The fifth Annual General Meeting (AGM) (2022) for Fair Canberra Inc was held on 19 November 2022 in the Hall Room of the Gungahlin Uniting Church and Community Centre, Gungahlin Town Centre.
According to the Fair Canberra Inc Constitution, office bearers and executive committee members are elected every two years (the 2020 AGM was the last election meeting) – new executive committee members and office bearers were elected at this AGM (19 November 2022).
The 2022 AGM provided an opportunity for members to reflect on the limited number of activities and programs undertaken by Fair Canberra Inc during the 2021-22 reporting year.
At the AGM the departing President (Mr Nic Manikis) highlighted the following activities undertaken by Fair Canberra Inc in 2021-22:
a. conducted the fourth Annual General Meeting on 19 February 2022 (deferred from November 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions) and held elections for office bearers and other executive committee members;
b. the successful staging of the ‘Cyber Safety Seminar’ for parents from multicultural and Indigenous communities. The seminar was conducted on 26 June 2022 at the Lake Ginninderra College Auditorium Belconnen.
Approximately 75 registered parents attended the seminar which was jointly organised by Fair Canberra Inc and the Research Cluster of Digital Inequality and Social Change (RCDISC) from the University of Canberra, supported by the ACT Government and the ACT Language Schools Association.
c. Sabrina Melo and Daisy Matsika (Executive Committee members Fair Canberra Inc) delivered an excellent presentation to the First International Symposium on Digital Inequality and Social Change held at the University of Canberra on 28-29 March 2022. The presentation provided the audience with a brief contextual talk about the
work undertaken by Fair Canberra Inc before outlining a more detailed account on four technology based initiatives that have an impact on the well-being of three cohorts in our community – people living on the streets, senior Canberrans who wish to learn to navigate access to online access to services, and parents of children with
access to internet wanting to know how to protect them from online abuse and other undesirable actions over the internet.
d. At the AGM, the President outlined the range of members’ cultural activities supported by Fair Canberra Inc through the provision of promotion and funds:
Africa in the Park on 23 April 2022
60 th Anniversary celebrations of the local Samoan community
Tongan Tsunami Relief Effort
The President also outlined some activities for the remainder of 2022 and into 2023.
At the conclusion of the AGM the meeting was handed over to Mr Kanti Jinna OAM, Chair of the election committee, who described the process that was put in place to ensure that every member had an opportunity to nominate or be nominated for the vacant Executive Committee positions, including for Office Bearers.
Mr Jinna informed members that the election committee had received nominations for one person for each of the vacant Office Bearer positions and five additional nominations for the vacant positions by the due date.
Mr Jinna read out the names of those nominated as follows:
Office Bearers:
President: Dr Krishna Nadimpalli OAM
Vice President: Toa Takiari
Treasurer: Nim Osborne
Secretary: Kofi Osei Bonsu
Executive Committee Members:
Sabrina Melo
Daisy Matsika
Prasonjit Dastidar
Sohail Khan
Emie Jiang
In addition, as per the Constitution, Mr Jinna acknowledged Mr Nic Manikis (Founder &; Inaugural President Fair Canberra Inc) as an ex-officio member of the Executive Committee.
Borhan Ahmed (founding Member & former Treasurer) was appointed as the Public Officer for Fair Canberra Inc for the period 2022-2024. Dr Ahmed Imran was appointed as Chair, Advocacy, Strategic Policy and Program Sub Committee.
