All those who attended the 2012 ABSA National Conference would surely agree that we excelled this time - excellent speakers, great social events and wonderful practitioners discussing their successes!
Our time at Surfers Paradise was full and varied, and included a wonderful Opening Keynote from Judith Slocombe, CEO of the Alannah and Madeline Foundation talking on the safety of children and the need to develop esmart schools. This was followed by our first round of concurrent sessions - some very capable presenters - and the night ended with an evening in the clouds, a cocktail party on the top of Q1, the tallest building on the Gold Coast.
Monday was our fullest day, and included keynotes from Andrew Knott on legal issues and John Hendry and Charlie Scudamore from Geelong Grammar talking on Positive Psychology in Action, as well as a presentation on our Research Project by Brad Papworth and a number of sessions looking at the Draft of our National Boarding Standards. Delegates also enjoyed some more fantastic Concurrent Sessions. Most of us we happy to have a free night to wander, whilst the Principals and Heads had a chance to dine together at our first Head's dinner.
Tuesday morning saw a fascinating presentation from Pete Upham, Executive Director of TABS USA, and Hilary Moriarty, National Director of BSA, UK, and our last offering of Concurrent Sessions, followed by a free afternoon where many went shopping and others enjoyed a relaxation massage. Everyone donned their finest to head to the secret Conference Dinner location, Seaworld, where we had the Dolphin Show all to ourselves and a fabulous seafood buffet followed with a great DJ allowing people to dance the night away.
Wednesday was filled with presentations on Leadership by Darryl Cross and Relationships by Nick Hawkes, and attendees drifted off after lunch to hit the beach or head home.
My thanks to everyone involved - our Board Members for the fabulous support and help throughout, our Office Manager Thomas Dunsmore for being there every minute of the day to help the delegates (and teach them to tweet!), and to the delegates for so actively taking part in this wonderful event - your feedback has been fantastic and your personal notes and email to both Tom and me have been very flattering.
Thanks also to our wonderful sponsors:
Scholarest/LAPG for the coffee machine and fruit and your presence at everything, Coca-Cola Amatil for the drinks and great display, A H Beard and Interior Fitouts for the great bedroom display, LetzLive our long term supporters finding GAP student placements, ANZ Bank, Tightfit/Edart, Scuta, A Clear Direction and Harrison James - watch this space as these fantastic companies continue to support our work and offer members even more benefits.
And so we start to plan next year's offerings - a Heads of Boarding two day Symposium in Perth in August, a conference for people new to boarding at the end of Term One in Sydney and State Division conferences across the country.
Saturday, 6 October 2012
Saturday, 1 September 2012
A busy month - with some exciting developments
This week saw Tom and me in Melbourne for a couple of days - and the chance to attend their 'look Inside' at both Scotch College and Trinity Grammar School. We were both incredibly impressed with the wonderful turnout of Heads of Boarding and Senior Boarding Staff, and enjoyed the chance to lead a discussion on the progress toward National Boarding Standards and the running of Boarding School Expos in both Tasmania and Victoria. We received a very warm response toward this new project - work will progress over the next couple of months and more information will be forthcoming. We also enjoyed a lovely dinner together at the Skinny Dog Hotel in Kew - a great chance to relax and talk together.
Our previous two weeks were busy meeting with some of our Association sponsors. We are excited to report that Coca-Cola Amatil have signed on to support ABSA for the next twelve months - their new offerings will be very interesting for those who work with boarders. Scholarest/LAPG are also really excited about their presentation at the National Conference - they have a great deal to offer us and are very keen to work with our Expos as well. A.H.Beard Mattresses are also developing an interesting display for the conference.
The ABSA National Conference at the Gold Coast is not far away now - only 29 days at the time of writing this - and closing date for Registrations is only 10 days away. It is wonderful to report that we have over 230 delegates registered at this point - a considerable increase on the numbers attending our last two National Conferences - and more are still coming in. If you haven't registered yet please do so as soon as possible as our accommodation offerings are running out - you can register at http://www.boarding.org.au/1906/conference-and-events/national-conference/conference-registration/
Lastly there has been a huge development in our Social Media offerings (including this blog!) - all instigated by our Office Manager Tom Dunsmore. If you aren't following us on Twitter (@austboarding) or haven't yet liked our Facebook page you really are missing out on some wonderful information relating to your work, which is updated often. Our online newspaper at Paper.Li is published weekly, and our Pinterest and Delicious accounts are increasing, and we are working toward putting some of the key articles from Lights Out onto the additional page of this blog - all of these have links at the top of our webpage. Lastly our YouTube Channel has an ever increasing number of videos - both those showing what is happening in schools around Australia and those filmed by Tom asking about best practice in boarding - they are great to watch and can be accessed from the tab on our home page. Take the leap and join in with us in this new way of gaining professional development.
Until next time . . .
Our previous two weeks were busy meeting with some of our Association sponsors. We are excited to report that Coca-Cola Amatil have signed on to support ABSA for the next twelve months - their new offerings will be very interesting for those who work with boarders. Scholarest/LAPG are also really excited about their presentation at the National Conference - they have a great deal to offer us and are very keen to work with our Expos as well. A.H.Beard Mattresses are also developing an interesting display for the conference.
The ABSA National Conference at the Gold Coast is not far away now - only 29 days at the time of writing this - and closing date for Registrations is only 10 days away. It is wonderful to report that we have over 230 delegates registered at this point - a considerable increase on the numbers attending our last two National Conferences - and more are still coming in. If you haven't registered yet please do so as soon as possible as our accommodation offerings are running out - you can register at http://www.boarding.org.au/1906/conference-and-events/national-conference/conference-registration/
Lastly there has been a huge development in our Social Media offerings (including this blog!) - all instigated by our Office Manager Tom Dunsmore. If you aren't following us on Twitter (@austboarding) or haven't yet liked our Facebook page you really are missing out on some wonderful information relating to your work, which is updated often. Our online newspaper at Paper.Li is published weekly, and our Pinterest and Delicious accounts are increasing, and we are working toward putting some of the key articles from Lights Out onto the additional page of this blog - all of these have links at the top of our webpage. Lastly our YouTube Channel has an ever increasing number of videos - both those showing what is happening in schools around Australia and those filmed by Tom asking about best practice in boarding - they are great to watch and can be accessed from the tab on our home page. Take the leap and join in with us in this new way of gaining professional development.
Until next time . . .
Monday, 6 August 2012
Great Conference Day in Tasmania
Just a short post this week - time runs short when you are out of the office, even for a day.
Congratulations to the Tasmanian Division of ABSA on their wonderful Conference day at Launceston Church Grammar School on Saturday. Terry Sheehan, Head of Boarding, arranged a first class program and we all enjoyed the chance to network during the day. It also gave Tom a chance to film some more staff talking about boarding - his efforts will appear on our YouTube Channel in the days to come.
Conference registrations are coming in steadily, but this is a brief reminder that our early-bird closing date is 15 August - just 9 days away. If you want to save your school $100 you will need to get that application in as soon as you can.
This weeks sees a range of appointments with Association Sponsors - some good support is coming our way, but we are always looking for more. If you know of a company which would benefit from partnering with us, please let me know.
Congratulations to the Tasmanian Division of ABSA on their wonderful Conference day at Launceston Church Grammar School on Saturday. Terry Sheehan, Head of Boarding, arranged a first class program and we all enjoyed the chance to network during the day. It also gave Tom a chance to film some more staff talking about boarding - his efforts will appear on our YouTube Channel in the days to come.
Conference registrations are coming in steadily, but this is a brief reminder that our early-bird closing date is 15 August - just 9 days away. If you want to save your school $100 you will need to get that application in as soon as you can.
This weeks sees a range of appointments with Association Sponsors - some good support is coming our way, but we are always looking for more. If you know of a company which would benefit from partnering with us, please let me know.
Monday, 30 July 2012
Conference Registrations coming in fast
Just when you think you are on top of everything, a deluge of conference applications comes in! Hopefully if you have registered this week (we received over 30 registrations) you have now received your confirmation.
Tom, our Office Manager, and I were lucky enough to attend the Associations Forum National Conference in Brisbane last week, where we gathered with 400 other Association Professionals to look at better ways of doing our job. You always know when you come away from a conference with heaps of good ideas which you can action immdiately that you spent your money well, and our 'whiteboard brainstorm' filled the whole board with things were are already putting into action. One specific area we are working hard to expand is our social media offerings, and our Twitter account is already getting more of a workout, and these feed straight to our facebook page as well. We need our members to become more active - tweeting and commenting on facebook - so why not put your mind to it today! We have also created an organisation page on LinkedIn, so if you use this social media source I encourage you to connect with us. More on this in the next edition of Lights Out.
Whilst talking about Lights Out I am keen for more members to highlight their excellent work - so if you have some ideas we would love you to put pen to paper (or finger to the keyboard is probably more accurate) and send something in - closing date for the Term 3 Edition is August 15.
If you are planning to come along to the National Conference but have not yet registered please don't miss the Early Bird Registration date of 15 August - registrations are available on-line at http://www.boarding.org.au/1906/conference-and-events/national-conference/conference-registration/
Until next week - enjoy being tired and staying up late watching the Olympics - I am!
Tom, our Office Manager, and I were lucky enough to attend the Associations Forum National Conference in Brisbane last week, where we gathered with 400 other Association Professionals to look at better ways of doing our job. You always know when you come away from a conference with heaps of good ideas which you can action immdiately that you spent your money well, and our 'whiteboard brainstorm' filled the whole board with things were are already putting into action. One specific area we are working hard to expand is our social media offerings, and our Twitter account is already getting more of a workout, and these feed straight to our facebook page as well. We need our members to become more active - tweeting and commenting on facebook - so why not put your mind to it today! We have also created an organisation page on LinkedIn, so if you use this social media source I encourage you to connect with us. More on this in the next edition of Lights Out.
Whilst talking about Lights Out I am keen for more members to highlight their excellent work - so if you have some ideas we would love you to put pen to paper (or finger to the keyboard is probably more accurate) and send something in - closing date for the Term 3 Edition is August 15.
If you are planning to come along to the National Conference but have not yet registered please don't miss the Early Bird Registration date of 15 August - registrations are available on-line at http://www.boarding.org.au/1906/conference-and-events/national-conference/conference-registration/
Until next week - enjoy being tired and staying up late watching the Olympics - I am!
Saturday, 21 July 2012
Duty of Care workshops in Sydney
The week started earlier than normal - 5am Sunday on the way to the airport as we headed to Sydney. St Vincent's College hosted our Duty of Care Advanced workshop with 18 more staff completing Book Two of the Certificate Course - special thanks to ABSA treasurer and Head of Boarding at St Vincent's, Madonna Hennessy, for hosting the day and providing such a lovely lunch. It was great for our Office Manager, Tom Dunsmore, to travel to Sydney to meet the ABSA executive as well, and he and I shared a wonderful dinner with Madonna on Sunday.
Monday morning Tom and I headed off for a series of meetings - firstly with new Association sponsors A.H. Beard, manufacturers of King Koil mattresses, then to PLC for Tom to meet Vice Chairman and Head of Boarding, Pauline Turner. From there we headed out to The King's School to have lunch and meet with the ABSA Chairman, Tim Hawkes - a three hour meeting discussing all the work of the Association. Our last meeting of the day was with Glenn Russell of MattressKleen who is looking to support our work in the near future, although we also caught up with Pauline and her two new GAP students during the evening.
We headed back to Brisbane on Tuesday, and had a busy day in the office on Wednesday trying to catch up with so much outstanding work!
Thursday was another early morning as we headed down to Sydney again, leaving home at 4.30am, to run a GAP Duty of Care workshop for the new LetzLive GAP students. It was a wonderful chance to help these young people settle in and connect them with Tom.
Friday was another busy day in the office which ended too quickly - thus me writing this on Saturday afternoon!
Some exciting things are on the horizon for ABSA - the possibility of running Boarding School Expos to help our schools to advertise their schools, the Boarding Standards, the upcoming National Conference, workshops on Social Media around the country and the new School Search section of the website are all pending . . .watch this space.
Monday morning Tom and I headed off for a series of meetings - firstly with new Association sponsors A.H. Beard, manufacturers of King Koil mattresses, then to PLC for Tom to meet Vice Chairman and Head of Boarding, Pauline Turner. From there we headed out to The King's School to have lunch and meet with the ABSA Chairman, Tim Hawkes - a three hour meeting discussing all the work of the Association. Our last meeting of the day was with Glenn Russell of MattressKleen who is looking to support our work in the near future, although we also caught up with Pauline and her two new GAP students during the evening.
We headed back to Brisbane on Tuesday, and had a busy day in the office on Wednesday trying to catch up with so much outstanding work!
Thursday was another early morning as we headed down to Sydney again, leaving home at 4.30am, to run a GAP Duty of Care workshop for the new LetzLive GAP students. It was a wonderful chance to help these young people settle in and connect them with Tom.
Friday was another busy day in the office which ended too quickly - thus me writing this on Saturday afternoon!
Some exciting things are on the horizon for ABSA - the possibility of running Boarding School Expos to help our schools to advertise their schools, the Boarding Standards, the upcoming National Conference, workshops on Social Media around the country and the new School Search section of the website are all pending . . .watch this space.
Saturday, 14 July 2012
Preparing for Boarders to Return
This week was another busy one, with Thursday and Friday out of the office conducting a Beginners and an Advanced Duty of Care Workshop at Clayfield College in Brisbane. It was great to welcome along staff from Clayfield College, St Margaret's Anglican Girls School, The Scots PGC College, Marist College Ashgrove and even one who travelled from The Scots School in Albury.
The start of the week in the office saw our trainee Tom working hard on a presentation for the second unit in the Certificate III in Business Course he is doing, and on Wednesday he presented this to both his trainer and me. We were very impressed, not only with the presentation and powerpoint, but also with the huge effort he put in to 'be the best he could be'. Tom has now completed two unit at an outstanding level, in the ten weeks since he started working for us. Thursday and Friday he joined me at Clayfield College, not to undertake the Duty of Care workshops (he has already completed Book 1) but to work on his next units, competing two more and getting half way through a third. He also videoed more staff answering the questions he posed, and will shortly edit these and post them to our YouTube Channel to add to the three he has already done.
We have commissioned an IT firm to re-write our Association Database, meaning much easier access to our data and the ability to get information out to members more quickly. We have received almost all of the update forms from schools now (still 20 to come!) which means we are now able to develop better communication lines with our members.
We have some exciting news regarding partnerships and sponsorships with other businesses to announce shortly - watch carefully as not only will you save yourself a good deal of money, but you will also help to support the work ABSA is doing.
For those of you in New South Wales and Queensland who have enjoyed three week break - I trust the coming term is a good one. Our conference takes place in the next break - we look forward to seeing many of you there.
The start of the week in the office saw our trainee Tom working hard on a presentation for the second unit in the Certificate III in Business Course he is doing, and on Wednesday he presented this to both his trainer and me. We were very impressed, not only with the presentation and powerpoint, but also with the huge effort he put in to 'be the best he could be'. Tom has now completed two unit at an outstanding level, in the ten weeks since he started working for us. Thursday and Friday he joined me at Clayfield College, not to undertake the Duty of Care workshops (he has already completed Book 1) but to work on his next units, competing two more and getting half way through a third. He also videoed more staff answering the questions he posed, and will shortly edit these and post them to our YouTube Channel to add to the three he has already done.
We have commissioned an IT firm to re-write our Association Database, meaning much easier access to our data and the ability to get information out to members more quickly. We have received almost all of the update forms from schools now (still 20 to come!) which means we are now able to develop better communication lines with our members.
We have some exciting news regarding partnerships and sponsorships with other businesses to announce shortly - watch carefully as not only will you save yourself a good deal of money, but you will also help to support the work ABSA is doing.
For those of you in New South Wales and Queensland who have enjoyed three week break - I trust the coming term is a good one. Our conference takes place in the next break - we look forward to seeing many of you there.
Saturday, 7 July 2012
Web Site Improvements were the order of the day
Another busy week based in the office as we worked to update everything on our website, as well as investigate new possibilities we can offer. We hope everyone checks the website often as our plans include information on our National Standards Project as well as new links on the homepage to our sister organisations around the world amongst the myriad of changes we are making.
I took part in a webinar on producing webinars - sounds a bit funny I guess, but the possibilities this opens for our organisation to offer training across the country over the internet is an exciting option for our future. We have also spent time investigating the accreditation of the Duty of Care Certificate Course - more information will be forthcoming on this in weeks to come.
Work continues on the National Conference in September/October, and those who offered to present concurrent sessions will be contacted this week - thanks to all of our members who have offered to give up their time to present. Unfortunately we are running our of some options in our accommodation offerings - I encourage all of you who are planning to come to register soon.
The week ahead sees a return to presenting Duty of Care workshops, in Brisbane on Thursday and Friday and in Sydney on Sunday - hopefully I will catch up with some of you on those days.
I took part in a webinar on producing webinars - sounds a bit funny I guess, but the possibilities this opens for our organisation to offer training across the country over the internet is an exciting option for our future. We have also spent time investigating the accreditation of the Duty of Care Certificate Course - more information will be forthcoming on this in weeks to come.
Work continues on the National Conference in September/October, and those who offered to present concurrent sessions will be contacted this week - thanks to all of our members who have offered to give up their time to present. Unfortunately we are running our of some options in our accommodation offerings - I encourage all of you who are planning to come to register soon.
The week ahead sees a return to presenting Duty of Care workshops, in Brisbane on Thursday and Friday and in Sydney on Sunday - hopefully I will catch up with some of you on those days.
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