Co-Convenor's Report

Secretary's Report

Campaigns Report

Events and Fundraising Report

Treasurer's Report

Auditor's Report

Summary of Achievements

Anti-Violence Project

Gay and Lesbian History Project

Thank you

ANNUAL REPORT 2000-2001

Treasurers Report

The financial statements for the Lobby are included in this report.

Income

Our income sources for the last year have remained essentially unchanged.

Income for the general day-to-day running of the Lobby and all our other projects and campaigns comes from donations. The two most substantial are from First Fleet Productions with part of the proceeds from Harbour Party and from JoJo Fernadez with monies raised from Frisky Parties. By far the bulk of our income comes from these two sources. We are extremely grateful to both for their ongoing support of our work, which has made much of our success possible. Other significant contributions have been from the Gay and Lesbian Business Association with a donation to assist with our recent superannuation education campaign. Without these donations, the Lobby could not perform the work that we do in fact it would be difficult to function at all.

The introduction of GST has had some adverse impact on Lobby finances as one eleventh of most donations must be paid to the government as GST. It also increases the administrative burden on our small organisation.

Additionally, we have received some grant monies for specific Lobby projects. We received funding from the Attorney General's Department for the Community United Against Violence (CUAV) anti-homophobia campaign and the NSW Health Department for community safety and client based projects around hate violence. The CUAV project is now completed and the Health Department funding has been shifted to ACON. The Gay and Lesbian History Project received funding from the Commonwealth Government Centenary of Federation Fund. These monies were all specific to these projects.

Mention should also be made of in kind support received. South Sydney Council provides a rental subsidy to the Lobby, along with other community groups, by charging us less than commercial rents. This allows us to have an office located on Oxford St. We could not afford an office in this location without their assistance. Quite possibly we could not afford an office at all. Our auditors Peroy's provide auditing services pro bono. There are also many volunteers who provide free services and professional advice that would otherwise cost the Lobby substantial amounts of money.

Expenditure

The Lobby Committee in the last two financial years has introduced a budgeting and financial planning process in an attempt to make our money go further and maximise our work. I feel this has been successful (although at times a headache!) and has, especially in the last financial year, allowed the Lobby to make expenditures on substantial projects that we may not have formerly undertaken. This has included contribution to the 'Hey Hetero' project, the superannuation campaign, funding an age of consent research paper and funding and producing two papers on same sex parenting.

Challenges

The challenges for the Lobby in term of our financial future remain the same as they have always been. We have always relied on the 'kindness of strangers' to exist and function. This will not change in the foreseeable future. With the announcement that the 2001 Harbour Party will be the last under the current organisers, in 2003 the Lobby could face losing approximately 60% of its current income. If this amount of income is lost, we will inevitably have to wind back our operations, particularly relatively expensive campaigns. The Committee is aware of this impact and we have already started our financial planning with this drastically reduced income in mind and are seeking out new funding sources.

Jenny Mann
Treasurer