Fellow members and supporters, A key priority for 2009-10 has to be building the chapter and make it successful.
Before being elected to my present role, I heard lots of people saying they felt this chapter was overly Sydney- and Melbourne-focussed not just in activity but in priorities. There was also a fair few people saying (both among those who stayed/newly joined, and some who lapsed) that the chapter was overly focused on central or headline priorities and, in their view, gave insufficient support to members. Using the figures from the secretary's report at the AGM, in regional terms our numbers were stable, here in WA we went from 5 to 3 members (I am in fact the only original WA member left) and, even more concerningly, nationally we lost 2/3 of our initial intake although we actually gained a fair number of people. We need to do *far* more to retain members, and to give those outside the two biggest cities reasons to join and ways to participate - otherwise this chapter will fail. I ran on a platform to that effect and got support for it, so I'm hoping that means the members trust me to find ways to act on those concerns. I am happy for people to approach me privately with project ideas they want feedback on or support for. I think peer support is vital to keeping people's enthusiasm up, and I understand not everyone wants to go public with projects before they're ready. I would note in saying so that I can't give "official chapter approval" to anything although I can certainly seek it on your behalf from the committee if you wish me to. On the wiki I've been working on an early draft for a regional participation drive, and I'd also appreciate comments on that. I'll be adding more to it after the first committee meeting on the 20th as I'll know then what I have support for. kindest regards Andrew Owens (WM-AU committee general member)
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