A Climate of Change
A few months ago, I highlighted the differences between the two sides of the Tasman, particularly the political stability we seemed to have in comparison to the other side of the Tasman I obviously spoke too soon.
For the first time since 2008, we have a different Prime Minister, and since 2010 a different Minister for tertiary education. We have a recently announced general election coming up on 23 September, but before that, a by-election on 25 February. So I am starting to feel like this will be ‘the year of living dangerously’.
So too for AAIR we are facing some changes, but I think these will be changes for the good, and hopefully you will agree. I will highlight a few of the changes we are working on and how we need your help and feedback in accomplishing them.
Late last year we chose a designer to update, refresh and expand our website. Our Executive Officer, Liesha, has been managing the project, and at the last Executive Committee meeting she took us through the design concepts and work completed to date. The Committee was very impressed with what has been done to date. The plan is to have the project completed by the end of March, maybe sooner!
As an organisation with many members involved in surveying, you won’t be surprised to notice that we have started surveying you! On 16 February we sent a survey to you—our loyal subscribers—about what you’d like to see on our website, what you use, what you like, and what you think is missing.
Didn’t see the email? Click here to complete the website survey, or if you have any thoughts on anything that you think we should include for your benefit, please let Liesha know (info@aair.org.au).
The next survey is in relation to the Newsletter (as our last newsletter survey was issued back in October 2013, and we incorporated many of your suggestions – read the results here). It’s time again for a refresh. Our editors, Tracy and Monica, have worked with Liesha and our previous editor Louise to develop a survey concerning the newsletter content and changes that might be made so that we can provide a publication that is even more useful for our members and subscribers. So please take our 2017 Newsletter Survey. We hope to have a very high response rate!!
We are also going to be surveying you about our Jobs Board and what changes we might make there. Don’t worry though we shouldn’t have too many more coming your way, as we don’t want you to suffer from survey fatigue.
Another new activity for this year is a regional dinner. We are following up last year’s successful event in Melbourne, with one in Sydney on 22 February. Tony Nolan OAM, is an intelligence analyst who practices data science within the Commonwealth government. He will be speaking about using cohort analysis with open source datasets for strategic operational and tactical purposes. The venue is Casa Ristorante Italiano, and you can still secure your seat.
As always, if you have any ideas or thoughts on issues we should be addressing, please let us know.
Kathie Rabel
AAIR President
