KCCC is a parent-managed centre whose parents are members. The members appoint the Board of Directors of the co-operative. The board has a governance role and sets the mission, vision and strategic plan for the centre. The board also appoints the General Manager, who is responsible for the management of the centre.
KCCC is a member-based not-for-profit co-operative and its financial accounts are independently audited and filed annually with the Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission (ACNC).
Executive Committee
- Consists of the Chair, Secretary and Treasurer
- Holds some special decision making powers
- Has specific responsibilities to the Department of Consumer Affairs (regulator of the Co-Operatives Act)
- Elected to manage the governance of the board
Board
- Elected by co-operative members at the Annual General Meeting (AGM).
- Responsible for the appointment and management of the General Manager.
- Each of the non-executive board members may sit on a sub-committee, working group and/or may be responsible and accountable for one of the boards guiding documents
- The quorum for a board meeting is five of the nine board members.
Sarah McCartney
Chair
Sarah has been part of the KCCC community for nine years and has long believed that KCCC holds a special place in the Kensington community.
Sarah is grateful for the supportive, inclusive environment and experiences that KCCC extends not only to children, but to parents, carers and the broader Kensington community, making it truly unique among early years education providers.
Sarah is an experienced international communications and marketing professional and executive leader.
She has broad experience in business, governance and commercial management and has chaired and served on many steering committees, strategic advisory groups and industry associations during her 20+ year career.
Sarah deeply values the importance of early years education and the impact this has on school years and into adulthood.
She also acknowledges the positive impact the KCCC has, and continues to have, on her own children and the wonderful commitment and hard work of the educators.
Evette Castle
Treasurer
Evette has been a member of KCCC since 2019 when her son Spencer joined the Yarragum room as a 10 month old. Watching him grow and develop as well as having a lot of fun and building relationships with the other children and carers has been truly amazing and a credit to the KCCC team. Hence, Evette wanted to give back to the community that is doing so much for her and Spencer, by joining the Board in August 2020 and taking on the role as Treasurer.
Evette is a qualified CPA with experience supporting senior leaders and executives across a diverse range of industries and types of organisations including energy, property and legal, as well as a mix of ASX listed and private equity. Her experiences include management and board reporting, statutory reporting, investor results presentations, business planning and forecasting, scenario planning, system and process improvements and business partnering. She is passionate about adding value and contributing to the organisation’s success.
Outside of work Evette enjoys spending time with family and friends, keeping active with Spencer wandering the streets of Kensington with the dog in tow from playgrounds to the river to the diggers and trains, keeping his inquisitive mind occupied.
Belinda Furse
Secretary
Belinda and her family joined the KCCC community in 2016. Belinda grew up in country Victoria and loves living in Kensington – particularly because of the beautiful families and community spirit.
Belinda is so grateful for the wonderful care, support and commitment from the KCCC staff and management team. Being on the Board will provide Belinda with an opportunity to contribute to the KCCC community and support the children, families and educators in a meaningful way.
Belinda is a senior lawyer turned well-being coach, fitness professional and speaker. Belinda spent most of her legal career working at a leading Australian law firm. As a personal injury litigation lawyer, she gained a deep understanding of workplace injuries and the importance of creating a mentally healthy workplace. Throughout her work in Australia and the UK, she witnessed many lawyers and leaders struggle with stress, anxiety and burnout. In January 2020, Belinda founded a corporate health and wellbeing company. Belinda inspires lawyers every day to make lifestyle changes that will help them have increased energy, happiness and motivation!
During downtime Belinda loves gym workouts, meditating, spending quality time with family and friends and exploring Melbourne cafes.
Adam Clarke
Director
Adam is an extremely passionate, engaged and active parent within the KCCC community who wishes to give more to the organisation through using his extensive organisational leadership skills to contribute to the Board.
Adam is a career manager with over 20 years’ experience in senior management roles within the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors, including his current role as Director, Adam Clarke Consultancy Pty Ltd.
Adam has a proven track record of success in each role that he has occupied – all the way back to his time in the State swimming team racing against Kieran Perkins for a spot in the Olympic team!
Adam aims to enhance the delivery of early childhood education to every child that attends KCCC.
Nick Laurie
Director
Nick and his family have been members of KCCC since 2018 when Teddy joined the Yarragum room as a troublesome baby “speedy gonzalez” (in the words of his educators at the time). Teddy is now in the Appletree kindergarten room while sister Tig is a member of the Banksia room.
Nick has particularly valued what a supportive, safe and stimulating environment his children have experienced at KCCC under the care of the wonderful educators.
Nick’s hobbies include beer brewing (and drinking), knife making and cooking.
Professionally, Nick works as a senior lawyer at law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth. He acts for clients in the construction and resource industry in large scale project and infrastructure disputes, specializing in arbitration. At work, Nick is especially passionate about promoting flexible working and diversity in the legal profession. He works part-time, so he can split care-giving of the kids with his wife Heidi, who is also a lawyer.
Prior to working in commercial law, Nick worked in counter-piracy (the real ones, not the DVD kind) at the United Nations in Nairobi, Kenya and as a legal researcher at the University of Melbourne.
Nick would bring skills in law, risk management, strategic planning, communication and governance to the Board. His main driver for joining the Board is to contribute these skills to the KCCC and wider Kensington community.
Jordan Lloyd
Director
Jordan joined the KCCC community in 2022 when his eldest daughter started attending the centre. Now he has 2 daughters attending KCCC and loved the way that the staff and families of KCCC have created an environment where the girls look forward to going to “kindy” each day. As a result, he wanted to get involved in the Co-Op and give back to the Kensington community of which he has been a part for 15 years. He is passionate about helping maintain and improve all of the things that make KCCC so special to many of us.
Professionally, Jordan is a qualified Chartered Accountant and Partner at Deloitte. His expertise is in providing risk and governance advice to Australia’s largest corporates. More recently Jordan’s work has focused on helping employers ensure they are meeting their compliance requirements with regard to accurate payment of payroll obligations and helping remediate where breaches have occurred.
Outside of work, Jordan can be seen trying to keep up with his two girls and maintain some level of basic fitness! He is also a passionate Western Bulldogs supporter who managed to fly back to Melbourne from the US to watch their famous grand Final win in 2016.
Jackie Moss
Director
Jackie Moss has been a Kensington local since 2011 with Ari joining KCCC in 2022. Jackie joined the KCCC board in 2023 to give back to the centre and the local community.
Jackie and her family feel so fortunate to be part of KCCC community. Ari thrives with the caring educators in Banksia room and the program, with a love of cooking and nature-based play fully supported at the centre.
Jackie is a chartered chemical and environmental engineer with a Masters of Business Administration and has been a member of the water sector for 20 years of her career.
Jackie worked in an engineering consultancy across Perth, Sydney and Melbourne before transitioning to working in a water utility where her career transitioned from process engineering to a senior leadership position managing large programs of capital work, operational budgets and teams of engineers. Her strengths are in strategy, strategy implementation, planning, financial and risk management and stakeholder management.
Outside of work Jackie loves spending time with her family, catching up with friends, taking walks down the beach, eating good food and drinking quality wine. When she can, she squeezes in a gym work out, a run down the Maribyrnong or a Pilates reformer in her busy schedule.
Jackie and Ari also enjoy the occasional Friday off spending time at cafes drinking coffee and babycinos respectively, going to Skinny Park or JJ Holland Park to watch trains or a walk and trip to Melbourne Zoo.
Rebecca Zimet
Director
Rebecca Zimet moved to Kensington in 2016 and joined the KCCC community in 2021 when her daughter Ruby started in Gumnut. Now in Appletree in 3 year old kinder, Ruby is joined by her 2 year old brother Harry in Acacia. Bec became a KCCC board member in 2023 to give back to the community that has given so much to her family.
Bec loves the caring and supportive staff at KCCC, and values how genuinely invested they are in the children’s wellbeing. She is especially grateful for the way the educators and staff take the time to get to know each child’s personality and little quirks, and how they make every kid feel special.
Bec is Senior Corporate Counsel at Thryv Australia, providing advice to the senior leadership team and other key stakeholders on a range of relevant laws including privacy and data management, intellectual property, defamation, consumer law and general commercial law.
On weekends you can find Bec with Roo and Harry at the playground, throwing a ball for their dog Enzo, catching up with friends and family, trawling a farmers’ market, or wandering through a bookshop. Bec and her family recently moved to Flemington where they are learning how to care for their new pet chickens, Hei Hei and Uncle Phil.
Sam Buckley
Director
Sam has been a Kensington local since 2019 and a KCCC board member since 2022.
Sam’s oldest daughter Matilda commenced with KCCC in the Banksia room is early 2021 and his youngest Isabelle started in 2022 in Yarragum.
Since day one, Sam’s daughters have loved every minute of being part of the KCCC community and his desire to join the board was driven by a sense of wanting to give back to the community and help drive the centre forward to best suit the needs of the Kensington community.
Professionally, Sam works for the Australian Football League (AFL) in the Commercial and Stadium areas and he has worked across various roles in Entertainment, Sport, Venues and Technology over the last 15 years.
On the weekend, you’ll find Sam and the kids likely running and scooting around the local parks, enjoying everything that our lovely community has to offer.
Enrol to be a member of the board
Contributing to the KCCC board is a wonderful opportunity to be involved in your child’s service.
The Board is responsible for directing, influencing and monitoring the organisation’s business. The board is ultimately responsible and legally accountable for determining the purpose (or mission) of the organisation the continuity of the organisation setting the organisation’s rate of progress in reaching its mission establishing the identity of the organisation by securing community support and appreciation for the organisation’s purpose and long- term direction.
Being part of the KCCC is very rewarding in many ways. What are the benefits of being a not-for-profit board member?
- Better health and greater wellbeing
- Financial literacy
- The satisfaction of achievement
- A warm inner glow
- Social contact with a great group of people
- A world that’s the better for your involvement
- New networks experience that can benefit employment
A comment from an ex KCCC board member, “I have now moved out of Kensington. Some of my closest friends I made are the ones I met as part of the KCCC board. When I come back to Kensington, these are the people I see and am connected with”. Malene Platt, 2017. (Board member, 2014-2015)
If you are interested in joining the board, please contact the General Manager or update/complete the skills register if you have not already done so to express your interest.