President’s Message

Dear Members,

Since our last newsletter, so much has happened.  Many of us have endured at least one if not three lockdowns. To those members who have had to quarantine – thank you!

Welcome to our, new members, hopefully you will be able to join us at one or more of our upcoming functions. We are always looking for new members – so please spread the word throughout your networks.

Before the latest COVID outbreaks we were lucky enough to hold a number of PD’s sessions. 

March saw Jeff Buchanan facilitate “Turning Volunteers into Champions” joined by Phil Hancock, Jo Nitz and Tamlyn Lambert also shared their insights during a panel discussion.  Later in the month Claire Henkey, Susie Hancock and myself visited Mackay for a full day of PD with our members and guests.

Our fundraising and admissions members enjoyed a special interest group at St John’s Anglican College in April focusing on best practice in Fundraising initiatives and the consequent impact on enrolment outcomes.

In May members of the committee travelled to Toowoomba for a professional development day.  Lara Pickering shared the story of St Margaret’s Going for Gold Campaign. Susie Hancock ran a session on calm or chaos in the marketing office and Kamyra Laurenson shared her learnings from UQ’s ‘Soils for Science’ campaign. It was great to have local Tracey Kessels from Glennie share the success of their Poppy Project.

Our latest SIGs were to be held at Churchie, but due to the latest lockdown the admissions SIG was flipped to Zoom. Ben Foley’s shared his knowledge of admissions and law with members joining from across Australia. Thanks, Ben, for a great session. You can view the session HERE. The marketing SIG will be rescheduled to a time where we can join together on site at schools.

The Educate Plus Board have had to make the difficult decision to once again postpone our International Conference to May 30 – June 2, 2022.  Anyone who has already signed up will have their registration transferred to the new dates. 

So that PD can still be enjoyed this year, the Board has created a fantastic Non-Conference Week Online Series which will run from Tuesday 7 to Thursday 9 September with nine great sessions. Click through for more details https://www.educateplus.edu.au/professional-development/non-conference-week-events.

We are always keen to hear your ideas for speakers and topics for our ongoing SIG’s and professional development sessions, so feel free to email me anytime.

Your State Committee and the National Board continue to work hard to ensure that you, our members, enjoy quality experiences to support you in the development of your profession.

Please reach out to me if there’s anything we can do to support you in your work or add value to your membership.

I look forward to connecting with you personally at future events.

Kind regards,

Sue Russell
Chapter President