2015-09-15 Infrastructure and Services Committee Agenda

INFRASTRUCTURE & SERVICES COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                           15 SEPTEMBER 2015


There is however, still a considerable amount of work to be done to develop a robust business
plan because, while CLMB bring a wealth of local knowledge, support and commitment to the
task of managing the BFAC, CLMB needs to further develop its overall purpose, structure,
programming and activities to successfully operate the facility.
The CLMB are keen to develop a detailed business plan but in order to do this they require an
experienced staff resource to explore and trial programming options and provide the detailed
information required for the business plan/feasibility. In order to engage such a resource the
CLMB require funding.
Given the gap between the Council resolution in March and the completion of the business plan,
a level of confusion is becoming evident within the Cooroy community regarding who is operating
the BFAC. The CLMB have already had a number of approaches and proposals for activities
within the BFAC which they are unable to act upon as they are not currently operating the facility.
Difficulties in developing the business plan have also arisen as current operations are not a
reasonable benchmark to predict future operations and in particular, future revenue opportunities.
Council is currently operating the BFAC in a ‘caretaker’ mode with limited programming which
makes it difficult to provide the CLMB with a fully operational ‘business as usual’ model,
particularly where revenue sources are concerned. Historical information has been difficult to
find and provide to assist CLMB form the basis of ‘business as usual’. In fact, actively seeking
revenue sources has not been a focus at the BFAC for the past four to five years. In turn, this
requires the CLMB to make a number of assumptions around the programming opportunities that
may arise for the CLMB operation of the BFAC.
Robyn Barrett of Mercer Enterprises has undertaken financial analysis with the available data.
She was able to forecast base operating expenditure based on Council’s previous expenditure
however forecasting revenue was problematic. She noted that while there were potentially
credible ideas for activities and revenue streams, these needed to be developed in much further
detail to enable robust financial analysis.
Based on the need for a high level of assumptions and increased staffing, indicative financial
projections and analysis undertaken by Mercer Enterprises indicate that the Council subsidy will
be higher than estimated in the report to Council on 3 March 2015. The proposed 12 month
subsidy is $120,279, compared to $80,000 proposed previously. The main reason for this is the
additional level of staffing required to cover a five to six day operation (including weekends and
after hours) which equates to approximately 1.5 FTE. Some of this on site staffing was originally
anticipated to be covered by in-kind support from U3A. The CLMB will undertake overall
management, planning and programming for the BFAC and have indicated that, given the
existing commitments of their members, they are not it a position to undertake the day-to-day
operation of this public facility and will require sufficient staffing to do this.
Programming of PopUp Art (and other) exhibitions have been scheduled by Council until
December 2015. It is important to note that the PopUp Art exhibitions are nearing the end of
their current life and it is not expected that exhibiting will continue beyond December 2015.
It is also important to note that through the business planning process it has been identified that a
number of capital improvements including acoustic treatment and better disability access will be
required to enable greater simultaneous use of the spaces at the BFAC.
Finally, the business planning process has identified that the previously recommended approach
of bringing together the CLMB with two anchor tenants (U3A and the CCE) is no longer viable.

2.    Anchor Tenants
On 12 March 2015, Council adopted the option for the BFAC to be a community managed facility
with Council providing financial support to a community organisation (namely CLMB) to manage
and activate the facility with an understanding that CLMB would work with U3A and Centre for
Ceramic Excellence (CCE) as ‘anchor tenants’. The ‘anchor tenants’ would ideally provide
financial or ‘in-kind’ contributions.

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