All paid-up members and life-members are invited to attend the Australian Association of Hong Kong Annual General Meeting 2024.
Tuesday 25 June, 2024.
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: Ryder Diamonds office, 9Fl Kimley Commercial Building, 142 Queen's Rd, Central.
All paid-up members are welcome to nominate to join the management Committee for the next year 2024-2025. Nominations sent to: vicepresident@ozhongkong.com ; president@ozhongkong.com
Follow this link to join the OZHK WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/JCGixFxluSEFwFofZceb4X
Notice and Agenda:
Australian Association of Hong Kong Ltd
Notice of the Annual General Meeting for 2024/2025
Tuesday 25 June 2024. 6.30p.m.
Venue: Office of Ryder Diamonds, 9Fl Kimley Commercial Building, 142 Queen’s Rd, Central. HK.
All members are invited to attend in person.
Nominations for Officers and Committee membership are welcome by email to:
Attendee registration from 6.15p.m.
A quorum of ten active members being present is required for the AGM.
Please indicate your intention to attend the meeting – Email: vicepresident@ozhongkong.com
Agenda
1.1 Welcome
1.2 Report – President, Ivy Wong Stephens
1.3 Finance Report 2023 – Treasurer, Anthony Burling
1.4 Membership report – Membership Chair, Amy Overy
1.5 Resignation of current Officers and Committee
1.6 Approve Minutes of previous AGM
1.7 Approve Financial Statements for 2023/2024
1.8 Approve the auditor for 2024/2025
1.9 Elect the Officers and Committee for 2024/2025
2.0 Close of business
Current 2023/2024 Australian Association of Hong Kong Ltd Committee
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Ivy Wong Stevens – President
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Sally Ryder
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Howard West – Vice President
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Matthew Jones (Sports Chair)
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Anthony Burling – Treasurer
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Yvette Guerin
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Amy Overy (Membership Chair)
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Joanna Hartnett
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Nicholas Ng
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Brigitte McNamara
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Matthew Hooper
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AJ Dyka
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Yamilette Cano
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Johnny Yuen
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Minutes recorded by t8-Consulting.com
After the AGM, a Social Meal will follow at Frites Belgium, 152 Queen’s Rd, Central. Please indicate your intention of joining the Frites meal, from 7.45pm, Email: vicepresident@ozhongkong.com
Minutes of Previous AGM:
AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATION of HONG KONG LTD
MINUTES OF THE 2023 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
HELD AT the offices of Ryder Diamonds Office, (Office of Ryder Diamonds, 9F, Kimley Commercial Building, 142 Queen’s Rd, Central. HK.),
6.30 PM ON WEDNESDAY 21 NOVEMBER 2023
In attendance - General Committee
- 1. President – Ivy Wong Stephens
- 2. Vice President – Howard West
- 3. Treasurer – Anthony Burling
- 4. Amy Overy – Membership Chair (Associate member)
- 5. Matthew Hooper
- 6. Sally Ryder
- 7. Yvette Guerin
- 8. Joanna Hartnett
Committee Attendance on Zoom:
- 9. Matthew Jones – Sports Chair
- 10. Johnny Yuen (Associate member)
- 11. AJ Dyka
- 12. Nicholas Ng (Associate member)
Members in Person:
- 13. Robert Hartnett
- 14. Daphne-Rae West
- 15. Lynda Lee (Associate member)
- 16. Stewart Leckie
An Apology - General Committee
- 17. Yamilet Cano (Associate member)
- 18. Brigitte McNamara
1 Welcome
The Vice President of the Australian Association Limited, Howard West, welcomed members to the 2023 Annual General Meeting and, declaring a quorum of which 10 active members must be present, called the meeting to order at 18:35 and passed over to the President.
The President referred to the notice convening the meeting distributed at least 21 days prior to the date of the meeting.
2 President Report
The president acknowledged all the hard-working volunteers for their work over a difficult 2022 year.
Going forward reference to the Australian Association of Hong Kong as OZHK.
Acknowledgement for the outgoing President - Ex-Officio, Gavin McDougall, giving extensive contributions to OZHK since 2003 and the President felt honoured to step into the role as President in January 2022, after being in the general committee from 2005 and serving as Vice President from 2013 to January 2022.
Acknowledgement to the 2022 committee, for making the transition to President a smooth one, but also for the invaluable emotional support whilst in Australia, with special acknowledgments to:
i. Anthony Burling – Treasurer
ii. Brigitte McNamara – Vice President & Acting Secretary
iii. Joanna Hartnett – Events Chair
iv. Amy Overy – Membership Chair
Further, thanks went to the President – Ex Officio, Gavin McDougall, for his ongoing mentorship and advice.
a. Acknowledgements
The President took the opportunity to make a very special acknowledgment to Joan Leong. Born in Sydney, and having spent more than four decades living in Hong Kong, Joan Leong, an Australian Association of Hong Kong Honorary Life Member, marked her 100th birthday on Monday 10 May, 2021.
Devoting decades of voluntary unpaid service to the Australian Association of Hong Kong, which is also one of AISHK’s Founding Associations, Joan was the Association’s first female President in the 1980s, was one of its earliest Life Honorary Members, and remains its longest-serving committee member, retiring in only 2020.
To celebrate this centenary, Australian Association of Hong Kong together with Australian International School Hong Kong, announced the creation of the Joan Leong Australian Association Community Service Award.
This award will be presented each year to the student who shows commitment to volunteering in community service and will be a most fitting way to honour Joan’s life-long commitment to volunteerism.
b. Meetings and Events
- The President reported that despite Social Distancing Restrictions, representations were made at the:
- · 2022 Anzac Day attendance at the Cenotaph and AISHK,
- · Bimonthly attendance of the Support Australia Group (SAG) meetings hosted by the Consul-General Elizabeth Ward
- Slowly, the re-introduction of our regular events began in the second half of 2022 and a short but sweet events season for OZHK was resumed in November 2022, with the two successful events managed by Joanna Hartnett and Amy Overy:
- · 2022 Melbourne Cup
- · 2022 Christmas Party success at the Consul General’s residence.
Lastly, having had the pleasure of presenting the 2022 Joan Leong Community Service Award in person at AISHK, which was inaugurated in the year.
2.3 Achievements of 2022
- The President reported the continued commitment of the Annual Partnership with ODIN Mortgages, despite COVID challenges, and the successful reboot of the online Kanga News and social media under the management of Amy Overy.
After much consultation with members, the committee planned to go ahead in 2023 to invest in an OZHK website redevelopment.
2.4 Goals and Thank You
- The president concluded regarding the excitement to be working with the committee and to continue to uphold the ethos of why OZHK was first established in 1954. Our goals include and are not limited to:
- · re-boot after COVID,
- · look at opportunities to promote OZHK,
- · find ways to retain our current members and building up with new members,
- · being a Great Mate in Hong Kong
3 Approval of Finance Report 2022
- The President thanked Anthony for his excellent and accurate work in maintaining the accounts plus the associated arrangements for their auditing.
The Treasurer, Anthony Burling, gave the financial report update for 2022. The Financial Statement was proposed by Anthony Burling and seconded by Sally Ryder and were hereby approved by and adopted.
4 Membership Report
Amy Overy reported that Ordinary membership has gone up and in 2022 and a fee adjustment was made to $300 from $600 for membership and is due to be reviewed at the next Committee meeting.
It was acknowledged that Amy cleaned up the database and helped clear up the digital space on Wild Apricot.
5 Resignation of Current Officers and Committee
- The President announced that all committee members shall now retire from office and are eligible for re-election during this, or any subsequent AGM. The current committee are willing to be nominated for election in this current AGMs voting process.
6 Approval of Previous AGM Minutes
Copies of the Minutes for the AGM held on Wednesday, 21 November 2023 were provided on the Association website for information in the interest of environmental friendliness. The President invited questions or comments on the Minutes. There were none.
The President proposed that the Minutes for the AGM 2023 be and were hereby approved by and adopted.
Minutes were proposed by Joanna Hartnett and seconded by Anthony Burling. On a show of hands, the motion was carried.
7 Approval of Financial Statement
The financial statements for the year ending 31 December 22022 were submitted by Anthony Burling.
The financial statements were proposed by Anthony Burling and seconded by Sally Ryder.
On a show of hands, the motion was carried.
8 Approval of Auditor for 2023
For the appointment of auditors for the 2023 financial year, it was recommended that Sleek CPA Hong Kong Limited be reappointed as auditors of Australian Association of Hong Kong Limited.
This was proposed by Matthew Hooper and seconded by Anthony Burling.
The appointment of Sleek was confirmed with a show of hands, the motion was carried.
9 Election of the officers and committee for 2023/2024
The nominations for Office Bearers from standing committee members are:
- 1. President: Ivy Wong Stephens
- 2. Vice-President: Howard West
- 3. Treasurer: Anthony Burling
- Secretary: No nomination
Nominations for the general Committee members from standing committee members are:
- 1. Amy Overy
- 2. Matthew Hooper
- 3. Nicholas Ng
- 4. Sally Ryder
- 5. Matthew Jones
- 6. Yvette Guerin
- 7. Brigitte McNamara
- 8. AJ Dyka
- 9. Joanna Hartnett
- 10. Johnny Yuen
- With no further nominations received and with no objections shown, the motion was carried.
Any other business
There was no other business.
Close of business
It was announced that the next AGM is to be held on 25th June 2024 and will be announced 21 days prior to the date.
There being no other business, the President then declared the Meeting closed at 18:59.
