Editorial

by Fred Salome, Public Officer, The LEAD Group

Annual General Meeting

The next AGM of The LEAD Group Inc. will be held in the third week of July. See the announcement on page 2 for details. We would love to see as many of you there as possible as the Group is going through some significant changes. The grant from the Federal EPA for the LEADLINE project expires on May 31st and there appears to be little chance that it will be renewed. This means we need to secure alternative funding to continue our operations, or else drastically cut back our services and activities.

NSW EPA Funding

Our best chance of funding at presents seems to be from the NSW EPA. We are negotiating for a grant with the NSW Lead Referral Centre, which is being established by the EPA as an outcome of the NSW Government Lead Task Force, and by the time of the AGM we should know the results of our submission for funding. However it appears that if we are successful, the terms of the grant will preclude any of the project officers employed under the grant from serving on the management committee. At present Michelle, Robin and Elizabeth are on The LEAD Group committee, and if they are employed under a NSW EPA grant would need to resign. Should that situation develop we will need to find replacements for them on the committee, and a high attendance at the AGM will make this easier. Please come along.

Activities in Other States

If things do develop as we hope with the NSW EPA, the project officers will be required to devote themselves strictly to NSW issues. Any LEAD Group activities regarding other states will have to be coordinated by the committee, and any expenses or labour directed to matters in other states will need to come from The LEAD Group's own resources. We will have to rely heavily on membership subscriptions, donations, grants and other traditional avenues for funding to continue to assist people in other states, unless we can secure some contributions from other state governments.

Proposed Rule Change

We are also proposing a rule change at the AGM, as outlined on page 2. This involves allowing people not on the committee to become signatories to bank accounts run by The LEAD Group. We wish to make this change for operational reason, in the event that we are successful in gaining NSW EPA funding. The change would allow the committee to nominate one or more of the project officers to he a signatory. It would be impractical if only committee members, who would not he involved in the day-to-day functioning, can sign cheques.

Membership

Please remember that only financial members of The LEAD Group can vote at the AGM. If you are not presently a member, or are not presently a financial member, you can submit your membership fee and LAN subscription now or at the AGM.

Change of Address

The LEAD Group will soon by moving to: 107 Smith Street, Summer Hill 2130 P0 Box l6l, Summer Hill 2130. Telephone: 9716 0966 and 1800 626 086

Acknowledgments

The cost of producing this issue of LAN are being met by the Macquarie University Centre for Open Education and CTI Consultants Pty Ltd, in return for permission to include a brochure for their joint Lead Paint Management Training Program. The committee authorised this at its last meeting, as a way of stretching the limited available resources.

This issue of LAN contains our first ever advertisement, for New Scientist. This was included as part of a quid-pro-quo for permission to reprint one of their articles. If you have any thoughts or comments on either of these arrangements, please forward them to Elizabeth or myself.

Our thanks go to the editorial committee of Elizabeth O'Brien, Robin Mosman and Fred Salome.

Change of Rules of The LEAD Group

At the AGM, it is proposed to change the Rules of The LEAD Group, specifically:-

FROM:

8 d) Payments shall be made through a petty cash system or by cheque signed by two signatories who are Committee members

TO:

8 d) Payments shall be made through a petty cash system or by cheque signed by any two signatories from six signatories nominated by the Committee.