Meeting papers

2024 Annual Report.

 4. Solar for Strata

ZEN Inc. is adding impact and value to previous Council grant funded projects by continuing to
promote them with the relevant target audience. The Solar for Strata on line toolkit and Solar
Champions video are examples of this. While they were completed in 2024 and despite the project
leader stepping down mid-year, ZEN Inc. was able to hold a successful forum, working jointly with
Tourism Noosa to promote these tools to the strata accommodation community.

 5. E Bike Library

ZEN Inc. was successful in Nov., 2024 with a grant of $22.392 from the Dept. of Transport & Main
Roads for the Bike Riding Encouragement Program (BREP) Innovation Grant to be able to set up an e
bike library so people can borrow different types of e bikes for a period of two weeks and try them
out to help them make a purchasing decision. This program will get underway in 2025.

All our projects and activities are outlined in detail in our Annual Report.

ZEN Inc. is very appreciative of funding from Noosa Council, the Federal and Queensland
Governments, and the patrons and sponsors of our Expo to assist our work. We are also fortunate
to have a collaborative working relationship with a number of key stakeholders, especially Noosa
Council, Yarra Energy Foundation (YEF), Tourism Noosa and Noosa Junction Assoc., and Noosa
Biosphere Reserve Foundation (NBRF) and Energy Qld. to name a few. We thank them all for their
support.

 6. The Role of Council Alliance Partnership Funding for 2024

The Council Alliance Partnership Funding is the enabler that allows ZEN Inc. to undertake its
administration, internal organisation and operations through a combination of volunteers and an
Administration Coordinator who began working 24 hours per week in October, 2023, in both
administration and some limited communications work. This was intended to enable some ZEN Inc.
volunteers, especially the ZEN Inc. Chair, to spend some more time to undertake ZEN Inc’s cutting-
edge project work.

In the first half of 2024, the Alliance Partnership Funds for the following positions were funded by
the $65,000 from the Year 1 2023 -2024 funding:

    1. Administration & Communications $50,000 (a small amount used in 2023 and most was
         used in the first half of 2024 as year 1 funding was not received until Oct. 2023) and
    2. Communications Package $15,000 (a small component was used in 2023 and part used in
         the first half of 2024 for marketing for the EV Expo. )
as outlined in Appendix F.

In the second half of 2024, after the Alliance Grant Year 2 of funding was received on 23 Oct., 2024,
only $14,393.32 was spent before 31 Dec., 2024. The reasons for this are explained below.

The Administration role was for 21 hours per week, with 3 hours per week to assist with some
Communications work that assisted ZEN Inc. with limited website updating and production s of
regular newsletters, some assistance for volunteers with writing of print media and social media
posts, including for the EV & Electrify Everything, in addition to organising community forums,
promoting ZEN Inc’s resources e.g. tool kits and videos, through various media channels to help raise

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