CBAA Annual Review and Financial Report 2014/15

It is my pleasure today to share with you the CBAA's Annual Review and Financial Report for the 2014/15 fiscal year.

Pulling these reports together is always a great chance to take the time to reflect on the last 12 months or so, which has often passed in the blink of an eye and seems a blur on first inspection.

When we start to look at the detail, though, it's undeniable that this has been a very busy, a very exciting and a very successful year.

Our sector came into the year in interesting circumstances, having just run a Commit To Community Radio campaign in light of the Commission of Audit's recommendations to cut our sector's funding. While it was a challenging time for us all, the response to that campaign was a welcome reminder of Australia's support for the work that we all do, and we were pleased to see that recommendation not acted upon in the Budget that followed.

Following this and looking forward, we continued our work with the Community Broadcasting Sector Roundtable, which included developing a vision for our future - that community broadcasting contributes to, and is a reflection of, an Australia that is an open society, a strong democracy and a vibrant culture.

With this in mind, the CBAA continued our strategic planning process to consider our role as sector leaders and how we would champion community broadcasting. After consulting with our members and across the sector, we have identified three key strategic priorities for the coming years -

• To build the capability and sustainability of stations;
• To create a healthy environment for the sector to thrive; and
• To strengthen the CBAA's capacity to provide leadership. 

Other key activities we've undertaken this year have included:

• Implementing a new brand identity, rolling out a new look that is a more cohesive take on what we do and allows us to more effectively speak with one voice. 
• A review of how our sector does research, the results of which are being implemented now. Our 2015/16 research strategy is underway with our member survey open for response until the end of this month.
• Continuing our annual national community radio awards program, which saw a record number of entries judged by a record number of experts from across the sector and beyond. We can't wait to share the results with you at our Gala Dinner in November.
• Creating new content initiatives for the sector, including the National Features and Documentary Series and CRN Segments, and working with stations on collaborative projects like Radio NAIDOC.
• Undertaking a transformation from a project-based structure to a functional one to better leverage each other's expertise and streamline our processes, and welcoming new people into the CBAA fold, including Joel Pringle, Tahlia Azaria, Helen Henry and Chloe Morris. We also said farewell to two staff members, Seth Jordan and Amy Moon, following their great contributions to our organisation.
• Achieving DGR status for our organisation, which will give us access to new sources of funding in the coming years.
• Participating in a range of advocacy and consultation processes as representatives of sector, including pushing for the creation of a Digital Radio Planning Committee, chaired by ACMA. This committee is now in place and is a great step forward for community digital radio.
• Launching this new website, bringing together a number of existing sites into one hub for community broadcasting.

Please find more details of our activities this year in the full Annual Review and Financial Report.

This is also a welcome opportunity to thank our members, both the 14 new ones and those who have been with us for a long while. We appreciate your support and participation and look forward to working closely with you in the coming year.

I look forward to seeing many of you at our Conference and AGM coming up in just under 3 weeks - it is sure to be an outstanding edition of our annual gathering, with a record number of delegates and sponsors involved. Please do come and catch up!

Kind regards,

Jon

Jon Bisset
CBAA Chief Executive Officer