Friends of the ABC (Tas) Inc. will be holding our Annual General meeting at the Ross Town Hall on Sunday 9th November 2008. 11.30 Lunch, for 12.30 start of meeting.

Our Guest Speaker will be Quentin Dempster, who has a long and respected involvement with the ABC, journalism and media issues. His insights into the current challenges facing the ABC are extremely valuable. Quentin was the staff elected Director on the ABC Board before that position was abolished two years ago, and he presently hosts the NSW Stateline program in NSW. Having him speak to us here and be available for our questions will be greatly helpful in planning how to be most effective in our role as Friends of the ABC.

Workshop on the ABC SBS Review: Last week, the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy released a discussion paper on the future roles of the ABC and SBS in the changing media environment.

It is open to all and submissions are due to be received on Friday 12th December. Friends of the ABC (Tas) Inc. are planning to put in a submission for this review, and we are going to hold a workshop after our AGM to gather ideas for this process.

This is a valuable opportunity for as many of us as possible to have our say, and contribute to the submission that Friends of the ABC Tas will then prepare for this review.

Everyone is welcome to come, be inspired and enlightened by a wonderful speaker, and take part in formulating a submission to be brought to the government with our own views on the future of the ABC.

If you cannot make it to the workshop, please consider putting in a submission of your own.