Get To Know…Meredith

Meredith Eddington, WA Chapter Vice-President (Joint)

Alumni Manager | Shenton College

What was your first ever job?

I was a Phys Ed teacher at Margaret River High School

What lead you to your present role?

My career in Advancement (Development) started when I took a job as Development Manager at my old school, Methodist Ladies College, in 1990. A relatively unknown industry in those days, my role was to engage with the whole community to develop long term relationships with the college’s many and varied stake holders.

My responsibilities included creating the college’s publications – from the Prospectus to the MLC Collegians’ quarterly magazine. To achieve the right outcomes, I needed the senior administrators, staff and alumni to buy in to this process to produce materials that would garner support from everyone. I learnt to bring complex tasks to completion with very tight deadlines.

With many diverse years of experience between then and now…I am currently the Alumni Manager at Shenton College. Shenton is a Government secondary school of over 2750 students, no fund raising is required. My role here is to help build a vibrant college community, with plenty of engagement and networking to help create an environment where students grow and thrive.

Tell us something that might surprise us about you?

I was the Membership Manager at the Fremantle Dockers – a job which taught me how best to deal with people, especially those who were not happy with the team’s performance! After seven fascinating years at Freo I joined the UWA Office of Development as Alumni Relations Manager. This job involved running events, to connect people and to fund raise while promoting the university and it’s many achievements to alumni, corporates and the general community. Under the then Vice-Chancellor Alan Robson AO, UWA was buzzing – from organising a VIP dinner for 400 guests with the Governor, to overseas events in London, New York, Singapore and more, to the UWA Centenary Cocktail Party outside Winthrop Hall for 1000 guests, this was a fabulous time to be working in Advancement.

What do you enjoy the most about working in Advancement?

Working in Advancement is tremendous, you never know what will happen next. To do this job effectively you need a wide network of friends and colleagues, where you create opportunities for engagement, connecting people in a supportive environment, helping them to do a better job, all the while having fun.

When I joined Educate Plus back in the 90’s it was called ADAPE, the Association of Development and Alumni Professionals in Education. Members helped each other by sharing activities and ideas, we were mostly new to a very new industry. We always met in person, and the guidance & encouragement given was invaluable. People come to this industry with very different skills; being creative, sharing ideas & providing support is how we will all advance for the better.