From the CEO August 2018 – Let s get it started
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela
We are off and racing…update on the IAP2A Strategic Plan to 2020
For the past few months, when out and about meeting members, I have often found myself saying that much of the groundwork being undertaken at IAP2 Australasia in recent months has been about getting the organisation to a new starting line.
Well, I think I can say that we are well and truly off the starting block when it comes to delivering the IAP2A Strategic Plan to 2020 . This plan, along with one of the key objectives “Our members are at the heart of everything we do” has become our ‘North Star’ guiding us through the many other objectives we have set to achieve for the benefit of members.
It is indeed an ambitious plan, but just a month or so in and we are already well under way to making many of these objectives a reality.
Objective: Young professionals are encouraged and supported
The Young and Emerging Professionals Network met recently for the first time, with 40 members from various sectors and locations discussing how to co-design and develop a network that is relevant, valuable and will ultimately encourage and support the development of young and emerging professionals across Australasia. I’m truly excited to see what ideas, initiatives, projects and events will evolve from the network.
Furthermore, recognising that students are the future of the profession, IAP2A has also introduced free membership for full-time students, allowing access to a range of member-only benefits and resources.
Objective: Develop strategic relationship with the United Nations (UN) to increase knowledge and understanding of community engagement.
I wrote a couple of months ago about how I viewed community engagement as being the next wave. This vision is beginning to manifest as our partnership with the UN is well underway, and support is continuing to build for our call to the UN to declare an International Year of Engagement.
(By the way, if you haven’t yet supported our call, pause reading this for a moment, jump on over to www.yearofengagement.com and sign up your organisation – or even as an individual. It is so quick and easy, and takes less than a minute.)
Objective: Members are being engaged, contributing to and building the practice, both within Australasia and internationally.
Our living calendar of activities is growing, with new local networks and hubs coming online while established local networks are flourishing as well. Attendance at local network events is booming as well – in some cases attracting four times as many participants than just a few months ago.
The IAP2 Australasia Ambassadors also recently met to workshop ideas on how to further strengthen engagement and advance the practice, and you can learn more about this here.
And finally, we are thrilled to see our members contribute so many great ideas in our recent Pitch for the Practice participatory budgeting project. Thank you to those who submitted these fabulous ideas to strengthen engagement and advance the practice, and to all our members who voted. Discover more about the winning projects in this article.
Our team continues to grow
While one of our much-loved and longest-standing team members, Cathy Moses, has moved on to embrace new opportunities, we will soon be welcoming new members to the team. In addition to filling Cathy’s function of Member Relationship Manager, we have also recruited into the newly created roles of Operations Manager and PA/Membership Services Officer. I look forward to introducing you to our new team members in the next newsletter.
An invitation to join our new marketing advisory group
IAP2 Australasia is inviting members to express interest in being part of a newly established Marketing Advisory Group to provide guidance to the IAP2A marketing and communications team. If you are interested in being part of the group, please email Marketing Manager josie@iap2.org.au by 1 September 2018.
2018 Conference, 23-25 October, Gold Coast
I just had an early peek at the conference program put together by the member-based conference working group, and the the line-up of presenters and the topics being explored is looking impressive. This program is truly “Shaking It Up”, and will be published around mid-August at www.iap2conference.com.au. I looking forward to seeing you there.
Pricing restructure
IAP2 Australasia has recently restructured membership and training pricing for the first time in recent years. Some prices remain the same, and as I mentioned earlier, we are now offering free membership to students. We recognised a need to modestly increase our membership prices in July, and also the price of our one-day training modules from 1 September 2018. The price of the two-day training modules remain the same.