Kristy Frahm
Proston resident Kristy Frahm has been appointed as the new CEO of the Burnett Inland Economic Development Organisation (BIEDO).
Mrs Frahm, from Proston, took over the role on July 1 following the resignation of former CEO Carmel Summers.
Her appointment was announced at Wednesday’s South Burnett Regional Council meeting by Mayor Keith Campbell, who is also the chairman of BIEDO.
The Mayor said he had a long association with 20-year-old organisation, and had invited Mrs Frahm to give a short presentation about her plans for BIEDO’s future direction.
Mrs Frahm told the meeting that while BIEDO was primarily a community organisation which ran a number of programs to help upksill people in the South and North Burnett and provide support to disadvantaged sectors of local communities, in recent years it had become best known as a grant-writing organisation.
This was partly because BIEDO had built up a reputation for being able to assist groups secure grant funding, and partly because BIEDO offered the service at a very low rate.
Mrs Frahm flagged that while BIEDO will continue to offer grant-writing services, it will be raising its rates to cover its true costs because its previous pricing scheme was unsustainable.
She said this rate increase might mean many smaller organisations would no longer be able to afford to use the group’s services, but BIEDO were unwilling to leave the region’s smaller group’s “in the lurch”.
Instead, it will be offering a series of practical grant writing workshops at towns around the region over coming months to train smaller groups how to assemble and submit grant applications themselves.
The first of the new grant writing workshops will be aimed at applying for Gambling Community Benefit Fund grants.
The Fund provides grants of $500 to $35,000 for non-profit community groups, and it offers four grant rounds each year.
Mrs Frahm said the workshop would give each participant a blank Gambling Community Benefit Fund application form, and show them how to fill it in.
“By the end of the night everyone will have a solid first draft of their grant submission,” Mrs Frahm said.
The workshop will cost $99 per participant (inc GST) and all participants will also receive a BIEDO Grant Writing Manual.
The first workshop will be held at Kilkivan Town Hall in Bligh Street this Thursday (July 21) between 6:00pm and 9:00pm.
Future workshops will be held at Mundubbera on July 26, Murgon on August 16 and Nanango on August 18, with other regional locations to be announced at a later date.
- External link: BIEDO Grant Writing Workshop flyer
