By Sonia Isaacs
AFTER decades of caring for their community run heritage hall, the aging members of the Mooloolah Public Hall executive committee plan to step down over the coming months. However, they are anxiously concerned that the community will not step up in time to take over management of the community owned asset.
Long running hall secretary Bev Smith said she felt people were just too busy with other commitments these days, and there was a different expectation around local community participation in volunteer activities. This is a sentiment that is being echoed across many grassroots community-run organisations in our region. A decline in membership, aging committee members and a reluctance of younger people to step up are all seemingly a sign of our times and the changing fabric of our modern-day society, however these are trends the custodians of Mooloolah Hall are eager to challenge, but have simply just run out of stream.
Bev said although more local community members had been attending recent hall meetings, and despite assurances that the hall will continue to operate, there had been no firm commitment from anyone to take over managing the hall.
“We need our community to continue to breathe life into our hall through active involvement. People may not realise that our hall has been owned and operated by the people of Mooloolah for almost 120 years, and we are the oldest running community operated hall here on the coast. Our hall is not owned by Council or any government agency, it is owned entirely by the people of our town and if we don’t have an active management committee this wonderful asset will be lost,” said Bev.
With the public hall AGM set for October 20, people were needed to stand up and take a position and become responsible to ensure the hall’s remains for future generations.
“We like to say to our community that this is ‘your hall’ – we are merely the custodians of our community asset. It has had a wonderful history of community meetings, events, receptions, and dances over the last 100 years, and we are keen for it to continue to be an important part of our community.”
For further information on the management positions, the community are urged to attend any monthly hall meeting leading to the AGM (August 10, September 8, or October 13 at 4.30pm in the hall) or contact 5494 7999 or 5494 7793. https://www.facebook.com/mooloolahpublichall
Main image: The current executive of Mooloolah Public Hall will be stepping down at the October AGM
