Wanta Aboriginal Corporation AGM 2020

On Friday the 20th of November, Wanta hosted their 2020 Annual General Meeting in Alice Springs. For the first time in the organisations’ history the AGM had Board representatives from all seven Communities Wanta delivers programs in. It was a positive day with many discussions on the future direction of the organisation. To maintain continuity within the organisation the Board felt it was important to appoint Acting CEO Demian Coates to the position on an ongoing basis. Additionally, Trish Lechleitner was elected as Chairperson of the Board. Trish was Wanta’s first Board Member in 2015 and is a really valued member of the Board for her on-going contribution and support. Congratulations to both Demian and Trish. 

One major take away from the meeting, is there needs to be a better understanding of each of the Wanta programs and their separate mandates. Each Community has different contract providers, different amounts of funding and has to meet different community needs. Therefore each program has different outcomes they need to achieve. As an organisation we need to ensure that this information is shared within each community. Directors left feeling they had a better understanding of the contracts within their respective community and would be happy to have these conversations with fellow community members and service providers.      

The Board would like a more holistic approach across all Academies with a focus on the overall physical and mental health, education, and future of the children. They agreed that there are certain programs currently being run that all our Academies would benefit from, including the Learner Drivers Program, Drumbeat and Social Enterprise Education. Wanta will strive to roll these programs out across all Academies pending training, funding and Community approval.   

Wanta is currently in the beginning stages of creating a new financial education and savings program for Indigenous youth living in remote communities; during the AGM the Board was eager to learn about this new program and how it could impact the future of the children we work with. 

 The Board concluded that the meeting was a great success and are already planning next years’ AGM.

Written by Benicia Acevedo

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