From the Chair April 2018

I am very pleased and excited to announce that the Board approved our new Strategic Plan at our Sydney Board meeting at the end of March. It is a very ambitious and action packed plan that will drive the direction of our organisation over the next two years. The Strategic Plan has a focus on three core areas – Advocating for engagement; Strengthening engagement networks; Advancing professional development. There are some great initiatives in the plan including developing partnerships with universities to further education opportunities, mentoring of young professionals, research partnerships, enhanced professional development opportunities, as well as continuation of our current work with the United Nations. On behalf of the Board I would like to thank members for their input into this plan. This is your plan and I hope you are as excited as we are to see it rolled out by our hard working management team. The team is currently working on finalising the management plans that will sit behind the strategy and guide their day-to-day actions to deliver on its objectives.

On another note, it is great to see the local area networking events being re-energised. No longer just a social get together, our member organisers in each location are developing these events with themes, problems to solve and deep dive discussions, making them a must do for all of us. I encourage all members, new and experienced, to make time to attend the next event in their area.