Our Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held on 30 October. A new committee was elected unopposed, along with four officers:
Frank Salter (President)
Mitchell Crittle (Vice-President)
Richard Harrison (Secretary)
Robert Furlan (Treasurer).
The Treasurer’s Financial Report was distributed to members prior to the meeting. It was accepted by the meeting.
The AGM also accepted the proposed revisions to our Constitution. All members should have received copies of the new document, together with an explanation of the changes. Much thought went into these changes, which …
- Revise our Purposes in order to focus clearly on Anglo Australians (‘being that segment of the Australian population descended from the Founding Peoples of the British Isles’). The new purposes are already posted on the Home Page of our website.
- Introduce the category of Associate Member to complement Full and Life Member categories. This will streamline the recruitment process, by making Associate Membership non-voting but not conditional on activism, and entitling Full and Life members to vote and become office-holders but conditional on present or past activism.
- Enable the Committee to appoint local or regional representatives, alongside the existing provisions for establishment of Branches and Special Interest Groups.
- Increase the duration of the term of the four elected office bearers (President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary) from the current one year to two years to provide for continuity of management of the Association. This change takes effect in conjunction with the elections and AGM in 2023.
- Reduce the number of Ordinary Members (i.e. not the office bearers) on the Committee from 6 to 4. This change will take effect in conjunction with the elections and AGM in 2023.
My President’s Report at the AGM summarized our main achievements in the last year. In that time we made some progress in setting up the BAC for future growth and concerted lobbying. That part of my report read are as follows:
- We continue to pursue our complaint with the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, concerning a booklet entitled the Blak Cookbook that claims that British settlers were genocidal murderers. Anglophobic booklet published by the Melbourne City Council. In view of lack of response, we draw closer to going higher and lodging a complaint concerning the Commission’s failure to process our original complaint.
- Today we shall vote on a new Constitution. Much work has gone into this, most notably by Margaret Birtley.
- The Committee also developed a Strategic Plan to guide future activity.
- Also in the previous year I began writing a monthly President’s Message to members, which is posted on the website and distributed by e-mail.
- Planning is nearly complete for the Alan Bouch Online Award, which will honour our late president.
- At the late Alan Jame’s initiative, we also produced numbers of BAC Australia Day stickers, which are not specific to any year and are still available on request.
- Two BAC members, Richard Harrison and Frank Salter, wrote and published a series of articles on Anglophobia. These will soon be republished as a book of the same name. Watch this space!
- The BAC website is beginning to be improved. This has proven difficult for a volunteer organization such as ours, but it is happening. We have improved our website content by adding a News page and video section. We’ll also be introducing a Frequently Asked Questions Page and an Education Page.
- Our IT expertise has been boosted by Royce Crittle, who has professionalized our e-mail addresses and means of video-conferencing. This expertise is on display in the video conferencing of this meeting.
- Mitch Crittle has taken the lead in posting website content on various social media platforms. Our videos and website items are now advertised on Youtube, Gab, Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms.
Prospects for 2023. The BAC is almost prepared for concerted growth, and I do believe we have great potential to grow in quality and size. Our sails are taught and the spinnaker half unfurled just as the winds of change begin to howl.
The remaining preparations are in hand. I shall keep members informed of progress via my monthly Presidents Messages.
We expect to complete or advance the following tasks in the next year:
- The Committee will continue to make representations and submissions to public bodies on behalf of our community.
- We plan to step up our Australia Day celebrations with a photo competition.
- The Anglophobia book, written by Richard Harrison and myself, will form the basis of a series of YouTube videos on the subject of Anglophobia.
- The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page will become an educational instrument for guiding website visitors to concepts and further readings about BAC policies. We plan to link FAQ answers to further readings posted on our online magazine, Endeavour.
- A new section of the website will cover educational issues bearing on Anglo identity and safety. The new section will counter the lies, perversions and distortions in our national school curriculum, in our universities and in the media which denigrate our Anglo heritage.
- We shall promote our awards, the Alan Bouch Online Award and the Alan James BAC Advocacy Award. Descriptions of these awards can be viewed on our website, via the drop-down menu under “Awards”.
- The Committee is developing a position on the government’s planned referendum on an indigenous Voice to Parliament.
Being equipped with a new Constitution and improved website, the BAC is now in a better position to attract new recruits. We shall be launching a recruitment initiative in the new year and shall be keeping members informed about progress.