From the President

Welcome to this term’s eNews!

I hope it’s been a productive term for you and your team. 

In this edition, we introduce you to our Chapter Treasurer David Miles, Director of Engagement, Anglican Church Grammar School (Churchie). David keeps our finances in order, and is an accomplished practitioner who moved to Alumni Relations after a career in sales and marketing. His role has extended recently to operations for the Churchie Foundation. He shares some of the highlights of his time Advancement and his advice for those new to Advancement. Thank you, David, for the volunteer hours you spend keeping us on track!

Past Event Wrap-Ups:

• Read on for a wrap-up of the Fundraising and Admissions Special Interest Group (SIG) held at Moreton Bay Boys’ College. Thank you to Penny Bowman, their Director of Community Engagement for hosting the sessions.
• Further, the Chapter hosted Cameron Pegg’s epic Storytelling Session which was widely attended by members from all over Australia and New Zealand. A recording is available for anyone who registered, but was subsequently unable to attend. Please reach out to danielle@educateplus.org to arrange the link.

Upcoming Event ‘Save the Dates’:

• The next Special Interest Group (SIG) will be held on Thursday 31 August at Churchie from 1.30pm. This session is relevant to those in the Fundraising and Marketing & Communications fields, and is all about policies and the requirements for the templates that are needed for your institutions, ensuring they are comprehensive, cohesive and complementary. Topics for discussion will include policies for Gift Acceptance, Donor Recognition & Naming, and Scholarship, Bursaries & Prizes.
• It’s full steam towards the Chapter Summit now – we can’t wait to welcome you to the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on 27 & 28 July. For more information and to register for the QLD Chapter NEXUS Summit, CLICK HERE.

In the meantime, please reach out with any questions or suggestions to enhance your Educate Plus membership.

Claire Grlj

Queensland Chapter President, Educate Plus

Director, Leading Engagement Solutions
Specialists in Nurturing School Brands and Community Engagement

M: 0401 439 612

Update from the Summit Convenors

It’s ‘all systems go’ with the planning of the QLD Chapter Summit!

We would like to acknowledge the QLD Summit Committee who are working hard on delivering an engaging and dynamic program of presenters and topics.

And, we would like to thank those who have nominated Members for a Summit Award. We are excited that the Award submissions have been received and judged … and we can’t wait to share the details of the winning entries with you at the Awards Breakfast.

We look forward to welcoming over 150 delegates from schools, universities and colleges (see below) from as far North as Normanton, west to Warwick, south to the Gold Coast and everywhere in between! We are excited to be welcoming a number of delegates who are engaging with Educate Plus PD for the first time, including a number of delegates from the Brisbane Catholic Education and Montessori Schools Australia network of schools.

A.B. Paterson College, A.B. Paterson College Foundation, Anglican Church Grammar School, Anglican Church Grammar School (Churchie), Australian Industry Trade College, Brisbane Catholic Education, Brisbane Christian College, Brisbane Sate High School, Calvary Christian College, Cannon Hill Anglican College, Citipointe Christian College, Clayfield College, Coomera Anglican College, Duchesne College, Emmanuel College, Faith Lutheran College, Genesis Christian College, Gold Coast Christian College, Gulf Christian College, Immanuel Lutheran College, Iona College, John Paul College – Daisy Hill, Kimberley College, King’s Christian College, Language Disorder Australia, Living Faith Lutheran Primary School, Loreto College Coorparoo, Mary MacKillop Catholic College, Matthew Flinders Anglican College, Moreton Bay College, Mt Maria College MITCHELTON, Nambour Christian College, Ormiston College, Rockhampton Girls Grammar School, SCOTS PGC College, Somerset College, Somerville House Foundation, St Aidan’s Anglican Girls School, St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School, St Andrew’s Anglican College, St Andrews Lutheran College, St John’s Anglican College, St Joseph’s College Gregory Terrace, St Laurence’s College, St Lukes Anglican School, St Margaret’s Anglican Girls’ School, St Mary’s College, St Peters Lutheran College, St Thomas More College, Stuartholme School,  Tamborine Mountain College, The Lakes College, The Moreton Bay Colleges’, The Southport School, The Women’s College, Toowoomba Christian College, Toowoomba Grammar School, Trinity Lutheran College & Whitsunday Anglican School

Event Details
Date: Thursday 27-Friday 28 July
Times: 9.00am-4.40pm (Thursday)
Times: 9am-1.30pm (Friday)
Place: Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre

Summit Program

The Summit offers 2 days of incredible Professional Development and Networking opportunities, including 28 engaging sessions, 2 extraordinary Keynote Speakers (Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM and Simone Douglas) and an Awards Breakfast!

This represents immense value for all those working in any aspect of educational Advancement, including: Fundraising and Development, Admissions and Enrolments, Marketing and Communications, Alumni Relations and Community Engagement, across all the Primary, Secondary and Tertiary education sectors of our schools and universities.

In addition, we have added new Leadership sessions to the program this year, and encourage as many Heads of School and Leadership teams to attend.

• View Progam

Social Program

• Networking Drinks (Sponsored by New Word Order)
• Optional Soiree at the Charming Squire (Sponsored by Charidy)
• Awards Breakfast (Sponsored by Look Education)

Engage with Summit Partners

There is a strong group of valued Summit partners to engage with this year, and we are delighted to offer a dedicated Meet Our Partners session on Thursday afternoon – we encourage you to familiarise yourself with our Partners and make a point of visiting each one to learn more about their offerings. The list of QLD Summit Partners is below. 

Be inspired! We are STRONGER TOGETHER!

More Info / To Register | QLD Summit

Sue Russell and Claire Grlj

Summit Conveners

SUMMIT PARTNER

AWARDS BREAKFAST PARTNER	SUMMIT SOIREE PARTNER	NETWORKING DRINKS PARTNER

LANYARD PARTNER	PHOTO PARTNER	SESSION PARTNER

Upcoming Webinars

Registrations are now open …

With the first half of the year almost over, we encourage you to continue to invest in your own Professional Development! We invite you to join us for the following Webinar, where you can of course participate from the comfort and convenience of your own desk! All skill levels are suitable to attend – from beginner presenters through to the more advanced!

Advanced Virtual Presentation Skills

Event Details
Date: Tuesday 20 June 2023
Time: 3pm-4pm NZST
Location: Online (via Zoom)
Cost: $35 (+gst) for Members; $50 (+gst) for Non-Members
Presenter: Caelan Huntress

Register now! We are looking forward to welcoming you online to participate in this Zoom Webinar!

More Info / Register | Presentation Skills

SIGs Success

What an incredible turnout for our second SIG of 2023! 

Thank you to Moreton Bay Boys’ College who hosted the SIG (a combined professional development opportunity for the Admissions & Fundraising streams), on 11 May.

Fundraising SIG Wrap Up
From Giving Days, Bequests and Community Engagement Events, we discussed lessons learned on integrated annual giving strategies. Some great wisdom was shared, followed by healthy discussion.

Thank you to our Fundraising facilitators Susan McGinley, Director of Advancement, The Women’s College within the University of Queensland, and to Petrina Gilmore, Director of Philanthropy, Somerville House Foundation

Admissions SIG Wrap Up
The dynamic nature of Admissions at a modern school requires the registrar to be the welcoming face of the school but also requires them to be aware of the legal issues that impact on their activity. The SIG was formatted as a discussion rather than a lecture and commenced with colleagues sharing their experiences of collecting documentation from parents upon application. Ben shared the legal implication of collecting that information, particularly in light of the very public data breaches of Optus and Medibank Private, and the implications this has had on new legislation and schools. One of the big “take homes” from the SIG was that we should only collect information that we have a clear need for, and that when we have collected information, we have very clear legal requirements about how securely we store that data and when we are required to delete it.

Thank you to our Admissions facilitators Ben Foley, Director Legal & Assurance, St Peters Lutheran College; Scott Huntington, Director of Admissions, Anglican Church Grammar School (Churchie)

Strategic Partner Spotlight On … Potentiality

Potentiality Leads the Way with the “Privacy Detector” Booth

Article supplied by Isabella Blick | Head of Asia Pacific Customer Experience | Potentiality

At the recent Northampton conference, we rolled out an unprecedented experiment: a “Privacy Detector” booth. Participants from academic institutions across the UK and beyond had the opportunity to delve into the privacy health of their school websites. Utilising a custom Chrome extension and some smart circuitry, this detector would trigger an alerting siren if it detected user engagement data being channeled to marketing powerhouses like Google or Facebook. Instead of the “out of sight, out of mind” approach, we turned it on its head and sirens took center stage! Schools with no data leakage would walk away with a £50 gift voucher. Over 100 schools dared to test, but the results were staggering: none passed. *

We were aware these tools were common, but the unanimous adoption was a jaw-dropper. As the time-honored saying goes, “if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.” but here the narrative takes a more sinister turn. When schools or software providers decide to use free tools offered by giants like Google or Facebook, they turn their communities into the product without any reasonable opportunity to consent. There’s a lot of controversy about the privacy implications of individual usage of online resources like Facebook and Tik Tok, but at least with those sites it’s a conscious decision which each individual controls.

In today’s digital landscape, schools and educational institutions are increasingly leveraging potent web analytics to optimize their online presence. Industry bigwigs such as Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel offer insights that can significantly enhance the user experience and amplify website functionality. So if all this is free, who’s footing the bill?

On inspecting one site, we discovered that user donation amounts were shared with these marketing companies. The eventual fallout? The user ends up being marketed to based on a donation made to the school. That’s a pill I doubt they’d swallow willingly…

Navigating the privacy policies of these companies can feel like walking through a maze. Google Analytics, arguably the most guarded, sports a very complex set of policies. They claim data anonymization, but truthfully, they don’t need to know who you are to market to you. They also note that site visitors can control their marketing exposure via their Google profiles – a process trickier than visitors would reasonably anticipate. I won’t dive into all the legal intricacies in this article, but if these companies weren’t planning on marketing based on site usage, wouldn’t they simply state “we don’t use this data to target marketing to your visitors”? 

A recurring misguided belief among the UK schools we interacted with was that these tools were vital for boosting their Google Search visibility (SEO). That’s a completely different ballgame. They were also caught off guard to learn that switching to incognito mode or disabling cookies had zero impact! These tools aren’t cookie-dependent so that makes no difference. In my view, the offer to disable cookies which is creating a false sense of security is not just misleading,but ethically questionable.

In almost all instances, schools were employing website providers that had their products integrated with these free tools. Marketing companies simplify this integration, consequently bolstering the website provider’s product offerings. However, at day’s end, it’s a shortcut that compromises the privacy of the client’s community to enhance their own product features. Implementing private and secure analytics tools does require time and effort, but the payoff is retaining ownership of the engagement data within the school, yielding more profound and relevant analytics than what Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel can offer. As an example, our latest product release – “Potentiality Shield” (purposefully named) enables us to track not just the hits, browsers, devices, and locations of each visitor, but often precisely who is visiting what pages. This can be used collectively with all other automatically collected engagement data such as purchases, event attendances, archive views, click and reads on emails etc, to build warmth profiles for fundraising or volunteer management. You can even use the data to train our bulk AI comms tools which draft mass individually personalized messages based on user engagement. The possibilities are powerful, exciting and scary all at the same time. Which is the reason why these companies want schools to give the data to them. For a school to manage and utilize this data themselves also introduces a host of ethical questions, but at least the school and their community retain control and aren’t unknowingly feeding data to major marketing companies.

So what can we learn from this experiment and where to from here? There was certainly a lot of surprise amongst our stall visitors when they saw what was going on. So it’s certainly a positive that our participants are more aware and perhaps making a more informed decision on what technologies they use. However the tricky part here is that it’s their community paying the price, so shouldn’t their community be granted the same awareness if the commodity in question is their engagement data? Do schools replace the cookie control popups with warning banners telling visitors that there’s nothing they can realistically do to prevent marketing companies targeting advertising to them based on their use of the site? One suggestion by a school, as the only way to guarantee privacy, was for their site visitors to use a Tor Browser (a browser used mostly to access the dark web). I’ll leave it to the readers of this article to decide if they want to put that on their school website!

While I loathe being the purveyor of grim tidings, I can’t see that these tools are acceptable or even ethical to use in an educational environment. Schools aren’t just institutions; they’re communities, distinct from regular websites. If an airline site shares data with marketing sites, they might just shrug it off as “business as usual”. Schools however embody a community and should hold the privacy and security of that community sacrosanct. If community members are uncomfortable being tracked by marketing companies without their express permission or even knowledge, then their data simply shouldn’t be shared.

It’s time to shield our communities and ensure their digital safety. Remember, privacy matters. Let’s act like it does.

* Potentiality clients were excluded from the free voucher giveaway, as we utilise our proprietary analytics tools which naturally pass the privacy test. The data collected stays wholly owned by the school and is not shared or used by other companies or clients in any way

Introducing … David Miles

Meet a Member …

Each eNews, we would like to introduce you to one of our wonderful Chapter Members, through a Question & Answer type interview article. 

Therefore, in the hotseat this edition, is David Miles, Queensland Chapter Treasurer & Director of Engagement, Anglican Church Grammar School (Churchie) … and a Churchie Old Boy!

Tell us a little bit about the Churchie Old Boys’ Association …

On 23 May 1917, 11 Old Boys convened a meeting to form the Churchie Old Boys’ Association (OBA) with objectives of the maintenance of school fellowship among Old Boys and support of the school. With such a strong culture of developing and maintaining links within the Churchie community ever since, the OBA now boasts a loyal and engaged network of over 20,000 Old Boys. Recently launched initiatives include the COBweb (the intranet of our website), a Careers program (job search and mentoring), a Wellbeing program (mental and physical health awareness) and a Connect & Play program (interactive and virtual co-curricular activities).

How long have you been in Educational Advancement (& prior industry if applicable)?

Most of my career has been in sales and marketing. I spent 20 years in the consumer goods and retail industries working in business development and sales account management roles. For the past 10 years I have been working at Churchie managing the Old Boys’ Association and for the past 18 months this has extended to the Churchie Foundation.

What achievement / accomplishment are you most proud of?

In 2017, the OBA celebrated 100 years since the first meeting was held on 23 May 1917. The OBA wished to mark its centenary milestone with a gesture that would be both special and significant for Churchie’s Old Boys. In the lead-up to this milestone event, we commissioned Adina Watches, a Churchie family-owned business, to produce 100 bespoke watches that gave a subtle nod to Churchie’s values and style. A stylish timber box, which also acknowledged the centenary of the OBA, was the perfect encasement for the watches. By the end of the year, all 100 watches were sold. Ever since, a non-centenary edition of these watches is still sought after, particularly as a Valedictory gift from parents to sons.

What three tips / words of advice would you give to new Educate Plus Members and/or those new to Advancement?

1. Get to know others who work in the same or similar roles at other educational institutions.
2. Share your experiences, good or bad.
3. Learn from others and allow them to learn from you.

What are three things you enjoy doing in your spare time?

Spending time with family, watching sport and travel.

Thank you David! It’s been wonderful to get to know you!

When Leaders Change …

Article written by Bianca Coleborn, Director of Marketing, Faith Lutheran College; Founder, School Marketing Manifesto 

When Leaders Change … what does that mean for your Institution?

Leadership within a school environment is critical to its success.

Put simply, a school is only as good as its Head.

So, it makes sense that when there is a change of leadership, there will be a significant impact on your school community.

There are two parts to the changing of the guard – farewelling the outgoing Head and welcoming the new one. When it comes to the farewells, make sure the students and parents are involved.

Given this role has the highest profile in your school, everyone in the community deserves the opportunity to say thank you and goodbye. Be prepared for grief and sadness at their departure, particularly if they are an adored leader. This needs to be managed well, and families will need assurance that the school they signed up to will continue as promised under the new leadership.

Always remember that, for parents, choosing a school is a highly emotional purchase… but it’s also a long-term commitment as well as a significant financial investment. If they fell in love with the Head at the time of enrolment and have had a positive experience so far, it is understandable that they may feel some trepidation about the future.

Successfully welcoming and introducing the new Head to the school community is the key to managing this effectively. There will, of course, be a grand ceremony inducting the new Head into their role. However, the real work takes place after this time and is particularly critical in the first year.

At the end of the day, new leaders require trust to truly be successful in their role. Before they can develop trust, people need to get to know them and like them first. It’s called the ‘Know, Like, Trust Principle’.

For your community to get to know your new Head, they need plenty of opportunities to see, hear and interact with them. This means attendance at as many school events as possible, regular video messages via social media, participating in school activities and just being out and about on school grounds, creating authentic opportunities to interact with students, staff and parents.

It is important to note that while it is good to be seen, it is even more important for there to be genuine interaction with members of the school community. An analogy I often use (forgive me if you have heard me use it before), is that with each family in your school, you have a jar. Over time, you will work to build up credits in the jar. These credits are the trust each family has in your school. You want to have enough credits so that if something goes wrong and there is a withdrawal from the jar, you don’t have a withdrawal from the school on your hands.

Your new Head doesn’t have any of their own credits in the jar yet, so it should be their mission, and yours, to ensure they are taking every opportunity they can to build up that trust.

At the end of the day, a school is only as good as its Head…and a Head is only as good as the trust their community has in them.

Key Tips: Leadership behaviours to build trust:

• Give trust – be a leader, not a manager
• Focus on serving your community
• Show grace
• Be transparent – communication is key
• Walk the talk
• Embrace fun!
• Be visible in your school community 

Article written by Bianca Coleborn, Director of Marketing, Faith Lutheran College; Founder, School Marketing Manifesto | First appeared in the Educate Plus ‘Face-2-Face’ Magazine, 2022

New Member Welcome

We can’t wait to meet you … 

We extend a very warm welcome to our latest Members, who have recently joined us this quarter. We are thrilled to have you as part of our QLD Chapter community!

We hope that you were able to join us at the most recently held ‘New Member Meetup’ (7 June, 2023). But if not, information regarding the next ‘New Member Meetup’ in August will be sent closer to the date. 

These sessions are a wonderful, informal way catch up with other new Members, and to hear more about the benefits of being a Member and what is available to you on our website. 

And of course, we look forward to welcoming you to any upcoming QLD in-person events, and to our Summit on 27-28 July. For further information about these events, CLICK HERE

Welcome to the following new Members …

Thank You to our Valuable Partners

With Gratitude …

We’d like to extend a huge ‘Thank You’ to our valuable Educate Plus Strategic Partners and our NZ Chapter and Summit Partners, who support us in our activities and enable us to provide wonderful opportunities to our Members and Non-Members. We ask that you please consider supporting them, so that in turn, they can continue to support us. 

Thank You to our Educate Plus Strategic Partners

Thank You to our Queensland Chapter Summit Partners

SUMMIT PARTNER

 

AWARDS BREAKFAST PARTNER	SUMMIT SOIREE PARTNER	NETWORKING DRINKS PARTNER

 

LANYARD PARTNER	PHOTO PARTNER	SESSION PARTNER

 

 

Stay Connected

Stay Connected … 

Keep in contact with your fellow Advancement professionals to keep abreast of best practice, discover new approaches and technologies and gain valuable industry insights.

To keep you to up to date with what’s happening at Educate Plus and within your sector, please connect with us on our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages.