President's Report

It is my pleasure to present the President's Report to the 2015 Annual General Meeting.

This has been the first year of my term and has proven to be a busy but satisfying introduction to the role. As with the majority of associations a lot is asked of a few dedicated people so I wish to commence my report by firstly thanking the 2015 ASA Committee who have worked tirelessly to maintain the activities of the Association.

The role and function of associations is changing, many of the functions conducted traditionally by professional associations are being replaced by new technologies, social media and virtual meetings. This does not mean that we are no longer relevant, but we do need to change the way we conduct some of our activities.

To respond to this changing environment we reviewed the Association's Strategic Purpose and refreshed it as follows:

Common Purpose: Safe, quality Aeromedical Services

1. Promote the aeromedical profession within Australasia

- Raise the public profile of the Aeromedical profession

- Proactively engage with, and provide a forum for the broad spectrum of professions and stakeholders within aeromedical industry

- Provide support to advance aeromedical practice within the ASA membership

- Providing a high quality conference annually

- Use social media effectively to promote the Society

2. Be seen as the authoritative, independent aeromedical peak body in Australasia

- Identify opportunities at National/International level to increase sphere of influence

- Form international relationships with other aeromedical peak bodies

- Advocate for the aeromedical industry with relevant Regulatory Authorities

- Develop strong relationships and links with other relevant organisations within Australia & New Zealand

3. Promote best practice in aeromedical services

- Developing and promulgating aeromedical standards

- Promote research in aeromedical practice

- Encouraging members and their organisations to participate in a peer review processes

- Develop an Awards process for recognition of best practice of individuals and aeromedical organisations

 

In response to the new strategy we have refreshed our web-site. We now have a more modern look and feel, social media integration and a site that works seamlessly on any platform or mobile device. Although now future proof in its architecture we still need to ensure the content is current, relevant and assists our members.

In regard to promoting best practice, the Society has continued to make progress on the development of a document detailing standards for aeromedical services. My sincere thanks to the ASA Expert Standards Committee whom met face to face to develop a draft document for consultation and I am most grateful to those organisations who arranged for a representative to attend the discussion. We are now in a position to release the document as an Interim Standard and will encourage a couple of organisations to test it by implementation over the coming year.

We continue to make important progress in building stronger international relationships and this year we welcomed our highest attendance of international guests to the Conference to date.

The Society's annual scholarship was awarded to John Howe from the RFDS (WA Section). 

The Scholarship is awarded to members of the Society to assist their professional development and, through reporting back to members, provides benefits to others in the Society.

The Scholarship of up to $A3,000 can be used to attend a relevant international conference or undertake a professional development programme within the region. Further, the successful candidate may be able to take advantage of our reciprocal relationships with our Accord partners, and attend their respective conferences free of charge.

Planning for the 2016 programme in Queenstown, New Zealand has been underway for a number of months and will see ASA and the NZ Flight Nurses Association - soon to be the College of Air Surface Transport Nurses (COASTN), co-host the Conference in that magical setting - book early and don't forget to bring your ski gear.

My sincere thanks to the members of the ASA Committee for their valuable contributions to the Society over the past year:

Mark Buick, Vice President New South Wales, 

Geri Malone, Secretary, South Australia

Chris Webber, Treasurer, New South Wales 

Graeme Field, New South Wales

Andrew Berry, New South Wales

Sally Edmonds, Western Australia Di Fuller, New Zealand

Paul Gallagher, New South Wales 

Margaret Tabone, New South Wales 

Ben Stanton, South Australia

Ian Badham, Northern Territory

As always, Kate Smith's work has been crucial to the success of the Society. Her organisational skills in putting together our annual conference and her input into the Society generally are very much appreciated.

I particularly want to record my appreciation of the Executive committee - Geri Malone, Chris Webber and Mark Buick for their continued contributions to the Society. They have diligently performed their roles and I thank you to all for your hard work over many years. Your diligence has certainly made my role a lot easier.

I would also like to thank Catherine Jones for her administrative support over the last 12 months.

In conclusion, I would like to extend my best wishes to the 2016 Committee. I have enjoyed serving as your President for the last year and I am sure that the 2016 Executive and Committee will work together to continue to move the Society forward in what appears to be a very busy year ahead.

20th August 2015 - Darwin, NT