REPORT TO MEMBERS

NOVEMBER 2006- NOVEMBER 2007

NOTE:  The full Report is available to members upon request

The Combined Rotary Clubs of Whitehorse are a consortium of the Rotary Clubs of Box Hill, Box Hill Central, Forest Hill, Mitcham, Nunawading and Mont Albert & Surrey Hills which formed to operate and manage the Whitehorse Farmers’ Market. The Rotoract Club of Whitehorse is an active participant in the activities of the consortium.

All six Rotary Clubs are resident in the City of Whitehorse and assist in  a wide range of community development activities (along with support for educational, vocational and international programmes) across the municipality through a diverse range of activities. It has been determined by the clubs that all funds raised as a consequence of the management of the Whitehorse Farmers’ Market will be used to support community projects within the city.

The consortium operates under the direction of two Committees :

a)      An Executive Committee comprising the current President of each club which is responsible for entering into formal agreements and the distribution of funds; and

b)      A Management Committee which comprises representatives from each club and is responsible for the day to day management of the Market. Within this Committee there are three principal sub committees – the Vendors Sub Committee; the Logistics Sub Committee; and, the Promotion Sub Committee.

Executive Committee Membership during the past twelve months comprised :

CHAIRMAN'S REPORT

In July 2006 the Rotary Club of Box Hill Central on behalf of the six Rotary Clubs in the City of Whitehorse lodged an expression of interest with the Council to manage a proposed Famers’ Market. This was followed up by the provision of detailed responses to Council indicating the capacity of the group to manage the enterprise and our understanding of what was entailed in the project. Council officers then evaluated the various submissions before placing recommendations to Council for consideration at its meeting in September. The Council accepted a recommendation that our submission be accepted, and we were asked to proceed with establishing a market as soon as practicable.. Additionally the clubs committed to the provision of volunteers to undertake a variety of tasks including the collection of donations and an egg and bacon sandwich stall on each market day.

Promotion of the first market held on Sunday 12th November 2006 was greatly enhanced by an article in the Council’s own monthly paper the “Whitehorse News” which featured our activity, to be run in conjunction with the opening of Council’s Sustainability Week. This was supplemented by advertisements in the Leader, through the development of market bookmarks giving key dates and circulated through the Rotary Club members, and by use of an old truck dressed up with hay bales and advertising the market being driven around Whitehorse in the days preceding the market.

The first market was an outstanding success with some thirty five stallholders and an estimated three thousand members of the public visiting the site, adjacent to the Whitehorse Centre, in the period between 8.00am and 12.30pm. It was at this time that we found that the attention to detail – in the layout of the site by Mick and Don, in the organization of administrative processes for vendors by Eva and Ian, and the foresight to provide a mechanism to recycle change by Dick and Andrew, really paid off. The vendors were happy (and told other vendors at other markets, so we had a number of would be stallholders ringing us up with a view of coming to our next market!), the public were happy, the Council were happy, and so were we! The gross takings for the first market were $1120 in stallholder fees and a further $1730 in gold coin donations, to which we added $668 from the takings of the egg and bacon sandwich stall.

From that first market in November we have now developed into one of the largest farmers’ markets in Victoria with some 85 stall holders being available to the community on the second Sunday morning of each month. We have experienced a wide variety of weather conditions from fiery heat, to drenching rain. We have enjoyed the early morning starts in summertime, and shivered in the dark and cold of June and July (the first Rotary personnel on site arrive at around 5.30am!).

APPRECIATIONS:

IN PARTICULAR