‘Burning With Optimism’s Flames’ is a 1980 song from the quirky UK New Wave band XTC. You can check it out below.
This obscure lyrical reference also pretty aptly describes Indigo FM – following yesterday’s 2021 Annual General Meeting – as we enter the notoriously fun, yet mad-season that is the end of each year.
Indigo FM’s Committee line-up for 2021-22 welcomes in two new members – Tiff Ellis and Patrick Jovaras – to join 5 ongoing members – Jos Ceccanti, Greg Clydesdale, Nigel Jones, Bernie Jovaras and Scott Landells.
They offer a stable base going forwards, with a slight shuffle – previous Secretary Jos Ceccanti takes on a General Committee role and Greg Clydesdale returns to the executive as Vice-President replacing Phil Fraser who is stepping down for personal reasons. We thank Phil very much for his valuable contribution to the management of Indigo FM from 2018-21 and look forward to his wonderful soul show Scorcher returning in early 2022.
Tiff takes on the Secretary’s role, bringing to the group a wealth of community and business experience from Euroa and Wodonga as well as an interest in music, arts and the vibrant unique local communities of Indigo Shire and surrounds.
Patrick grew up in Beechworth but these days calls Melbourne’s outer north-east home. The first Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020 saw Patrick explore a musical podcasting project, launching The Nest – a 2 hour exploration of ambient, soul, electronic, kraut-rock, indigenous and world music genres, which have been airing Sunday nights on Indigo FM since mid-2020.
In our ever-evolving Covid-normal world, utilising Zoom technology and podcasting is enabling creative people everywhere to connect and overcome previously isolating geographic barriers. And Indigo FM is keen to put that into practice and bring Patrick’s many skills and interests to the management side of Indigo FM.
Incoming President Scott Landells will line-up in this role for an 8th consecutive year (and 9th on the Committee) whilst deputy Greg Clydesdale will contribute as VP for the first time in this role (and his 8th consecutive year on the Committee). Bernie Jovaras will go around again for this 3rd straight year as Treasurer (and 4th in this stint on Committee).
In summary the team for 2021-22 is:
- President – Scott Landells
- Vice-President – Greg Clydesdale
- Secretary – Tiffany Ellis
- Treasurer – Bernie Jovaras
- General Committee – Patrick Jovaras, Nigel Jones, Jocelyn Ceccanti
At their 2021 Annual General Meeting, 15 Indigo FM members attended via a combination of in-person and Zoom. They heard that Indigo FM had turned around a loss of over $1400 in 2019-20, to a profit of just over $4,300 in 2020-21. On an “oily rag” annual budget of around $10,000, this outstanding result was due to a Covid-enforced shift in Business model that, among other things, had unearthed new revenue streams in the growing market of listener on-demand podcasts.
President Scott Landells summarised the new Committee as follows:
“Diversity and community are right at the heart of Indigo FM and we are thrilled to offer a management team whose ages range from early 30’s to mid 60’s. We reside in multiple communities within and outside Indigo Shire. Specifically Beechworth, Rutherglen, Tawonga, Murmungee, Yackandandah and the beautiful outer Melbourne enclave of Diamond Creek. Importantly rather than viewing ourselves as delegates of competing towns, we share a broader vision of the richness that every community and every listener can add to the ongoing tapestry of Indigo FM. And we’re very much looking forward to another productive year ahead, which will no doubt bring it’s usual mix of the predictable and the unpredictable. We’re as confident as we can be about our capacity to keep rising to the challenge of our member’s expectations.”
Burning with optimism’s flames, indeed!