (1) (a) Association Statement of Accounts — received and circulated after AGM
  • Section 73 (1) (b) Association’s Auditor Report — received and circulated after AGM
  • These other reports under the Act were presented to the AGM of November 2024.
  • Section 73 (1) (c) (i) Council Members at end of 2023–24, and up to AGM

Stephen Saunders President, Catherine Bridges Treasurer, Garth Chamberlain Minutes Secretary, Gail Ritchie-Knight, Jeanette Jeffery, Tom Jordan, Lena Saboisky, and Glynn Shepherd (at end of 2023–24, and continuing up to AGM).

Greg Clark joined Council July 2024. Gail Ritchie-Knight and Jeanette Jeffery stepped down in November 2024.

  • Section 73 (1) (c) (ii) Principal Activities in 2023–24, and any significant Change

By our Constitution, our principal purposes are a forum for the horticulture of native plants, also improving native plants as garden subjects, plus the conservation of native plants and their habitats.

These are expressed, via our principal activities as above: member meetings, propagations and plant sales, regular walks, daytime activities and field trips, our website presence and widely used Plant Database, freely available Journal Articles and other publications.

No major activity changes during 2023–24, or up to AGM. While March 2024 Plant Sale was smaller than March 2023, October 2024 Sale was bigger than October 2023.

  • Section 73 (1) (c) (iii) Net Profit or Loss for 2023–24

As per our Financial Statements, the Surplus for 2023–24 is just under $10,000.

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