Happy New Year to Everyone!

As mentioned in my first message ‘From the President’s Desk’ in the November 2016 newsletter, our new committee is in place with changes to the leadership being worked through. We have role descriptions and portfolios that we are working on finalising to ensure that areas of importance or significance, e.g. financial matters and the forums, are well covered. We are also looking at covering liaison with affiliate bodies and sponsors through the portfolios. The trans-Tasman nature of the organisation is also being enhanced by now having three Kiwis on the Committee. Many of us think this will enhance the organisation and promote more sharing of information from both sides of the ‘ditch’. We also hope to be able to take advantage of our events during the year to have face-to-face meetings of the Committee, as well as the regular conference call between Committee members. Please feel free to contact us at any time if you want to raise an issue or acquire information about the Association. Our contact details are here: https://aair.org.au/contact/.

The 2017 AAIR Forum was announced last year, and this time it is in Alice Springs. The organising committee has already started planning for the event being led by staff from Charles Darwin University. It will be traditionally held in early November, so mark your calendars. Being involved in organising a Forum is always a rewarding (and exhausting) experience, as I well know. I have been both on the committee and a chair, and as such I can guarantee that the investment of your time is well worth it! So think about being involved and get in touch with Don Johnston (Vice President) from Southern Cross University if you want more details. This is your chance to engage in discussions around themes and issues, and generally give input into your next Forum.

The AAIR SIG Forum is likely to be held in June or July (yet to be determined). We are trying to ensure that the SIG moves around a bit to allow as many of our members to attend as possible. We are currently exploring options for in or around Sydney. Keep an eye out for Bulletins, notices on our website, as well as information in our newsletter for more details.

We are also trying to hold more regional events similar to the very successful Melbourne dinner event where Hamish Coates spoke about ‘Australian Institutional Research—Framing Upcoming Challenges & Opportunities’. The next event is to be held in Sydney on 22 February 2017, and the topic this year is ‘Using Cohort Analysis with Open Source Datasets for Strategic, Operational, and Tactical Purposes’. This year’s speaker is Anthony (Tony) Nolan, OAM, intelligence analyst and data scientist. If there are people you would like to hear speak at an event, you know a great place to hold a similar event, or there are matters you would appreciate knowing more about, please let us know.

Finally, in this newsletter you will see some new features from our editors Monica Chen and Tracy Creagh. They are adding their own ideas on how to make the newsletter something that is useful and valued to you as readers. They would love your feedback and suggestions, so do let them know what you think.

I hope that 2017 proves to be one of the best years yet for the Association and for each of you, our trusty members and followers. I look forward to seeing you at some of our events this year, and to assist you in your involvement with AAIR.

Kathie Rabel

AAIR President