Presidents Report

 

 

Bronwyn Pott ALPMA President CEO, Swaab Attorneys

 

 

OK, So where were we all when we finally recovered from the ALPMA conference in October? I think I was home for an early night the Monday following, but I’m pretty sure our very hard working conference organisers were wrecked for at least a week. In case you weren’t there (and each year there are less members who DON”T attend) it was a terrific event – interesting and thought provoking speakers, lots of social activity, and the largest trade display we have ever had. It really was a mammoth effort, and it was financially successful as well, so it was cheers all round. Trish Carroll will do a much better job of a debrief than I could hope to, so look out for Trish’s commentary on the 2 days later in this newsletter.

 

 

Of course, for some of us, the conference comes as a package along with the National AGM, and with Steve Sampson’s resignation as President, for the next 2 years it will be my notes going out to you to let you know what we are trying to achieve with the National Association. I feel I have very big shoes to fill in the Presidents’ role, but fortunately Steve is going to stay around on the National Board to ensure we don’t loose the momentum of the last two years.

 

 

As well as a changing of the guard at National level, there have also been three new State Presidents elected in NSW, Victoria and SA. I would like to welcome Cate Shailer, Valmai Trudgen and Coral McDonald into their roles. Cate and Valmai have also taken positions on the National Board. 

 

The National Board has always acknowledged that the State groups are where the Association ‘meets the road’, and since we started having our six monthly learning and development phone hook-ups, I have been blown away by the L&D Committees’ ability to determine management trends and hot spots and turn these into a learning experience for our members.

 

 

The Diploma of Practice Management was a great initiative for the association in 2007 and the UNEP now has over 20 students undertaking the course nationally. 2008 will see our first graduation ceremony, and hopefully the start of the residential delivery (with three to five one-day face-to-face lectures offered in major centres). The Diploma has been a long term goal of ALPMA and I would encourage everyone to consider it for their management reports if not for themselves. We’ve had very positive feedback from students undertaking the course, but we will continue to refine the course as we progress using student feedback and an annual board review to ensure the content is current and relevant.

 

 

A breakfast hosted by the Conference Committee on the second day of the conference was a great opportunity for all State committee members in attendance to get together and share their history, and for everyone to put a face to voices they hear on teleconferences, or the names they see attached to reports. It was also an opportunity to meet managers from WA and Canberra with whom we have been in contact with about becoming involved in the Association.

 

 

One of the challenges we have going forward is to settle the structure of our Association. The feedback from each of the State members is that we are moving ever closer to a National Association. We have a number of alternatives that the National Board members will be taking back to their relative committees for comment (in all likelihood) before Christmas. The National Board meeting in December will consider these comments and we will start to work up an action plan to move the project forward.

 

 

The National Board explored a number of ways to offer membership to a WA group, but as our amalgamation is still some way off, felt the best alternative was to offer WA support in order to create their own state association which could be amalgamated at the same time as the other states. To support this initiative the National Board has made available $5,000 in seed funding for the establishment of their group. James Shadbolt has taken on the responsibility for seeing to the creation of the group, and we will be supporting the new group in its initial stages via the National Secretariat in Melbourne (aka Kerrie).

 

Bronwyn Pott