Board communiqué - 1 March 2023
The Board met on Wednesday, 1 March 2023, for the first Boarding meeting of the year. It was great to be back for 2023 and kicking off what is another extremely busy and important year for our essential sector.
The Board noted that there has been a terrific response to 2023 WMRR renewals from members, renewing early this year, that WMRR is extremely grateful for. If there are any issues with invoices or queries about membership, please do not hesitate to contact James at [email protected].
The Board also discussed the feedback from the 2022 members survey and the valuable insights from members, it was really great to see 86.36% of members saying they were satisfied or highly satisfied with WMRR’s membership offering and 98.14% saying they were likely or highly likely to recommend WMRR to others in industry- both these indicators slightly up on 2021, which is very pleasing.
We also received a lot of great member feedback and are currently looking at how we can incorporate this, such as more technical talks, additional support to working groups and possibly more detailed communications to members in WMRR’s offerings for 2023. You may have already noted slight changes to the Weekly Bulletin. The Board would like to once again thank all members who participated in the 2022 members survey and are looking forward to a jam-packed year of events for 2023. WMRR’s first webinar kicked off with the National Waste Data 2022 Report which saw the highest number of registered participants ever with over 350 people registered!
The Audit and Risk Committee met a week before the Board to discuss the risk register and ensure that the Association has a robust understanding of contemporary risks and a grounded approach to mitigating these issues.
The Board was really pleased to see that the Association remains in a good financial position with a small surplus achieved in 2022. WMRR’s 2023 financial position remains sound, buoyed by strong membership renewals and the support of members attending WMRR events.
The Board noted the significant activity at present nationally, across many fronts for our essential industry with for example, PFAS being consulted on via the draft PFAS NEMP 3.0 consultation closed in February as well as responding to guideline amendments in South Australia and Victoria. The Board also noted that whilst expansion of CDS is being consulted on in a number of states, Victoria and Tasmania are gearing up for their schemes to commence later this year.
It was noted that the federal government’s draft rules for paper and cardboard export bans have not been released for comment as yet and that there are a number of challenges that are currently being experienced by current export rules of high value plastics for MRFs, which is of great concern to industry and is currently being discussed with government.
The Board was excited by the 2023 events and conferences programme, with the YPs webinar debate coming up on 15 April and WMRR’s first conference kicking off later this month in Melbourne - we hope to see you there!