Meeting opened at 12:55 PM by President, Brian Veitch

Present: Margaret Meagher, Ray Meagher, Linda Stephens, John Mepham, Collin Murphy, George Kyros, Leo Kyros, James Thomas, Lisa Thomas, Russell Heaton, Brian Veitch.

Apologies: Kevin Gill

Quorum: There being sufficient members present to form a quorum, the meeting proceeded.

Agenda Items

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• Proposal to change accountants

• Financial position and potential to create another fixed term deposit

• Situation with existing Treasurer

• Membership drive

• POS operator training

• Regulatory requirements not being met – re Associations Statements

• Set a date for an AGM

Proposal to change accountants

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The Northampton Men’s Shed has been using the services of Jan de Brut, of the firm DCC&C Accountants, of Flores Road Geraldton. The Engagement of Mr De Brut was ostensibly through the auspices of the Treasurer, for whom he is the personal and business accountant. To our knowledge, Mr De Brut has not ever tendered an account for his services.

Recently, with the prolonged ill-health of our Treasurer, and the information void encountered by those temporarily undertaking the Treasurer role, the Services of Mr de Brut have become more important than ever. Sadly, Mr de Brut has proven to be difficult to pin down. We have undertaken measures to allow Mr de Brut to have access to the bank accounts of our men’s Shed and everything is in place – all he needs to do is present himself at the Geraldton branch of the NAB and identify himself. He has not done so and has not responded to emails or text messages.

In the time that Mr de Brut has been charged with looking after our business and tax affairs, we have consistently received letters from the ATO with either warnings for late submissions of BAS statements, or even fines for late lodgement. One such fine was more than $11,000. With no-one permanently able to perform the Treasurer’s functions, these things slip through the cracks.

Our Men’s Shed is in an enviable, cash-positive state and it is important that we follow sound financial practices, backed by a responsive and proactive accountant. To that end the President and Secretary have discussed, at length, the need for change and the decision was made to put the situation to the members at this meeting for consideration.

We would like to recommend that we change accountants and that Mr Jim Dillon of Midwest Financial Services, Chapman Road, Geraldton, be considered for the role. Mr Dillon is somewhat of a specialist when it comes to not-for-profit organisations, with some 30 or so being clients of his.

We welcome any suggestions of alternative accounting practices for consideration. We ask that after discussion and deliberation, that a motion be put in favour of changing accounting firms and also nominating the firm and accountant decided upon by the members present.

Motion: That the services on Mr Jan de Bruto of DCC & C accountants, accountant for the Northampton Men’s Shed, be terminated, effective immediately and that Mr Jim Dillon of Midwest Financial (accountants), Chapman Road, Geraldton be appointed to provide accounting services to the Northampton Men’s Shed, effective immediately.

Moved: George Kyros

Seconder: John Mepham

Carried.

Rescinding Authorisation for Accountant Access to Bank Accounts

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With the acceptance of the previous motion by the membership present, Mr Jan de Bruto will no longer be retained as the accountant for the Northampton Men’s Shed, and this will require us to immediately withdraw previously granted access to our accounts and, in his place, the newly appointed accountant, Mr Jim Dillon, be granted authority to access our bank accounts.

Motion: That Mr Jan de Bruto, former accountant for the Northampton Men’s Shed, has had his appointment to provide accounting services to the Northampton Men’s Shed Inc rescinded. The previously authorised access to all of the Accounts held with the National Australia Bank, by the Northampton Men’s Shed Inc, is withdrawn forthwith and that the National Australia bank is authorised by the members present at the special meeting of the 1^st^ July 2026, to immediately remove any and all access by Mr Jan de Bruto, to those accounts.

Moved: Linda Stephens

Seconder: James Thomas

Carried.

Motion: That Mr Jim Dillon of Midwest Financial (accountants), 66 Chapman Rd, Geraldton, be authorised to access all accounts held by the Northampton Men’s Shed Inc. at the National Bank of Australia, by way of online banking. This authorisation is to continue in perpetuity unless or until rescinded by a duly convened meeting of the members of the Northampton Men’s Shed Inc.

Moved: Linda Stephens

Seconded: James Thomas

Carried.

Financial Position and Consideration of Another Fixed-term Deposit

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The Men’s Shed currently has two fixed term accounts, each holding $50,000 of principle plus accrued interest. We also have two trading accounts, one of which has a balance of $238.29 and is earmarked for use when we are no longer allowed to use cheques. The other account is the general trading account to which funds are paid by the Containers for Change scheme and from which all payments to our suppliers and volunteer groups are made.

The Containers for Change account has a balance of $144,937.55 as of CoB 29/06/2026. We typically have $7,000 or less of monthly outgoing expenses and an income that almost always exceeds that amount each month. In other words, we continue to grow stronger. As acting Treasurer I ask the meeting to consider whether it is time, perhaps, to create another fixed-term deposit for $50,000? This would still leave us with an operating cash position exceeding $94,000.

With a potential move to a new shed, some outgoings can be expected but, with the maturation of the existing fixed-term accounts being staggered, it will only ever be a matter of a few months, at most, before funds become available if needed. If the members decide that another fixed term account should be created, I ask that a motion be put granting the account signatories approval to proceed with this.

Motion: The members of the Northampton Men’s Shed direct any two available signatories to the Containers for Change Account (086-886 272074898) to create two new term deposits of $50,000 each, using funds available in the account 086-886 272074898. One of the accounts shall be created for a period of 12 months, with automatic renewal unless otherwise notified, and the other fixed term account to be for a period of six months, with automatic renewal unless otherwise notified.

Moved: George Kyros

Seconder: James Thomas

Carried.

Existing Treasurer Position

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Our long-standing Treasurer, Mr Kevin Gill, has had an unfortunate year of health issues and has been unable to fulfil his role as Treasurer of the Northampton Men’s Shed Inc. to the full extent required. Many of the tasks usually performed by Kevin require his personal log-in to websites of regulatory and other bodies, which has left those acting in his role unable to complete many of the tasks required by the aforementioned bodies. Kevin has acknowledged that this is a difficult situation and has been as much help as is humanly possible but the status quo cannot continue. The Secretary, Russell Heaton and President, Brian Veitch, have been doing the best that they can under the circumstances but are being frustrated by the inability to access many of the websites required.

We have multiple issues to deal with. After his many years of faithful service, for which we are all most grateful, Kevin’s current health and personal situation make it impossible for the role of Treasurer to continue as-is. We cannot appoint a new Treasurer without a written resignation from Kevin and, so far, no such resignation has been requested from Kevin, by anyone on the committee, nor has Kevin proffered one.

Even if Kevin does resign, Russell Heaton, who is currently Secretary and acting as Treasurer in the short-term, cannot nominate for the role as our Constitution forbids any office bearer from having more than one executive role.

To that end, we need to:

• Sound Kevin out about resigning

• Recruit either a Secretary or Treasurer so that each person has one role

This subject requires discussion, and motions will be accepted from members at the meeting.

Motion: The president, Mr Brian Veitch, approach the treasurer, Mr Kevin Gill to thank him for his previous service in the role of treasurer and ask that he tender written notice of resignation from the role. If Mr Gill is forthcoming with a resignation letter, then the position of treasurer will be declared vacant and nominations for the positions be called, at a subsequent Special Meeting to be scheduled at the earliest possible opportunity.

Moved: Brian Veitch

Seconder: Linda Stephens

Carried

Membership Drive

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Following on from the previous agenda item, it goes without saying that we, as a shed, have suffered a reduction in the number of people in our active membership. We struggle to fill essential roles within the executive and really could use an influx of new blood.

In particular, given the restrictions our own constitution places on people having more than one role, we are in desperate need for people to “step up”, be they existing members, or recruited members.

It is open for the members at this meeting to discuss potential ways and means of expanding our membership. It has been suggested that we consider operating a booth at the Northampton show, ostensibly to espouse the benefits of membership of a Men’s Shed and hopefully garner enthusiastic, perhaps younger, new members.

It is preferrable that this agenda item be discussed and resultant motion is put, with regard to recruitment.

Discussion:

It was agreed that the secretary contact the Northampton Show committee and ask about the availability of a site at the upcoming show, to be used to promote our Shed to the public and encourage new members. Linda Stephens has volunteered to be one of the people attending the site as an ambassador for the club. All members are encouraged to attend.

Mr Leo Kyros has offered to research activities and programs that may encourage younger generations to join our shed.

Mr George Kyros has offered to fill the role of publicity officer for our Shed and to create and maintain a new Facebook presence.

It has been agreed that we submit regular news articles to the local newspaper in order to spread the word about what we do and contributions that we make to the community.

Motion: That Mr George Kyros be offered the role of Publicity officer fo the Northampton Men’s Shed.

Moved: Brian Vietch

Seconder: Colin Murphy

Carried.

POS Operator Training

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The Point of Sale terminal, a vital component of our successful Containers for Change initiative, is so mission-critical that under normal circumstances one or the other of Russ or Brian must be present on any Containers for Change trading day. We recently had occasion where both needed to be absent at the same time and we had to hurriedly train Margaret Meagher and Leo Kyros to step up and take our place. Thank you, both, for putting yourself in the firing line at such short notice and with limited training.

This has emphasised the need to have many people capable of performing the critical aspects of the POS operator role. I put it to the meeting that if you know of anyone who may be a little bit computer savvy and is willing to offer their services on the rare occasion that neither Brian nor Russ is available, then please let us know so that we can follow it up. The more people that we have with the ability to undertake this role, the less likely we are to be caught out.

Discussion: The two people who have assisted in the role of POS operator have agreed to sit in on more training for the role. Those at the meeting will give the idea consideration see whether they can encourage others to participate in the training.

This topic also prompted the discussion of training more broadly, with focus on obtaining, at the expense of the Men’s Shed, a forklift license for Member Leo Kyros. Given that we have only two members with current forklift licenses, this will afford us some redundancy in the role.

Motion: That the Northampton Men’s Shed pay for Mr Leo Kyros to receive the necessary training and for any administrative costs, to facilitate Mr Kyros obtaining a forklift operator’s license.

Moved: George Kyros

Seconder: Russell Heaton

Carried.

Discussion about training continued and it was determined that none of our members have current First-Aid training. It was noted that the local Sub-centre of St John does offer such courses from time-to-time. Russell Heaton pointed out that St John requires at least six participants to make a course viable and has offered to find out when available courses can be run. All members present agreed that this training is for the benefit of our Shed and that the Northampton Men’s Shed pay for the training of all those wishing to participate.

Motion: The the Northampton men’s Shed Inc. pay the fees for all members who wish to attend St John First-Aid training, at a date to be advised.

Moved: John Mepham

Seconder: Lisa Thomas

Carried.

Postscript: Advice has been received that possible course dates are the 6^th^, 10^th^ or 20^th^ of August 2026.

Regulatory Requirements Unmet

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As a registered not-for-profit organisation, we are obliged to submit many regulatory compliance documents and declarations. Whilst it possibly should always have been the role of the Secretary to ensure timely completion of this documentation this has, for the last six years, been managed by the Treasurer. Given our Treasurer's health concerns, some of these documents have not been submitted by the due date. In fact, some documents have not been filed for many years.

The ability for the Secretary to rectify this situation has been hampered, up until the weekend just passed, because of the inability to log-in to the required websites. This has now been rectified and the reports, declarations and submissions backlog is now being cleared.

This situation does highlight the need for our shed to be a little more professional in the way that we execute our roles and responsibilities and discussion needs to be had about how we can ensure that we have the ability to move between roles, or take on roles with some form of process or procedure in place to guide us.

Discussion: Those present at the meeting are now fully appraised of the situation and understand the importance of having continuity of roles within the executive of our Shed.

Annual General Meeting Date

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We are obligated by both the Associations Legislation and by our own Constitution, to hold an Annual general meeting each year. My research and records indicate that no such meeting was held during the 2025/2026 financial year.

We did hold several Special Meetings but these, while being important and well documented, are not the same.

To that end, I request that a motion be put specifying a date and time, at the earliest possible convenience, for an AGM to be held.

Motion: That the next Annual General Meeting be held at the Men’s Shed on Wed. 18^th^ November, commencing at 13:00.

Moved: James Thomas

Seconder: Leo Kyros

Carried.

General Business

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Item one: Linda Stephens put it to the meeting that the Northampton Men’s Shed Inc pay the full purchase price of a new mobility walking frame for member Colin Murphy. All speakers were in the affirmative.

Motion: The Northampton Men’s Shed Inc pay the full purchase price of a new mobility walking frame for member Colin Murphy.

Moved: Russell Heaton

Seconder: Brian Veitch

Carried.

Item two: Margaret Meagher asked that safety improvements be made to the bin lifter/tipper and conveyor slide at the Shed. Agreed without the necessity for a motion.

Item three:

In addition to the impending move to a new shed, the Northampton Shire Council has requested that we remove items stored in the old APB shed, Onslow Street, Northampton and, to that end, Linda Stephens raised the possibility of buying a twenty foot sea container as storage for the items in the old APB shed. The council has verbally stated that they have no objection to us locating containers in the yard at the rear of the proposed new shed.

Motion: That the Northampton Men’s Shed purchase a 20’ sea container.

Moved: Linda Stephens

Seconder: John Mepham

Carried.

There being no further business, the meeting was closed at 13:55.