WA President’s Report | Welcome
Like a runaway freight train, 2017 feels like it has sped past in a blur. It is hard to believe the Christmas decorations are out and we are already preparing for the culmination of an astonishing year. When reflecting on the Chapter’s achievements in 2017, there is no doubt our team of volunteers have produced amazing PD and networking opportunities.
While there is so much to celebrate, in particular my mind is drawn to the State Chapter Conference in September. Two words describe how I feel about this event…pride and gratitude! I feel great pride for the tireless work of the Conference Committee to bring the event together and tremendous gratitude for the wonderful support of our members to make it all so very worthwhile. We took some risks with this conference, with a revised one day plus webcasts format, in the hope of addressing the needs of a broadly time-poor and budget-challenged membership. The membership showed its support for this direction with more delegates attending this conference than at least the previous two conferences. The survey results also supported this move with the majority of respondents (59%) saying they preferred the new format and only 12% indicating they preferred the traditional two-day conference. The new format also enabled us to keep costs down and we were rewarded with 96% of respondents saying the price was “Just Right”. Led by Margo Bastow, the amazing conference committee worked extremely hard to manage all the moving parts and the delegates showed their appreciation for their effort. 90% of survey respondents rated our conference as “Outstanding” or “Very Good”, with 31% of these rating it as “Outstanding” (the highest percentage of all six chapter conferences…not that I’m gloating, well maybe I am just a little). To see some photos from the conference, click here.
While it is hard to imagine topping our tremendous State Chapter Conference, our thoughts now turn to the pinnacle of PD opportunities for Educate Plus, the International Conference in Auckland on 4-7 September 2018. Our brothers and sisters across the ditch have been working so hard on the preparations for this extraordinary event and I have to say, this is one you don’t want to miss. To make the International Conference more accessible to us, I am so incredibly grateful for the Board’s decision to provide a 30% discount on the registration fee for all WA members; this is on top of the usual 8x $500 scholarships that are offered. The Board has listened to your feedback about the challenges of a tighter economy and the impact this has had on PD budgets, and this discount will go a long way to offset some of the travel costs we face to attend. To read more about the Board’s wonderful gesture, click here.
In way of our superb committee members, we will have some changes in the new year. Take a look at our committee page to see who has left the committee and who will be joining us in 2018.
I wish to express our gratitude for our generous sponsors, whose incredible support makes all of this possible. Once again, our Chapter Sponsors Photo Hendriks and Trinity Residential College have continued the long-standing relationships that are so critical to our operations. Thinking about the conference, the event would not have been a success without the kindness of event sponsors Chartwells, Digistorm, Elite Graphix, Fineline, Quickmail and Tangibility. To finish up the year in style, Scott Print stepped forward to sponsor the combined PD, AGM and Christmas Soiree, and I thank Ben for sharing his broad knowledge on everything print related. I would also like to pay tribute to the remarkable Organisational Platinum Sponsors in AskRight, MGM Wireless, Mondo Mentors, Lindsay Yates Group and Synergetic, and Silver Sponsors Schools Guide.
Before the year comes to an end, we do have one more event to squeeze in. Always looking for a good reason to network, or quite possibly any reason to network, our engaged members working in Admissions will also be having Christmas Drinks, from 3.30pm on Thursday 14 December, at the Elba Bar in Cottesloe.
In closing, I wish you all a safe and joyous festive season with your loved ones. I hope you will take the opportunity to refresh and recharge, and I look forward to seeing you in the new year. Merry Christmas!
David Williams F.Edplus
WA Chapter President
Tel: 9377 8522
Email: david.williams@ggs.wa.edu.au
