The National Board Meeting of the ABC Friends was held in Sydney across the first two days of October. Michael Henry, Carol Stuart and myself attended along with representatives from all other states. It was a very productive, collegial meeting which included robust discussions and resolutions to a number of proposals of importance to the progress of ABC Friends.

The President, Cassandra Parkinson announced that she had resigned from the NSW Committee and was endorsed as an Independent President. NSW will nominate a third representative to be appointed at the AGM in December. She also reported on the meeting with Hugh Marks, sharing his “strong interest in the regions”, and “the importance of local news content”. In response to our request, Hugh nominated a point of contact for the ABC Friends to facilitate communications which will also help when seeking speakers for events.

The granting of tax DGR (Deductable Gift Recipients) to the ABC Friends Ltd has been a welcome achievement this year. Over recent months, a working party of the Board has been considering how donated funds to the Gift Fund could be shared by the state of origin, and also support the work of the national organisation. Legal advice received just prior to the Board Meeting helped clarify the situation, and a resolution was agreed to by all states as to how this will be facilitated. Cassandra outlined an ambitious national fundraising strategy, which included Donations with memberships, Appeals, Regular Giving. Major Gifts and Bequests, which was approved.

A new website for ABC Friends will be developed with Code Nation, over the next few months, included as part of an approved 2025/26 Budget. The website will be more user friendly, and have enhanced features to support state and local groups. The Victorian ABC Friend’s history project also received some funding in the national budget.

It was agreed that Monique, will now work with Phil from Nation Builder forming a national team, to provide a stronger, effective and more strategic focus across various socials. Her costs will now be shared across Victoria, NSW and National.

A Membership Working party presented a comprehensive report and ambitious targets for 2026, which they hope will be achieved through auto renewals, and national recruitment drive. Some changes to Membership categories, and fee adjustments were agreed to which will be implemented when the new website is developed in 2026.

The 50^th Anniversary of ABC Friends in 2026 generated some enthusiastic discussions about ways to mark and celebrate this very special milestone. The Victorian History project, a NSW Documentary film, a book launch are already projects underway. Other suggestions webinars, forums, roadshows, Trivia Kits. It’s now over to our members and Local Groups to engage with the 50^th Anniversary by proposing activities and suggesting ideas, as to how they wish to celebrate, promote and mark this very special year.

Each state presented a report of their various activities over the previous year, and some suggestions were discussed as to how the larger states could support the smaller states. It felt that much had been achieved in two days and that there was genuine enthusiasm to work together to continue to build a robust and influential ABC Friends.