Welcome to Not the Newsletter, the newsletter that you get when you don’t get a newsletter. It’s very nearly 2 months since the last Virtuoso Newsletter and it seems that there has been a fair bit going on, but yet we hear nothing.

The Northern Garden Beds project received a lot of attention at the committee meeting in February in particular the Discussion Paper on the proposed Eastern Garden Beds project for a possible $1,300,000 cost. So, 10 weeks on, not a peep. What could possibly be happening and given the potential dollars involved, the owners could be interested to know?

An Extraordinary General Meeting was held in early March. There is a lot of administrative requirements to hold an EGM and it is interesting that here we are 6 weeks later and not a peep about the result. It is to be assumed that the vote was successful, after all the money has been spent, the project has been completed, but a bit of feedback wouldn’t be too much to expect.

Speaking of General Meetings, the 2026 Annual General Meeting is coming up in early June, much earlier than previous years. And there are only a few days to go (by 30 April) if you plan on nominating for a committee position or putting up a motion. There are some simplified forms on the website under ‘Documents’. If anyone wants a hand with scanning, printing or emailing I am more than happy to assist. Technology should not be a barrier to doing what you want in this regard.

Speaking of the AGM, I pointed out to the Treasurer in an email, that I am interested in knowing how much we actually pay Civium to act as our Body Corporate Manager. Not the stated amount in the AGM agenda papers, but the actual figure. The actual figure includes all the disbursements, miscellaneous charges and Civium’s  20% commission on insurance premiums and other services that they provide. Only by knowing the actual figure would it be possible to know whether we are getting good value for money from Civium. But we can’t complain –every year, we approve Civium’s renewal, we approve their fees and we approve the insurance that they have organized on our behalf !

Apart from the above there’s no doubt plenty happening. It will be good to have the curbside collection out of the way so that we don’t have any more scavengers at 3am loudly talking and laughing as they rat through the offerings.