Rob, Anne, Graham, Brendan, Pat and Francesca met at The Rat on 7 March 2026
We had an interesting discussion that covered the following topics.
Becoming an Incorporated Association was raised by Graham. Things that are not possible at present is getting a .org website, opening a bank account or gaining public liability insurance. Francesca cautioned that maybe we need to grow a bit more before setting up to ensure we had sustainable numbers. On risk, we agreed that managing risks was probably sufficient, especially when doing surveys. We did not discuss a solution for financing purchases like T shirts. Minor costs were being absorbed by volunteers which is ok at present. Perhaps we should start a personal record of any expenses and time. There was some agreement about getting 200 survey responses before deciding on incorporation.
We did some brainstorming on a logo and colours. Pat had some good ideas about incorporating the ear into the logo text. After a few iterations we settled on an idea that Pat was going to work up for the next meeting. On colours we agreed on a magenta colour like https://www.voicesofbradfield.org/homeold
There was some discussion about names and whether Cooper Listening Post was good in the longer term or the more conventional Voices of … would be better. We did not reach a conclusion, but there was consensus that “post” was a strong word associated with listening and communication where it has associations with newspapers, social media posts, and eavesdropping to gather information. On reflection we could incorporate Voices of … into a by line. “ Cooper Listening Post, listening to the Voices of Cooper, Northcote and Preston”
We noted the calling of the Farrer byelection and encouraged all to subscribe to Voices of Farrer comms and maybe help out in some way.
Graham had brought along some flyers with the website QR code for people to take. Graham, Anne and Rob will work on getting the surveys updated and create a new survey on what gives people joy in Cooper.
Prepared by Graham.