Transcript from 7.30 (report) re Maleny dairy farmer.
Wow Barrelnut, we agree on something! Good on us!
Not to bore everyone I am keen to follow this with some thoughts re the slow food movement a bit later on.
Play2Win, we have only achieved what we have because Montville has a Village Assoication. We meet once a month, residents, reps from the local primary school, the Care Cottage (nursing home) the man (whose name escapes me now) who looks after the Masonic Lodge, the Woodies (Woodworkers) tennis/tabletennis club, the local bushfire brigade, you name you're invited. We have a President, Secretary, Treasurer who we all take turns at doing every couple of years or so. The only way to engender community is to bring people together in a place where they can embrace the abundance of generosity of spirit and place we have to offer. The Village Association owns the Village Hall and the Village Green (we recently had it Heritage listed), and was gifted a thirty acre plot of land behind the main street years ago. We now have a robust volunteer group, supported by the local schoolkids, and a couple of landcare organisations, endeavouring to turn it into a rainforest. We are also the Trustees of the Montville Sports Ground which is about 10 acres and houses the tennis club, the soccer ground and the Woodies workshop. So you could say we have a lot to talk about at our meetings. The flip side of such largesse is that because none of our assets are Council owned entities, we have fund the repairs, maintenance, PUBLIC LIABILITY...... insurance etc. Public liability is in caps because it is so bloody expensive. So we have a few fund-raising events that usually involve the school population as well. We used to have a lot of raffles etc which everyone hated doing (we all bought the books ourselves) however, about 12 months ago we started a monthly farmers market and the proceeds seem to be meeting the public liability/insurance bills nicely. We make most of our money at the pancake breakfasts the school p&c provides and everyone loves the kids being professional waiters/waitresses....wait... being the case sometimes as they interrupt your order to do an impromptu helicopter whiz around the hall. But is is fun for all. Montville Coffee, a local online coffee supplier/processor donates all of the proceeds from their coffee stall for the morning (they train local youths to be baristas on these mornings). The kids from the school also sell produce from their permaculture garden. They do well as all the oldies - local and tourists - can't walk past without buying something from them. And it does help if you have someone who is fey with the writing of grant application forms!
