High-profile chair Shelley Scoullar has advised she will not be seeking re-election at the meeting, which will be at Finley Country Club Hotel on Friday, March 1 at 11am.
Speak Up was established to advocate on behalf of communities being impacted by various aspects of water management and policy, particularly the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
Mrs Scoullar, who was a rice farmer at Mayrung when Speak Up was established in 2015, has since moved with her family to Albury.
She will now focus attention on her appointment in a marketing role with an agriculture manufacturer.
Mrs Scoullar said she felt “terrible” about the decision but that the timing was right.
“I don’t feel a load off my shoulders,” Mrs Scoullar told Country News.
“It’s just time for change, that’s all.
“The rallies are not having an impact so its time for someone else to have a crack.
“Personally, I am knackered.”
Mrs Scoullar said she would remain the executive officer of the Murray Regional Strategy Group
“So I will keep my hand in the game I guess.”
Mrs Scoullar said she did not expect to be able to change much when Speak Up Campaign was launched in 2015 as a group using social media to engage with communities about sustainable and environmentally friendly farming.
“But when farmers are supported by good policy, they do it tremendously,” she said.
“And then there is the positive flow-on effects into regional communities from good farming management.”
Among the group’s achievements, Mrs Scoullar highlighted the March through Deniliquin in 2016 for World Water Day, where the main street’s shops all closed for one hour in support.
She also said creeping into the Hyatt Hotel in Canberra to ambush a breakfast meeting of the nation’s water ministers was a coup.
“We snuck in and found ourselves getting escorted out by the Federal Police.
“We’ve done some great things.”
She felt hopeful there was a positive future ahead for regional communities.
“There’s still a long way to go and I must say there were certainly tears when I hit the send button on the email [announcing her resignation].
“People don’t see that you can achieve outcomes on farms, so I think we’ve had a turning of the tides in that direction.”
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