President’s Message

You, Dear Reader, are part of an incredibly hard-working, highly motivated and demanding sector. Advancement, whether it involves you in student admissions, communications, alumni, parent and community relations, or fundraising is pressured, needs to be responsive to people and events, often requires hands-on effort, and leaves little time planning and reflection.

Back in the 90s – remember those! – the UK telecom business,  BT ran a hugely successful slogan:  It’s Good to Talk!  When it is all getting on top of you, one of the best things you can do is pick up the phone and call up a colleague and do just that.

One of the astonishing things about the members of Educate Plus, in my experience, is their accessibility and supportiveness. By far the best way, however, you can be sure that you can reach out to a colleague is to have in some way developed a relationship and a rapport. Rapport is almost always best achieved face-to-face.

A major focus of Educate Plus is to create face-to-face opportunities for networking and professional development. This year, in New Zealand, we are hugely fortunate to be hosting the flagship professional development event, the International Conference, bringing together members from Australia and New Zealand and presenters from around the world. I urge you to attend.

But it is important that we create and maintain face-to-face networking opportunities throughout the year. The best ideas for such events and the best indications of your needs and interests come from you. I hope those of you who make it to the Conference at Sky City, Auckland from 4 to 7 September are enthused and stimulated by the connections you make. I ask, though, that you give some thought to colleagues unable to attend and ask yourself how what you have gained can be shared more frequently and more locally.

Educate Plus has the resources to create opportunities for professional development by providing workshops or creating networking events if demand indicates. It needn’t be expensive and it needn’t be far away. If you have an idea and know that there is an interest from colleagues around you please let me or another chapter committee member know.

We aspire to be a member driven organisation and our role is to support you, the member.

NZ President
John Godfrey
Development Consultant
College House
development@collegehouse.org.nz