ANNUAL REPORT – JIGGI SCHOOL OF ARTS INC. – 2024

8 November 2024

Acknowledgement of Wijabul Wia-bul people of the Bundjalung Nation

I would like to start my report by stating that the Jiggi School of Arts Inc. acknowledges the Wijabul Wia-bul people of the Bundjalung Nation, the traditional owners of the land. We pay our respects to elders’ past, present and future and recognise the relationship and continuing connection they have with the land, water and community. We acknowledge that the land has never been ceded. We acknowledge when the Bundjalung and other Nations say that it always was, always will be, Aboriginal land.

2024 has been a demanding year for the Jiggi School of Arts Inc. Committee (Hall Committee) with a number of significant challenges. The AGM held in December 2023 resulted in two new committee members and set the stage for the year ahead. At the December 2024 committee meeting a decision was made to hold Community Consultation Forums to give the community the opportunity to raise any concerns and make suggestions. The first one was held in June and as a result, Carolyn offered to provide a cupboard for the community to share produce and Tobias volunteered to take responsibility for ensuring that the produce donated was turned over on a regular basis. Kate F. and Stephen repaired and painted the cupboard so it was presentable and useful. An inaugural Planning Day for the committee was held in January 2024 to plan out the events for the year as well as to discuss potential priorities for the upcoming year. This Planning Day was a success with most of the activities planned coming to fruition within the timeframe allocated.

During 2024, Jiggi Hall committee participated in and hosted one of the two Inter-Hall Meetings arranged by the Lismore City Council’s Community Recovery Officers (Justin and Nikki). The purpose of these meetings is to connect members of Hall committees throughout the Northern Rivers so that a network can be formed to provide support and knowledge to the volunteers from these committees in such areas as insurance, grant writing, access to services and dealing with shared issues. The final meeting for 2024 is scheduled for later in November at Ruthven Hall. The Community Recovery Officers subsidised the programs for the Jiggi Spring Fair as well as attending the event. They also paid for Laughter Yoga courses and a trauma recovery course – Recover Me held at Jiggi Hall recently. Both of these courses were designed to assist people still recovering from the flood. Unfortunately, funding for these Community Recovery Officer positions has recently ceased despite the best efforts of the local Northern Rivers Hall committees and others in the community so it is possible that this will be the last our community sees of any of these council funded activities. It is hoped that the Inter-Hall Meetings will continue, however this will be contingent on the time available of the many volunteers that make up these committees.

At the end of tonight, there will be a new Hall Committee ready to face the challenges and triumphs of 2025. The annual Christmas Party will be on in December and then it will be time to commence the planning for next year to ensure that the Jiggi Hall continues to be the hub of the community.

Hall Hire

Hall hires reduced significantly in 2024 compared to 2023 with the number of bookings dropping by half. The Hall Committee will be looking at strategies to increase the number of bookings in 2025 including the purchase of a commercial dishwasher for the kitchen which will make it more attractive for a wider variety of hirers. The Radical Faeries continue to support Jiggi Hall with their annual Glitter Ball which was a successful fundraiser for their organization again this year. Most of the other Hall hires were private birthday parties for people outside of the valley with only three of the nine bookings for the year being local. During 2025 the Hall committee will look into what needs to be done to ensure that the Jiggi Hall is catering to the needs of the community in an attempt to increase the number of local bookings.

Classes such as yoga and Pilates ran on a regular basis during 2024 as did table tennis and meditation with Jason.

The Hall Committee continues to value add to the hall hire by offering catering as part of the package to people/organizations hiring the Hall. This continues to be successful with the Hall Committee catering for the Lismore City Council Property Planning Workshop last November, the Inter-Hall Meeting and a private birthday party during 2024 as well as being booked for another event that has been postponed until 2025. The Hall Committee is committed to increasing the number of Hall hires in 2025 once some of the more significant maintenance issues have been addressed and resolved.                                                         

Grants

JSOA applied for and were successful in obtaining further flood funding from Service NSW in order to fix the major structural issues with the kitchen roof. This funding came through in December 2023 and the roof was completed in May 2024.

The other grant that was applied for in 2024 was to fix the ailing Waste Water Management System. It was discovered early in 2024 that the functioning of the system had been significantly compromised as a result of the 2022 flood. After considerable discussion and input from both Puzzles Plumbing and Keith Bolton who designed and implemented the current system, it was decided to attempt to fix the current system if possible. On the basis of this decision, a quote was obtained from Puzzles Plumbing and a community grant applied for from the NAB Foundation. The damage to the system is significant enough that if the committee is not successful in obtaining this grant it will still be necessary to proceed with the work which will have a significant impact on the current financial situation of the JSOA. The outcome of this grant will be known in November.

Communications

We have been working on the Jiggi Hall website and intend to expand it with more functionality over time. The website is jiggihall.com.au We encourage everyone to visit the website and provide feedback on what else you think it might need to make it more user friendly.

Jiggi Hall Facebook page continues to be a main communications place, together with Jiggi Post and the Jiggi Post Discussion Forum.

We have commenced a regular “What’s on for the Month” flyer which is emailed to the Jiggi Hall email list as well as being displayed at Goolmangar Shop and Jiggi Hall. We also send separate emails regarding specific events that are occurring at Jiggi Hall. If you would like to be part of this email list, please contact us at jiggihall@gmail.com

Membership

We are always keen for new members and volunteers. One of our goals is to increase the number of Hall members. We intend to do this by encouraging people at Hall events to become a member. Our membership fee continues to be $2 per year. Membership provides a discount for Hall hire and the opportunity to vote in committee members and for general resolutions. Membership allows people to have a say in how our community hall is run. Membership is open to all residents of Jiggi, Georgica and Mountain Top. If you would like to become a member you can do so by contacting us at jiggihall@gmail.com and we will provide you with the bank account details for deposit of your membership fee.

Maintenance.

Maintenance is continuous and is a challenge with a Hall that is more than 100 years old. The Hall Committee continue to battle between what must be done and what we would like to do. 2024 brought with it the identification of some serious and potentially expensive issues with the Waste Water Management System which led to a number of other maintenance issues needing to take a lower priority while solutions were sought for this. A solution has been found and hopefully, once this has been implemented, it will not be an issue for a long time to come.

The painting of the ramps at the Tower Pre-School was commenced at the Working Bee in March and subsequently completed during Karma Yoga over a period of time. Kenrick and Maree donated the paint for the ramps as well as a considerable amount of time along with a number of other volunteers completing the painting.

Following is a list of maintenance related expenses that have either been completed in 2024 or hopefully will be completed in 2025. A number of these expenses were unexpected and not covered by grants:

  • Soundproofing curtains – $120. Purchased in order to block noise from hall hires to the cottage – completed.
  • New Solar Inverter – $3591.50. Old inverter ceased working – completed.
  • Costs associated with new stove for cottage that could not be recouped – $556.25. Harvey Norman covered most of the costs to replace stove after original stove purchased proved to be faulty – completed.
  • New solar panels – $4670.61 – subsidised amount. Government subsidy available to cover part of the cost due to purchase of new inverter. Current panels not working efficiently due to age – to be completed before the end of 2024.
  • Significant Kitchen Roof repairs – $17230.56 – thankfully this expense was fully covered by the Service NSW Grant – completed.
  • Wet/Dry Vacuum Cleaner – approximately $300 – completed.
  • Completion of kitchen painting after roof fixed – $550 – completed.
  • Significant dry rot issues – estimate – $8,000-$10,000. Will need to be fixed in 2025.
  • Front of Hall repairs – approximately $25000. – hoping for a grant for this expense – to be completed.
  • Replacement of boundary fences – between $4,000-$6000 – to be completed.
  • Removal of dangerous trees by arborist – $1000 – completed.
  • Replacement of pipes under Hall and Cottage and replumbing toilet from old septic system to newer septic tank – $3128.40 – completed.
  • Replace Bain Marie element – $467.50 – completed.
  • Commercial dishwasher – approximately $3000-$4000 – to be purchased.
  • Playground Equipment – approximately $10000 – not completed.
  • Fixing the Waste Water Management System –$22432 – hopefully will be approved for a grant that will cover these costs – not completed yet.
  • 2 new table tennis tables – $500 – completed.

Thankfully there have not been any major maintenance issues identified with either the cottage or the TPS in 2024 for which the Hall Committee is very grateful.

The maintenance expenses combined with all the other regular expenses of electricity, gas, insurance (which has increased significantly in 2024 for the Hall, cottage and TPS), Fire Stop, cleaning, mowing, rates etc. has meant that 2024 has been another expensive year for JSOA with only a proportion of the costs covered by grants.

The Hall is cleaned regularly by Mareesa and the lawn and edges kept mowed and tidy by Jeff.

Events and Activities

During 2024 the Hall Committee organized three main fundraising activities – the Jiggi Retro Ball in May, a Trivia Night in July and a Pizza and Pasta Night in August. The Hall Committee were also heavily involved in the Jiggi Spring Fair in September which was organized by a group of volunteers from the community including some of the Hall committee members and led by Deb Nicholls. Catering opportunities outside of these events were limited to the         Inter-Hall Meeting in August where Lismore City Council provided the funds for the food and Hall hire for the meeting and a private event coming up later in November where the Hall committee and volunteers will be providing pizzas for sale at a private birthday party. Although the number of opportunities for private catering decreased in 2024, the Hall committee is hopeful that this will change again in 2025 as catering for private and public events positively supplements the income of the Hall which in turns allows for more maintenance to be completed and equipment purchased. The Lismore City Council Recovery Team also funded a Simulation Table Bushfire Exercise at Nimbin that was attended by members of various community halls including Jiggi Hall.

It was initially decided by the Hall Committee that all fundraising in 2024 would go towards the replacement of the aging playground equipment which had become dangerous and needed to be removed. Julie from the committee took on the project of researching options for replacement of the equipment and after considerable effort on her part, the committee realised that this was going to be a much larger and more expensive task then was originally anticipated. After an inspection in June by Lismore City Council who provided an inspection report to the committee, it was decided that replacement of the playground equipment would no longer be a priority given the number of other more serious and unexpected maintenance issues that had arisen. It was also decided that, given the potential cost of new playground equipment and having to adhere to strict regulations, it might be more appropriate to look for a suitable grant sometime in 2025. The money raised from the fundraisers in 2024 will now be directed towards the purchase of a second-hand commercial dishwasher for the kitchen which will serve two purposes in that it will reduce the amount of time spent washing dishes by the committee and volunteers and also potentially encourage more Hall hires as the kitchen becomes more equipped and better able to deal with a wider variety of functions.

A new addition to activities at the Hall in 2024 has been Karma Yoga which is held fortnightly and came about as a result of a committee member expressing a desire to start a group of like-minded people to get together regularly and complete any jobs that needed doing mainly outside of the Hall. Karma Yoga quickly attracted a dedicated group of volunteers who were more than happy to help out. It is hoped that Karma Yoga will continue on into 2025 in some format. Sunday lunch continues to run on the first Sunday of the month and is a popular event with the local community.

The year will culminate with the annual Christmas Party and the drawing of the Christmas Raffle. Local musicians will provide music at the Christmas Party and for the first time, the Hall Committee has decided to utilise a local Food Van to provide savoury options while the committee provides drinks and dessert.

Working Bees were held in March and September and were well attended. Plant, Seed and Produce Swaps were held in March and August and attracted a reasonable number of people from the community. A Rainforest Plant Identification Workshop was held in April by Ellen White and attracted quite a lot of interest. Katinka Gebhardt (Tink) organized a Picnic for Nature in October that was well supported and is also working on organizing a screening of the film Rachel’s Farm. The Hall Committee actively encourages individuals from the community to organize specialised events at Jiggi Hall.

Sunday Lunch is again being co-ordinated by Ros Hawkins who has been doing a great job in organizing a dedicated group of volunteers during 2024 to keep providing the same great Sunday Lunch service to the community. Sunday Lunch is a really popular event and brings the community together on a regular basis once a month.

Yoga and Pilates happened on a regular basis throughout 2024 and will continue into 2025. The Table Tennis Competition that commenced on Wednesday nights in 2023 has become very popular and regularly attracts enough competitors that three tables are utilised each week. Meditation with Jason has become a regular activity every second Tuesday. The Hall has become a busy place with events and activities happening on a regular basis.

Kate P. continues her work as an official volunteer with the Hall. Kate volunteers 15 hours a week and does a wonderful job at keeping our Community Library organized as well as undertaking a range of other activities that benefit the Hall. Kate has quickly become an asset to the Hall and we are very grateful for the work she does. Kate F. also volunteered for a period of time earlier in the year and completed a range of tasks that were of benefit to the Hall including refurbishing the produce cupboard, working on the wetlands, painting the blackboard and helping Stephen fix the floorboards on the veranda.

Thank You

Our aim is to be inclusive, resilient and social and to share our time, experience, skills and talents. We aim for the Hall to provide a venue for our community to socialise, share stories, share experiences and learn from each other. The Hall is also a place to relax. Jiggi Hall could not achieve all of this without the help and support of all the volunteers from the local community. Without this support, Jiggi Hall would cease to exist.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed in 2024 to help make Jiggi Hall the great venue it is.

Thank you to Matt, Michael, Christina, Garrett and Jo for all the work you have all put in at the fundraisers and working bees in the last year especially with firing up the pizza oven and cooking the pizzas for a number of different events. Your assistance has been invaluable.

Thank you to Paul, Chris, Kenrick, Kate F, Julie R. and Pete for providing live music to the community. It has been greatly appreciated by all.                                                                                                                    

Thank you to Deb and Steve, Christina, Ellen, Faye, Wormie, Michael, Garrett, Jo, Bec, Cathie, Rachel and Mark, Kate F., Keryn, Zena and Paul, Carolyn, Ros, Sue and Chris, Charles, Nicole,  Paul and Ellissa, Tink and Tobias, Kenrick and Maree, Melissa, Rose and Chloe R., Kelly and Adam, Katie and anyone else that has helped out during the last year with any of our fundraising events or working bees. We couldn’t have done it without you.

Thank you to Charles for all his advice when it comes to maintaining the Hall. It has been invaluable.

Thanks to Jason for providing a no-cost regular Meditation time for the community. This activity has been invaluable for the mental health of our community.

Thank you to Kirstin and her staff at Goolmangar Shop for all your support in providing prizes for our events and letting us advertise all our events at the shop and for selling raffle tickets for us. You are one of our biggest supporters and we really appreciate all you do for us.

Thanks to Bunnings, the Sherwood Hotel, Ongmac, Little Polli and the Blackbird, Northern Rivers Hotel, Stockpot Kitchen and Officeworks for donating prizes for the Trivia Night. Thanks also go to Michael Johnson for hosting the event.

Thank you to Bec and Keryn and the rest of the team on Jiggi Post who have advertised our events and helped us with promotion on social media.

Thank you to Keith and Regan for giving so much of their time and expertise voluntarily to come up with a long-term solution for the Waste Water Management System.

Thank you to the Lismore City Council Recovery Team (Justin and Nikki), the Jiggi RFS, the Lismore SES, Jiggi Landcare and Jiggi Uniting Church for their contributions to the events held at Jiggi Hall this year.

Thanks to the cottage tenants, the Tower Pre-School (TPS) and all nearby residents for their ongoing support of the Hall and tolerance of both Hall functions and private events.

Thank you to all who have supported our little library by borrowing and donating books, CDs and DVDs. And to those who have brought their excess produce to share with others.

Thank you to everyone who has made food for our events.

Thank you to all who have contributed to our events and activities, who have participated, attended, and helped to make Jiggi Hall such a valuable asset to our community.

Thank you to everyone who has come to our working bees and helped us to improve our Hall.

Thank you to Danielle and Julie who will not be renominating for the 2025 committee. The commitment and hard work you have both put in during your time on the committee has been invaluable. Thank you also to Kate F. for her contributions to the committee during the first part of 2024. During her time on the committee, Kate F. created branding for all of the Hall posters and advertising as well as the Hall Noticeboard. The produce cupboard that Kate refurbished so that people in the valley can share excess produce has become an asset that is now ably managed by Tobias.

We have tried to thank everyone, but if we have missed you, please accept our thanks. I know there are people who turn up to events and help to set up and clean up. We appreciate your help in making our events and activities successful.

Thank you to previous Hall Committees, for all of your hard work over the years. It has contributed to making this Hall a great place for Jiggi, Georgica and Mountain Top communities.

And from me, thank you to our current Hall Committee, for your community commitment, for your ideas, for your hard work and for all of your support. Each person has brought their own skills, expertise and enthusiasm to our work during continued difficult times in the last year and I appreciate all of the effort you have put in to keep the Hall functioning during this time.

The Future

To our new JSOA committee members, a welcome to you in advance of the election. Thank you for being willing to contribute to your community by becoming a part of the Hall Committee.

We hope to continue to provide and support activities and events that encourage more people to become involved and to help raise funds for our community hall.

We hope there are lots of opportunities in the coming year to build our community, to build our resilience, to socialise, to share and support. Your involvement in our community hall is vital. After all, you can’t have a community hall without a community.

Marina Fitzhenry – President

Jiggi School of Arts