Speak Out April 2021

Branch News

SA Branch Annual General Meeting All the way back in December last year, the SA Branch held the Annual General Meeting. Differing from previous years’ events, due to COVID-19 restrictions, unfortunately the Branch was unable to hold the usual ‘Welcome to the Profession’ for graduands. However, the event was a success and a new venue – The Rydges on South Terrace – was the perfect place for members to eat, drink and catch up. This year the Branch was lucky to have as guest speaker National President, Tim Kittel. In his typical engaging and thoughtful manner, Tim talked about the Association’s Strategic Plan with a focus on ‘Recovery through Collaboration’ after the year that was 2020. Tim asked attendees to reflect on our values – Cultural Responsiveness, Innovation, Person Centred Practice, Professionalism and Ethical Practice, and Innovation – and invited us to initiate conversations about how these values look in our day-to-day work. Tim said that in spite of prediction of a loss in membership given the events of the year, we went from 10,000 to 11,000 members in the space of one year. We were just over 5800 at this time in 2013! The SA Branch continues to move from strength to strength. We also heard from each of the Branch’s portfolio leaders who presented a summary of their activities and actions from the year and preparations for another successful year in 2021. Planning is currently underway for an adult speech pathologist networking event, new graduates welcome drinks, a stall at the Pregnancy, Babies and Children’s Expo, Speech Pathology Week, and Book of the Year events. The Branch operations chart was introduced to give members a better understanding of how the Branch is configured (see image). And of course, Branch Chair Andrea Ferguson spoke and again reflected on an unprecedented year and how we came together to offer support to each other and also to continue to progress the aims of the Branch. All-in-all, a lovely evening was had by all. We continue to invite all members who wish to do so to participate in SA Branch events and activities so please keep an eye out for regular eNews and also on the SA Branch Community Member Facebook page.

South Australia

SA 941 members as at March 2021

Branch Chair Andrea Ferguson

Melanie Barrie SA Branch Editor

Left to right: Clare Mcdonald- Stuart (former student representative), Sue Horton (Secretary), Jenny Moody (Vice Chair), Barbara Lyndon (Professional Education portfolio leader), Andrea Ferguson (Chair), Melanie Barrie (Editor portfolio leader), Abi Thirumanickam (representative from the University of Adelaide), Subhapriya Mohan (student volunteer at AGM), Tahlea Pearce (Member Engagement portfolio leader), Stefanie Bucher (representative from UniSA).

National President Tim Kittel

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April 2021 | Speak Out