Unfunded garden membership

$20

per year

OPEN to all unfunded city farms and community gardens

LIST your organisation in the Map Directory

PROMOTE your courses and events

ABILITY to vote at General Meetings

Join us

Funded garden membership

$50

per year

OPEN to all unfunded city farms and community gardens

LIST your organisation in the Map Directory

PROMOTE your courses and events

ABILITY to vote at General Meetings

Join us

Individual membership

$20

per year

OPEN to all unfunded city farms and community gardens

LIST your organisation in the Map Directory

PROMOTE your courses and events

ABILITY to vote at General Meetings

Join us

A few frequently asked questions about membership...

Membership: Who can become a member?

ACFCGN is an advocacy and networking group serving Australian city farms and community gardens. We expect the vast majority of our members to be organisational members...ie, the membership is held in the name of an organisation (eg, a city farm or community garden).

Organisations: Do we need to be incorporated?

Being incorporated is less important than being a group. Many groups are quite informal: the point is that to be a group there has to be some decision process. Through this process the group will indicate that it wishes to become a member of ACFCGN. The resulting membership will be in the name of the group, eg: Glovers Garden is the member. In order to vote and manage communications, your group will need to nominate an actual person (or officer role) to be the contact point for your group.

Individuals: Can an individual join?

Individuals can also join, though this is a rare situation since the ACFCGN's role is to represent organisations. Simply complete the membership form and the Committee will review your application in due course.

Voting: Who can vote?

We have two classes of membership: Members and Associates. Members vote, Associates do not. You can nominate to be in either class and the Committee will review.

Generally speaking, we expect full Members to actively participate in the governance and ongoing business of the ACFCGN. Associates join largely because they wish to support our work, but they do not have a direct stake in the governance of the organisation.

Fees: Funded vs UnFunded

We ask you to self-assess your funding situation and select the most reasonable fee. Memberships fees are the only core funding we have to pay for services and benefits to members: the point of collecting these fees is to pool them nationally and return benefits to you locally.

By joining the ACFCGN, you help us educate and work towards food secure cities, tasty food systems and new opportunities and support the development of the Map Directory and the ongoing development of this website and eNEWS.

Within its capacity, the Network:

advocates on behalf of community gardens, city farms and community food systems
provides education and information on our website and social media
advises local government, institutions and communities interested in establishing community gardens
documents the development of community gardening in Australia
is available to the media.

As a member you can:

list your organisation in the Map Directory
receive a regular eNEWS
upload your courses and events
create a profile about your organisation and share stories and interesting city farm and/or community garden news with others on the community section of this website.

Funded gardens/organisations are those who receive ongoing monetary support from supporting organisation/s.

Unfunded gardens/organisations are member funded, and don't receive outside ongoing monetary support.

Individual memberships are available to those not able to join a city farm or community garden at this time but might like to join and support the Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network (ACFCGN).

If you become an Individual member and would like to join the ACFCGN organising committee, simply contact your nearest city farm/community garden and ask them to write a letter of support. Committee members from each state are voted in at the Annual General Meeting.

Comments

Norma O'Hara Murphy

Dear Community Garden
I am an individual who would like to kick off a community garden here near Warwick in Southern Qld. I’m sure there would be great interest in such a project. But I’m wondering if you can give me some tips or support to get it all off the ground! Maybe to get a Celebrity Gardner here to get added interest in the project. I am really keen to see a Community Garden developed here in Warwick ! so it is accessible for the Warwick residents. I am happy to provide the land space here on my property, but I think it would be better in town somewhere. Any advice or support you can offer will be appreciated.
Regards Norma O’Hara Murphy

ACFCGN admin — Fiona Post author

Hi Norma…
I don’t know if someone has answered your question about starting a community garden in Warwick.

I help the Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network with media communications, so in case no one has got back to you (the Network is crewed by volunteers and people have been away on end of year break) I thought I would mention that the Network has information — about three pages of stories, I think — on starting community gardens at: http://communitygarden.org.au/category/about_gardens/

There, you should find the material you seek.

One of the first things to do is to find others who would be interested in starting a community garden. Contacting your local community radio station, newspaper or news blogger or placing a notice in your public library might find people. You might try seeing if you can get a mention on your ABC local radio.

On the Network’s website you should be able to find links to publications on starting community gardens. The big steps are: finding people interested > finding land > finding public liability insurance (try Garden Clubs Australia) > working out how your group will make decisions, resolve disagreement, communicate with each other/landholder/neighbors (see http://communitygarden.org.au/category/publications/documents_gardeners/management-plan/), fund the ongoing costs, find start-up funds or a grant > decide whether the garden will be individual allotments, a shared garden where people share the work and produce or a combination of these > designing and building the garden > mainain the garden.

Maybe someone has got back to you already. Have a look at the information on the website and get back if you have any follow-up questions.

??Russ Grayson
Independent journalist
http://www.pacificedge.info
Instagram: pacificedge_images
twitter.com/russgrayson?

1 year ago

Ellie Stringer

Hello,

I was hoping if someone could please contact me via my email as I would like to potentially gain some assistance in developing community garden reference group

thanks a lot

Membership support — Jane M

Hi Ellie
Sorry it’s taken so long to reply! Can you tell me more about the group you want to set up?
Cheers, Jane

7 months ago

Lyn Haast

I think there is an error on the Join us- Membership Catergory for Funded Garden Membership $50 – it reads open to all unfunded should read funded.

ACFCGN admin — Fiona Post author

Thanks Lyn, my quick cut and pasting without checking.

Fixed now, thanks so much for letting me know.

Cheers

…Fiona

Fiona Campbell
Website volunteer support

3 months ago