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Committee of Management

At Friends of the Earth Melbourne, our committee of management is called the Policy and Advisory Committee (PAC) and like all collectives within Friends of the Earth Melbourne, the Policy and Advisory Committee is participatory, voluntary, anti-hierarchical and consensus-based, in line with our values, philosophy, constitution and internal policies.

On a day-to-day basis the operations of Friends of The Earth Melbourne are managed through the Strategy collective, the Food Co-operative and the Operations collectives.

The role of the Policy and Advisory Committee is organisational, financial and governance oversight and to ensure Friends of The Earth Melbourne is compliant with State and Federal regulations relating to charitable organisations. A separate committee is responsible for managing the Friends of the Earth Melbourne Fund, which receives funds that hold tax deductibility status.

The Committee also plays an important role in assisting in the long-term development of Friends of the Earth and in supporting the staff and volunteers working on various campaign issues.

We strongly encourage our members to participate in our campaign collectives and actively engage in governance roles like the Policy and Advisory Committee. If you are a full financial member of Friends of The Earth Melbourne, actively engaged in a collective or project, then you are eligible to nominate for the Policy and Advisory Committee before our Annual General Meeting (AGM).

Contact [email protected] for more information.

Committee of Management

Sasha King
Sasha King
Sasha King is a nurse and a climate activist and organiser. She is a volunteer with FoE Melbourne's Act on Climate collective and a co-convenor of the Strategy Collective (FoE Melbourne's main decision making body, made up of members representative all collectives).
Anna Lanford
Anna Lanford
Anna Langford is a long time volunteer and activist with FoE Melbourne. Anna is currently the co-coordinator of the Act on Climate collective.
David Robertson
David Robertson
David Robertson is the current FoE Melbourne Chair of the Policy and Advisory Committee and a member of several campaign collectives of FoE Melbourne
Beth Cameron
Beth Cameron
Beth Cameron has been a Friends of the Earth Food Co-op co-ordinator for over 30 years. Starting as a volunteer with an interest in community, reducing waste, food productions and justice, she became a member of the collective. Active in The City of Yarra since the 1980’s, she has been involved in many projects helping deliver affordable, organic meals and food to the community. A clear focus of Beth’s is the building of strong relationships with producers that seek to ensure ethical environmental and social justice practices. She has a passion for working with volunteers, school groups and community programs that bring people together to share stories and skills.
Sam Castro
Sam Castro
Sam Castro is the current Secretary of Friends of The Earth Melbourne. Sam comes from a back ground in media and communication and previously worked in the aid and development sector before coming to work at FoE. Sam has over 20 years experience as an activist and organiser and joined Friends of The Earth Melbourne in 2011. She is the current Operations Coordinator and also works for the Secretariat of Friends of the Earth Australia. Sam is a national spokesperson for FoE Australia's Defence of Earth Project which works on issues relating to the environment and militarism. She is an FoE Asia Pacific representative on Friends of the Earth International's - Gender Justice Dismantling Patriarchy Working Group. 
Phil Jackson
Phil Jackson
Phil is a committed campaigner for environmental justice and nurturing our ecosystems. Phil believes through collective action we build our strength and solidarity. Phil works in community housing, and has a background community campaigning. Past professional roles have been in supply chain planning and IT system implementation.
Rodney Vlais
Rodney Vlais
Rodney is a gender-based violence activist who has worked for almost twenty years focusing on men's use of family and domestic violence. They have been part of FoE communities since 2004 contributing in various unpaid capacities, and have been a member of PAC since 2013. Rodney's social justice and environmental activism stems back to the mid 1990's, where they've learnt about autonomous, non-hierarchical organising through amazing ecofeminist and anarchist-influenced mentors and collectives.
Cam Walker
Cam Walker
Cam has been the campaigns co-ordinator with Friends of the Earth Melbourne for several decades. He helps coordinate the local campaigns, with a current focus on extractive industries, climate and forests. He previously represented Friends of the Earth in national campaigns and lobbying, and spent several years working with Friends of the Earth groups around the world on a range of environmental and social justice issues.