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Thanks!

We had nearly 20 people at the Hidden Orchard meeting tonight – with several others giving apologies and letting us know that they are keen to be involved.  Fabulous!  Thanks to everyone who came along; it was a great meeting where we outlined THO history, talked about our vision for the future and shared more detail about the committee & harvest leader positions.

To kick things of in the right way, we had the kettle steaming and plenty of Hidden Orchard jam to add to scones or pikelets.

Refreshments before the meeting!

At the end of short presentations,  the current committee took a range of questions.  We then talked about who would like to join up… and in what capacities.

Three cheers for the seven new committee members!

One of the innovations proposed by the current committee is the creation of territories with designated harvest leaders, so that we streamline our response to harvest opportunities. Seven geographic areas have been suggested, with the idea that 2-3 harvest leaders will look after each area, building relationships with tree-owners and being able to respond promptly to requests.

The idea was well received by the meeting and we now have harvest leaders for all the areas.  There are still opportunities for more harvest leaders, so contact us if you’d like to take on that role (especially if you are in Central Ballarat, where we have many trees and the scope for at least two more harvest leaders).

Ellen listing the harvest territories

If you couldn’t make the meeting tonight, there’s still plenty of opportunity to get involved.  Although the project is going great – we’ve picked & distributed over 2.5 tonnes of fruit since we started! – we could do so much more if we had extra help!  The roles are diverse and suit a wide range of people, skill-sets and availability.  Consider yourself helping with:

  • pruning & tree care
  • IT & website
  • grants & funding applications
  • meeting minutes
  • answering phone enquiries
  • responding to email & FB messages
  • drafting letters
  • cooking jam at home
  • leading cook-ups for small groups
  • photography
  • social media posts
  • liaising with fruit recipients (local charities)
  • graphic design & production
  • project managing special events

  • The last, lonely, scone