On Sunday 14^th of August, NQCC hosted a fundraising dinner to celebrate our community of past committee members, donors, volunteers and staff. Additionally, former NQCC Coordinator Susan Brown was visiting Townsville after spending the past 11 years in Geneva working for WWF. We thought a dinner at the NQCC HQ would be a good opportunity for our community to gather.

Welcome to this month’s Paperbark! It has been a busy month of planning events and making submissions about various conservation issues being reviewed. Just a reminder: if you were a member in 2015/2016, you have until 5 September until your membership officially lapses. Click here to renew your membership.

In this issue: Protecting our wildlife – Vegetation Management laws – Climate Change Policy – Upcoming Events – General Notices.

Back in October 2011, Wendy Tubman, then a member of the NQCC Board, volunteered to step into the vacant role of Coordinator for a three month period ‘while we found someone else’. Four and a half years later she is leaving NQCC so that she can stand as the Greens candidate for the seat of Herbert in the forthcoming federal election.

It’s hard to say ‘all the best’ to Wendy without appearing to take a party-political stance, which we avoid, but we can and do thank her for the enormous time and effort she put into NQCC.

But NQCC isn’t going away, of course. We have a young, enthusiastic and environmentally well-connected woman standing in as Acting Coordinator until we advertise the position in three months time. She is Maree Dibella (right), who has a Degree in International Studies and, until recently, was working with the Green Army as a Team Supervisor.

Maree is contactable on the NQCC numbers (07) 4771 6226 or 0428 987 535 and at [email protected] from next Monday on. Please feel welcome to contact her if you have any questions about current NQCC campaigns or how you can become more involved.

Maree Dibella

Trivia Night 2015. Photos courtesy Malcolm Tattersall

Once again, the annual NQCC Trivia Night was a source of much amusement, and much-needed funds!

A record 13 tables competed for the supreme honour of having their team names on the championship board – and for the first time in living memory, there was a dead heat. Both winning teams declined the offer of a ‘Dance-Off’ for first place, so both teams’ names will be up there on the board for eternity. And the winning teams? 2013 winners ‘The Suppository of Wisdom’ featured again – this time joined by ‘The Civil Disobedience Penguins’ (disciples of First Dog on the Moon).

Guest ‘quiz wizards’ Deb and Daina (of Magnetic Island Bootcamp fame) injected some hilarious new action-packed interludes with a number of ‘In it to win it’ games – ‘Suck it up’, ‘Elephant Balls’ and ‘Get forked’…

The night netted around $2500 for NQCC – and we thank all those who came along and took part.

Paperbark is a monthly communique of current NQCC activities, campaigns, news and events.

Hoping that you find the information provided here informative and actionable! There’s a lot on, not least the Climate Marches well over 2000 of which are being held around the world in advance of the UN Climate Summit in Paris in early December. Look forward to being inspired by the power of the people making a stand, marching, being creative and taking action for our environment and a better, safer and fairer future for all.

Paperbark is a monthly communique of current NQCC activities, campaigns, news and events.

In this October 2015 edition of Paperbark, welcome to our new-look e-newsletter & website. To subscribe to receive NQCC's newsletter and optionally other communications from NQCC click here. 

Community Engagement

NQCC is updating its ‘outreach capability’, with the adoption of the Nationbuilder software system. This is involving changes to our website. Thank you again to Malcolm Tattersall for his ongoing support with our website especially during the website restructuring phase. 

Nationbuilder will help us engage with our members and supporters and, importantly, help members and supporters participate in our campaigns and activities. New functionalities include the ability for you to change and update your email preferences, nominate to volunteer in a particular way (a quick thank you at this point to our volunteers, your help really expands our effectiveness), become a member (coming soon), make a donation, buy merchandise, RSVP and buy tickets online to our events - all within our own secure site.

We encourage you to have a look around the NQCC website and in particular sign-up to receive e-updates from NQCC.

Events

Wednesday 21 October: Microplastics, the invisible threat – AIMS Seminar, 2pm. Speaker is Professor Paula Sobral from Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal. Full information and registration available here.