Latest News from the Friends
Find out about news at the Friends of Kings Park.
Read on for an update on our return to in-person Plant Sales, the 2020 Festival Address and our 2021 Calendar now on sale!
President’s Report
Volunteer activities in the Park are now pretty much back to normal, albeit with some changes to work schedules to satisfy social/spatial distancing requirements.
Our online plant sale in late July was a great success. We sold over 1,600 plants, yielding around $12,000 in net revenue. These were plants that needed to be sold at that time and would not have survived or been suitable for sale in September. The online sale was well-received; 61 of the 62 respondents to a survey of those who bought the plants said they would buy online again if the occasion arose. Although, hopefully, most future sales will be on-site rather than online.
We have been very fortunate that membership numbers have held up well throughout the coronavirus crisis. Thank you all for your support. Membership stood at 1052 on 4 August 2020, compared to 981 members at the same time last year. Furthermore, as mentioned in previous reports, financial assistance from the Commonwealth Government (via JobKeeper and the Business Cash Flow Boost scheme) and from Lotterywest (courtesy of their Event Cancellation Relief scheme) have kept us in a sound financial position throughout the crisis.
Our survey of members in July provided very useful feedback on the activities and direction of the Friends of Kings Park. The response rate was fairly good (almost 30% of members).
There were many very complimentary remarks (particularly about our For People and Plants magazine), as well as suggestions for improvement. The Management Committee will be discussing the results of this survey at our meeting next week and considering implementing some of the suggestions.
Our schedule of events (talks and presentations) has been severely disrupted this year, due largely to social distancing requirements. However, plans are underway to resume our programme of events. We are also looking at expanding the scope and variety of other benefits provided to FoKP members.
The Growing Friends have been busy in the nursery. We will be resuming our on-site plant sales, starting with a half-day sale on the morning of Sunday, September 20. We expect to have significantly fewer plants for sale than normal for a September sale – we’ll probably only have about 5,000 – which is understandable given the limited time that we have had to propagate and grow the plants.
Just a reminder that our AGM is coming up in October and we’ll be calling for a new committee to serve from October 2020 to October 2022. Some members of the Management Committee are planning to nominate for another term of office; so we are likely to have some continuity of membership. However, we are also keen to hear from prospective new members who could bring a fresh perspective and new ideas to the committee’s deliberations. We would like to meet anyone interested in nominating to be on the committee (or to be an office-bearer) well in advance of October. Nominations will be called for in due course.
Ian Kerr
7 August 2020