BentART held its AGM and a short Extraordinary General Meeting on 24 September, 2011 at the Alexandra Hotel at Leura. A number of members attended and bentART was fortunate to again have the services of Councillor Janet Mays as returning officer for the election of Office Bearers at the AGM.

The Committee wishes to again thank the Blackburn family for their ongoing support of the GLBTI community in the Blue Mountains and in particular for the provision of the venue and supply of the delicious nibbles at the conclusion of the meeting.

The purpose of the short Extraordinary General Meeting was to adopt a new Constitution. The Associations Incorporation Act 2009 (“the Act”) and the Associations Incorporation Regulation 2009 (“the Regulation”) became law in 2010 replacing an older Act.

Bent Art was incorporated in 2009 under the old Act but had not yet formally
adopted a Constitution as required under the legislation. The new legislation has a Model Constitution, which bentART is at liberty to adopt as is, or with amendments. The Committee recommended to the membership that they adopt the Model Constitution with five amendments. These are as follows:
1. to allow proxy voting at meetings
2. to increase the size of committee members to eleven
3. to include a mission statement for bentART
4. a clause about the not for profit status of bentART
5. and finally a clause about what to do with bentART assets in the case of the association being wound up.

In order to adopt a Constitution, the membership of Bent Art had to pass a special resolution. This was done and, once formal approval from the Director General of the Department of Fair Trading is received, the new Constitution will be placed on the website.

The Extraordinary General Meeting was then closed and Julie Martin opened the Annual General Meeting for the 2010-2011 Financial Year, welcoming all members present and stating a Welcome to Country on behalf of all members of bentART.

After the usual formalities were completed, and the Minutes, Financial Report and President’s Report were accepted, Janet Mays called for nominations for the Committee. Two of the longest standing committee members have stood down this year, Julie Martin and Jocelyn Street. On behalf of all of the membership of bentART, Janet asked that the meeting acknowledge all the hard work and commitment of both Julie, retiring President and Jocelyn, retiring Treasurer.

As there was only one nomination for each position on the Committee, Janet anounced that all nominees were declared elected to the various roles.

The new committee members are as follows:
President, Sharryn Ryan; Vice-President, Mark Higginson; Secretary, Michelle Drage; Treasurer, Gill Green; Committee Member, Phil Shipton; Committee Member, Tony Ward; Committee Member, Judith Dunbar. Bios of the new addi-tions to the Committee will be on the website soon. All new members were welcomed to the Committee and Julie and Jos were thanked again for their work in the past and offered to be around to provide support and information to the new Committee.

Its going to be another great exhibition, so start thinking about what you will enter in 2012.

Sharryn Ryan
President

View the winning entries for bentART 2011 here.