• Schools Expo. 2019
Planning continued for an East Gippsland hosted event in 2019
• Sam to contact Nagle College (Andrea) to see if they would consider hosting the next Expo. First or second week in September (5th?) in 2019.
• We need to be applying for LGA funding. “Biodiversity: safeguarding the future” theme was determined by the group based on the information Raq provided about the school and its setting. Community grants open on Jan 9, close 6 March, 2019 up to $5,000. If there was a biodiversity theme then Landcare and/or environmental grants were highlighted as less competitive as they are often less sought. ACTION – Monica offered to write the community grant.
. Will Tait needs to be notified that the EG Expo will now be held in September. ACTION – Peter can you please let Will know.

General Business

• Barb presented the Regional Achievement and Community awards ACTION – Monica to scan and send to Ash, and certificate to be kept in the FedUni office. ACTION – Ash to put on this blog.

• RCE Global Questionnaire Schedule 2018 Measuring the effectiveness of RCE governance network – Jess completed this on behalf of RCE – thank you Jess!• Sustainable Development Goals need to be embraced by RCE Gippsland. The biodiversity goal could be pushed in both the community application and for the Expo..

• Ian Southhall called in briefly to the meeting and threw some weight behind the proposed climate change workshops and has offered to fill in for Ashley when he is unavailable as contact with GCCN.

• Joan contacted Dr Jessica Reeves from FedUni (Environmental Science Lecturer) to be part of RCE Gippsland. Jess’s research is in the area of biodiversity/salinity and contaminant mobility in Gippsland Lakes

• FedUni office has moved and Joan has the key.

• It was discussed that the RCE Charter to remain. The new focus on climate change education as professional learning for teachers was deemed timely as it fitted in with a new direction for RCE post the roll out of Expos across the six LGAs.

Proposal of Climate Change Education Workshops for Gippsland Teachers

• Proposed Climate change (CC) education workshops for teachers in Gippsland:
Monica discussed a recent after school sustainability forum (ED Talks workshop arranged by John Caldow and Bug Blitz) that she and Raq had attended in Sale with approximately 35 teachers. Most teachers there had indicated their lack of preparedness to engage in climate change pedagogy.

 In response, Monica spoke to a number of people (including Ash and Joan) about rolling out some CC workshops across each of the six LGAs. Alison Taylor from ResourceSmart (RS) was interested in partnering with RCE Gippsland who would take overall responsibility for planning the workshops as part of their UN mandate. Alison mentioned she had funds for sponsoring RS attendees who could be replaced with CRTs. Simon Taylor from RS has good expertise in CC and has developed a number of curriculum resources, making her a possible workshop presenter.
 Joan followed up with BBSN and got some names for possible involvement in the workshops.
 Ash spoke to John Lawrence about the idea and suggested we make an appointment with Karen Cain from LVA to talk about CC education through their renewables focus.
 Monica spoke to Dr Peta White from Deakin University who works closely with Jorja McKinnon, another CC educator

• It was deemed by the group that RCE Gippsland run a Pilot CC workshop in Sale. Rather than have a full day as originally proposed, we decided that x2 2hr workshops across separated by a fortnight in early May would be held in Sale (Wellington LGA) – the first workshop setting the scence with definitions, data and facts. The second being a practical hands on workshop to be broken down into three groups – early childhood, primary and secondary. Knowing that the turn out at the earlier sustainability workshop in Sale attracted such a good turn out in after school hours, we felt we could tap into the same formula. ACTION Monica to contact John Caldow to see if we could get the emails of the people that attended the forum.

• Monica mentioned that Marie Clarke (science teacher from Maffra secondary college was interested to join the RCE committee. Marie also expressed interest in being involved as potentially one of the workshop educators, which is timely and fortuitous given the Wellington shire will host the first workshop in May, 2019 in Sale.