A meeting of all interested was held on July 25^th 2010 at which 22 attendees signed membership forms to become members, thereby accepting the Draft Management Rules and establishing Friends of the Pinnacle as an unincorporated organisation.

There had previously been a group of people who had individually and collectively participated in weed control, guided walks, rabbit warren mapping and other activities on the Pinnacle Nature Reserve for at least a year and had organised under the name of Friends of The Pinnacle. By the end of 2009 there was an email list of 50 interested people.

In early 2010 discussions commenced about the benefits of formalising Friends of The Pinnacle. A Governance Working Group was formed to discuss the benefits and disadvantages of proceeding. The working group comprised Rosemary Blemings, John Brannan, Heather and Mark Burness, Vaughn Cox (aka Pax) and Harry Nyman.

The working group reported on its deliberations in early June, concluding that the advantages of formalising Friends of The Pinnacle outweighed the disadvantages, proposing a draft set of management rules and inviting everyone interested to attend a meeting on 25th July.

Activities prior to July 2010

Leadership:

• Thus far leadership of Parkcare-type activities on The Pinnacle has relied on the assumption of roles and responsibilities in response to perceived need.
• Guided walks occurred under the leadership of the Field Naturalists (FNAC) in order that walkers and leaders were covered by FNAC's insurance.
• We began working-bees under my [Rosemary's] leadership because, at the time, I was the only Chem-certificated person. We drew on the expertise and experience of FOMP volunteers and leaders initially.

Recruitment of new members:

• Guided walks aimed to draw regular Pinnacle "users" towards the idea of joining a parkcare group.
• Notices were posted in the reserve.
• Letter-box dropping about the walks and becoming-involved was targeted at the original Pinnacle Environment Group members where addresses were known.
• Neighbourly word-of-mouth was particularly successful in the vicinity of Weetangera Primary School.
• Some people joined after seeing posters or flyers.

A year's outcomes:

• About 50 people were email-listed as Pinnacle Walkers by the end of 2009.
• Some became regular working-bee attendees. Monthly working bees were held concentrating on woody weeds and for, example, thistle species and Verbascum.
• Professionalism steered the group in the direction of GPS-based vegetation surveying, weed population and rabbit warren mapping and the Draft-for-comment Community Weed Management Plan for The Pinnacle (2010 - 2020).
• The recent launch of this document illustrated the effectiveness and efficiencies of the team that has developed into Friends of The Pinnacle.
• Pax initiated determined contact with PC&L at Stromlo and Mitchell depots in relation to these aspects of reserve management and the day-to-day oversight of The Pinnacle Nature Reserve.
• Individual volunteers have quickly learned the principles of weeding, different methods and gained identification skills.
• Individual volunteers have provided expertise, gratis. This has included liaison-roles, weeding methodology, authorship of and graphic design for documents, flyers and posters and website design. David Tongway has begun the process of guiding us towards erosion-control projects.

Equipment:

• Some tools and first aid kits were supplied by PC&L through Sally McIntosh.
• Several tools were borrowed from the Ginninderra Catchment Group's Landcare trailer.
• Double-ended hoes & paint-brushes were bought for the group by individuals as an establishment donation.
• Other volunteer workers regularly used their own tools.
• Some field guides were also bought for the group as donations.

Costs:

• As mentioned above many costs have been borne by individuals and families as donations to The Pinnacle.
• Pax and Susan have made major contributions towards the cost of the various 'publications'.
• During weeding some quantifying of effort per hour, per volunteer and per hectare has been achieved and recorded.
• Recording the volunteer-hours worked on-ground, or as surveyors, or photographers or in the production of documents and project plans is invaluable. Data provides statistics and costings for the realities of reserve management and general and specific volunteer-contributions for government-notice.

Moving forward:

As we have worked together plans have been mooted and laid. Everyone has developed lists of projects and actions that will further the restoration of The Pinnacle and significantly benefit its habitats and native species. It's time to devise a management system for FOTPIN which utilises members' talents. There are opportunities for leadership and for being part of teams and, perhaps, sub-committees for each of the necessary projects.

My initial projects list includes: weeding parties, surveying biodiversity year-round, reviewing/evaluating what we've done so far, guided walks, contact with local schools, website & blog, photography, art-work in various media, archives and historical records, erosion control, community-outreach, seed collecting with Greening Australia, links with indigenous people, planting and Don's recently-announced native grasses restoration project is already inspiring.......

Rosemary Blemings