This year 30 members attended the AGM and buffet luncheon, taking the opportunity to catch up with old colleagues and meet some new members, including Tuan Anh Nguyen of Vietnam News Agency who only arrived in Australia last month.

Long-time member Sid Astbury, correspondent for German newsagency DPA, chaired the meeting, during which reports were presented by the President, Vice-President, Honorary Secretary and the Treasurer.

Freelancer Christopher Zinn and Jiji Press correspondent Bronwyn Bruce were elected as Executive Board members, replacing outgoing members Rudolf Hermann (Neue Zuercher Zeitung) and Lin Kuang (Australian New Express Daily and Chinese newspapers).

The event included a presentation by FCA member Tony Loughran of Zerorisk International, who proposed that the FCA consider sponsoring an annual award to selected journalists trained by Zerorisk.

Dear colleagues and friends,

Thank you for coming to the 2008 Annual General Meeting of the FCA. Thank you to the outgoing Board for their support. Thank you also to our Executive Secretary April Pressler, without whom it would have been impossible for me to be the FCA President and hold down a paying job as a correspondent, as well as being a Mum.... Thank you very much April.

I would also like to say a very special thank you to Neena Bhandari. Neena spent many years working hard for hardly anything at all to create and edit the FCA website. Thank you, Neena, for your work, creativity, your wit and enthusiasm. Thank you especially for all the help you gave to our non-English speaking correspondents, for whom it is a challenge to submit stories to the website, as they normally don't work in English.

The whole FCA Board worked very hard this year establishing contacts with the new Australian government, organizing numerous events and quite a number of trips. Trip coordinator and Vice President Urs Walterlin will talk about this in more detail a bit later. The FCA line-up of events started with a big bang - and without me - when then Foreign Minister Alexander Downer addressed the FCA prior to the APEC meeting. I was still in Germany working for Deutsche Welle and Vice President Urs Walterlin had to run the event, which , from what I heard, was probably more exciting than the whole of APEC (apart from the Chaser stunt, of course).

Then the election campaign started in Australia and we had several luncheon guests talking about election issues - Richard Flanagan, and Tim Costello for example - and then we were all too busy covering the elections to do much else. However, we managed to organize a great Christmas Party in December, here in this wonderful venue, provided by our very good sponsors the NSW Department of State and Regional Development . Thank you so much for letting us use this venue!

We began this year with another big bang - our inaugural FCA Telstra Newsmaker Luncheon with Telstra's Dr Phil Burgess as our Keynote Speaker. I would like to take the opportunity to thank Telstra for their ongoing strong support of the Foreign Correspondents' Association . Thank you also to all our other sponsors - old and new or very new: Invest Victoria for example, and of course Tourism Australia, the Sydney Mining Club, Tourism New South Wales, La Trobe University Invest Queensland and the Department of Trade and Economic Development of South Australia.

Thank you also to the FCA Board's Sponsorship group and Executive Secretary April Pressler for looking after our sponsors and finding additional sponsors to keep the FCA afloat.

Our good financial situation this year allowed us to put on quite a number of events. We had luncheons for example with social commentator Hugh Mackay, Senator Trood, rock art expert Robert Bednarik, the Japanese ambassador Takaaki Kojima, and the Premier of South Australia, Mike Rann, We also had a number of briefings.

The Foreign Minister Stephen Smith addressed members of the FCA and answered our questions for almost two hours . Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had some of our Japanese members over for tea and a preview of his visit to Japan.

Sponsors also invited the FCA to several exciting events. Other organizations approached the FCA to offer a variety of interesting stories for our members.

The FCA was also happy to be able to offer a number of trips for stories to our members. As I said before, Urs , will talk a bit more about this. However, I would just like to mention the FCA's trip to Canberra early this year to establish contacts with the new government and new departments. I travelled with Urs Walterlin and Executive Secretary April Pressler. We had a packed schedule, roaming the corridors of Parliament House for days. DFAT, the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade, had helped us to organize meetings with the various ministers' offices and media advisers. We also met the new opposition, many of whom we already knew, of course. This trip was very interesting and extremely important, as we soon found out. In many offices people still worked between unpacked boxes, everything and almost everybody was brand new. And only a very small number of the new government's media advisers seemed to have had any experience with foreign media or even any awareness that we were here and report for hundreds of millions of people all over the world contributing significantly to the image of Australia overseas.

So I think it was very important indeed, that we went to Canberra to contact the ministers' offices. And I would like to invite you all to follow up our efforts and keep on calling those ministers' offices and media contacts for research and interviews. Remind them that you are members of the FCA and that your work is important for the image of Australia - and that your inquiry is at least just as important as inquiries by national radio or TV networks and local Brisbane or Perth papers....

Well, that's enough from me today, I think. Thank you all again for coming today and now it is over to Urs to report on FCA trips....

Thank you.

Good afternoon colleagues,

Through our sponsors and other contacts and invitations, we organised over 10 trips during the year for selected FCA members. They included a two-day visit to Melbourne for COMS2007, the international nanotechnology, last September; Lockhart NSW in October, through FCA member Marie van Steyn; Eyre Peninsula, organised by SATC; Tourism Victoria's tour to Aboriginal Victoria; a mining visit to SA last November; another SA-hosted trip, courtesy of SATC and SA Great to look at their forestry industry and the Limestone Coast. Then there was the visit to New Zealand for six FCA members, at the invitation of Canterbury & Christchurch tourism people, where members stayed at five and six-star luxury hotels and visited some amazing places. Our sponsor, the NSW Department of State and Regional Development organised a successful visit for members to Central NSW earlier this year and also a trip to Moama for a very interesting economic development conference. And most recently we had the FCA trip to Tasmania organised by Produce of Heaven.

We expect to coordinate many more trips for members over the coming months and let me emphasise that all members are selected by our hosts, not the FCA. We invite your expressions of interest, all of which we forward to hosts, for their selection of members to be invited.

It is the role of the Honorary Secretary to report on the events which were staged on behalf of the FCA board. The work involved was done by our Executive Secretary, April Pressler. Over the past 12 months she organised over 20 events in Sydney for our members. She has done a great job, thank you!

Urs organised the trips, about which we have already heard. A lot of work went into this, too, and the results have enhanced the FCA's reputation as a reliable professional organisation. Thank you!

Let me return to the events staged in Sydney. The attendance of members has generally been satisfactory, only once we had to cancel a FCA Newsmaker Luncheon speaker at short notice because of too few acceptances, probably due to the timing and absence of members in Europe and other places, rather than lack of interest, we believe.

Most of you that are here at the AGM today usually attend our luncheons and other activities and the board has certainly appreciated your ongoing support throughout the year. Without you, there would be little point in having these events.

The current (2007-08) Board's year began with an FCA Newsmaker Luncheon with Alexander Downer at the American Club on 4 September last year. We attracted 45 members and local media and, while a successful event, it turned out to be his last luncheon with the FCA. (Members here may be interested to know that April, in a previous role as a public affairs councillor with the Department of Foreign Affairs, also organised Mr Downer's first media event as Foreign Affairs Minister with foreign correspondents in June 1996. It was attended by over 100 correspondents and local media.)

And I remember that at the time of last year's AGM the board was still hoping for an event with the then Prime Minister John Howard, which did not materialise, in spite of all assurances given over 11 ½ years. We are confident that we will be luckier with the new government - even though there is no sign of it yet, with PM Rudd now having been in office for nine months.

I shall list the major events, which should not be boring, as many of our members will recall them and those who missed out may learn what they missed.

We had an FCA Newsmaker Luncheon in the Parkes Room of DSRD on 9 September with Aden Ridgeway, Chair of Indigenous Tourism Australia and former Australian Democrats Senator, who told 30 FCA members about developments in Indigenous tourism, as well as the opportunities his organisation is creating for Indigenous Australians.

Then we had an FCA Newsmaker Luncheon at the American Club on 4 October with well-known Tasmanian author Richard Flanagan, who talked to 35 FCA members about the tragedy of the destruction of Tasmania's forestry.

We had World Vision's CEO Tim Costello as our guest speaker on "Climate change and poverty" at a newsmaker luncheon in the Parkes Room on 23 October, attracting 25 members.

We held a launch event attended by more than 25 members at DFAT's media centre on 31 October for Geoffrey Lee Martin and his book "Hellbent for the Pole", published by Allen & Unwin. Geoff wrote this book as an insider who was actually on the trans-Antarctic expedition by Sir Edmund Hillary and Dr Vivian Fuchs, covering the story for The Daily Telegraph in London.

Highlight of the year, as always, was the Christmas party on December 6th, held in the combined Hamilton Parkes rooms at DSRD and 84 members, sponsors and guests attended, making it our biggest Christmas party ever!

We held our first FCA-Telstra Newsmaker Luncheon on 5 February at the American Club with Telstra's Group Managing Director Phil Burgess as our guest speaker. Phil was a very interesting and entertaining speaker and attracted around 50 members and guests.

On 19 February we were planning a Newsmaker Luncheon in the Hamilton room with Japanese academic and Asia Pacific expert Dr Akiko Fukushima, but unfortunately she fell ill and we had to cancel this event.

On Friday 28 March we featured Senator Russell Trood as our Guest Speaker at a Newsmaker Luncheon in the Hamilton Room. Senator Trood delivered an address on "The emerging global order: Australian foreign policy in the 21st century" and he proved to be a very interesting speaker on foreign policy for our audience of 30 members and guests.

The second FCA-Telstra Newsmaker Luncheon was held on Thursday 17 April and featured as our guest speaker the respected social researcher and writer, Dr Hugh Mackay, who delivered an address entitled "Advance Australia.Where?" to an audience of 40.

We held a round table briefing with Q&A for 14 members in the Jumbunna Room on 22 April with human rights expert and academic Dr Sev Ozdowski, who spoke on Human Rights and the Beijing Olympics.

On 30 April, world rock art expert Robert Bednarik addressed an FCA Newsmaker Luncheon of 25 members, on the threat to Ice Age rocks in the WA Dampier Archipelago.

For the first time, we had Japanese Ambassador Takaaki Kojima as guest speaker at an FCA Newsmaker Luncheon. He addressed 30 members and guests on "Australia-Japan Relations" in the Hamilton Room on 8 May. 

On 21 May we held our first FCA event with Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith, followed by Q&A with the 45 members who attended. Held in DFAT's conference room, the event included refreshments and was considered a success by all sides.

Around 25 members attended a very pleasant cocktail briefing hosted by Tourism Victoria and Invest Victoria for the FCA at Industrie Bar & Restaurant on 22 May.

Then, on 29 May, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority's climate change expert Paul Marshall and CEO Russell Reichelt addressed 25 members at an FCA Newsmaker Luncheon in the Hamilton Room on the threat of climate change to the Great Barrier Reef.

We organised a special briefing from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in Canberra on Friday 6 June for our 15 Japanese foreign correspondents, prior to the PM's official visit to Japan beginning 8 June. The briefing was followed by tea and cakes with the PM.

We were very fortunate in having Mike Rann, Premier of South Australia and National President of the ALP, as our speaker at the FCA-Telstra Newsmaker Luncheon 10 June and he filled the Hamilton room with an audience of 50.

Around 25 members had a very pleasant time at the cocktail launch of our partnership with Invest Queensland on 3 July in the Attic Room of the Arthouse Hotel, hosted by the head of the Queensland Department of Tourism, Regional Development & Industry, Bob McCarthy, and colleagues.

On 11 July, we were planning to hold an FCA Newsmaker Luncheon in the Parkes room with Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs, Duncan Kerr. Unfortunately, we could not attract more than 20 bookings up to four days before the date, so we had to postpone this luncheon but hope to hold it to a larger audience in a couple of months time.

Most recently, we organised a media roundtable for visiting Chinese dissident Chen Ziming which was held at the Australian Press Council on 28 July. We had over 25 correspondents and local media at the event.

And tomorrow, 22 August, Julian Burnside QC will be guest speaker at an FCA Newsmaker Luncheon in the Jumbunna Eora Room, here on Level 47 of the MLC Centre.  The title of Mr Burnside's address in this 60th Anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will be "Australia can do better". I am glad to say the luncheon is booked to capacity.

And perhaps that is an appropriate note on which to end my report, because the FCA has certainly done very well in this past year. We have renewed all our previous sponsorship arrangements and also attracted two new sponsors during the year (SA and Qld). And we have held a total of 20 events attracting over 670 people!

Before I go, I should also add that we helped in organising selection of two FCA members by our sponsor La Trobe University for involvement and coverage of special courses for young Muslim students that they were running over a few weeks recently. Those members selected were Kabir Dhanji, who is based in Melbourne, and Joelle Glas who lives in Moss Vale.

We always welcome members' suggestions for future events, such as newsmaker luncheons, briefings and anything else you might think would help provide us with good stories or information that we need to have. There is much room for closer interaction between our members and the board.

Please participate in running the FCA, and don't leave everything to the board members. Which reminds me to thank the outgoing board members for the work they have done, especially our President Esther Blank, Vice President Urs Walterlin, and our Treasurer Paul Cotton. And Neena Bhandari, who until recently edited our website. Hiroki, Don and Lin kept the website relevant and professional through video and photographic coverage of events. We thank all FCA members who contributed stories to the website in the past year. Please continue to play an active role in the FCA in this way.

Thank you!

Once again I can tell you that we have received a favourable audit report on our accounts in time for the Annual General Meeting.

Our auditor Judy Feyzeny CPA has found that our books and accounts present a true and fair view of the financial situation of the Association.

This year our finances have continued to improve significantly with additional sponsorships and we now have approximately $50,000 in sponsorship support.

All members of the Board have worked hard to achieve this result but I must give great credit to Urs Walterlin and our Executive Secretary April Pressler.

Our Auditor has recommended that for accounting reasons we make all our sponsors members of the FCA. The Board has just agreed to this and with our healthy finances this will create no problems.

Our total income for the year has again been well over $60,000. As a result I have been able as Treasurer to suggest and support an increase in the subsidies paid for Newsmaker lunch costs.

We have also been able to increase the salary of the Executive Secretary and she has taken on the additional duties of On-Line Editor. An honorarium continues to be paid to the Treasurer.

The new Board will be able to support a full programme of lunches and briefings and there will be adequate funds to continue subsidies.

Copies of the statement of accounts have been circulated and I shall do my best to answer any questions.

In conclusion I invite you to reappoint Judy Feyzeny CPA as auditor of the FCA.

Present: Sid Astbury, Esther Blank, Urs Walterlin, Hiroki Iijima, Don Fuchs, Juergen Corleis, Paul Cotton, April Pressler, Peter O'Loughlin, Nina Fudala, Alex Hofmann, David Hancock, Philip Engelberts, Neena Bhandari, Bronwyn Bruce, Wolfgang Mueller, John Tulloh, Christina Atherton, Saul Lockhart, Chris Zinn, Barbara Barkhausen, Geoffrey Lee Martin, Claudio Paroli, Roger Maynard, Tuan Anh Nguyen, Torsten Joses, Julica Jungehulsing, Kerry Lorimer, Tim Dekkers, Marc van den Broek.