Chairman's Report for 2008
November 2008 marks the end of my first three year term as Chairman of the ANZAAS Council.
I have to say that I am very disappointed with our slow progress over the three years. Membership has continued to fall slowly and with the exception of Victoria all Divisions have performed very poorly based on the information available to me, with little activity and no apparent effort overall to attract new members and to otherwise enhance the Association. We desperately need new blood, new enthusiasm, new ideas and a dose of good funding!
However it's not all bad news.
When preparing my report for last year I was buoyed by the progress we had made at ANZAAS' first face-to-face Council Meeting in ten years held in October 2007. It was particularly notable because the CEO (Professor Di McCarthy) of the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ) was present to announce that RSNZ would be returning to ANZAAS after an absence of ten years. In a visit to New Zealand earlier in 2007 I had painted a vision of a 'New' revitalised ANZAAS and, by way of a trial, RSNZ sent a contingent of students to Youth ANZAAS 2007 in Perth. So impressed were RSNZ with the event that not only did they decide to return to the ANZAAS Council but they also requested to host Youth ANZAAS 2008, which they subsequently did with considerable success in Dunedin last July.
The second notable outcome from the October 2007 Council meeting was the decision to invite onto the Council four science-based organisations: the Australian Academy of Science (AAS), the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE), the Australian Science Teachers Association (ASTA), and Young Scientists of Australia (YSA). During the first half of this year (2008) all four agreed to participate in the ANZAAS Council.
Over the years, especially from the formation of the AAS in 1955 until the near demise of ANZAAS in 1997, the influence of ANZAAS had waned. Some stalwart hearts, from 1997 to the time when I took on the mantle of Chairman late in 2005, had fought to keep the ANZAAS flag flying; in particular by keeping the annual Youth ANZAAS event going without interruption. My ambition from the outset was to build on the sound, if modest, foundation that had been maintained over the previous ten years and to grow ANZAAS via new projects and programmes developed in alliance with groups in the Community. I had in mind the creation of an Association to parallel the present day British Association (the BA) in the UK. The BA had, as most of you will know, been the model used in the foundation of ANZAAS back in 1888.
My ambition over the last three years has been to bring ANZAAS into a collaborative forum where it can help do substantial good for science, via science advocacy, in synergy with other important Academies and Associations. ANZAAS is unique in being both a national body and one that is open to all Australian residents with an interest in science. By creating a forum with the above Academies and Associations ANZAAS (a) becomes the link between the Academies and its own grass-roots membership; (b) is positioned to help address a major perceived science failure with regard to science teaching in schools; and (c) puts ANZAAS in direct touch with the science orientated youth of the Country, which, after all, is ANZAAS' recruiting ground for the future. In this way I refer to the renewed ANZAAS and its Council affiliates as the ‘backbone’ of science advocacy in Australia; a backbone or ‘science advocacy continuum’ which has not been in existence for well over ten years.
In New Zealand the RSNZ performs this coordination function within science advocacy and does much more besides. So, not only is it important to have ‘the NZ back in ANZAAS’ but the RSNZ is also a fine role model.
RSNZ, AAS, ATSE, ASTA and YSA are all now represented on the ANZAAS Council. It remains still though for us to work out the details of how ANZAAS is to engage fully with them. I had hoped that at about this time we would have convened our second face-to-face Council Meeting to progress this engagement and related issues. Unfortunately your Council (out of session) decided not to proceed, ostensibly because such a meeting would be too expensive, although I had the Treasurer's agreement. My estimate of between $5.000 and $10,000 (around 10% of ANZAAS' cash assets) for a two day meeting, including key Community guests, seemed a fair price to pay to plot ANZAAS' new future. As the old adage says 'One has to speculate to accumulate'.
The Membership of ANZAAS has now affirmed me in the Chairman's role, unopposed, for a further three years. It has to be assumed that my visions for ANZAAS into the future are shared by you all. The Council will need to take cognizance of your wishes and I expect to hold the next face-to-face two day Council meeting before 5 March 2009 to set the new agenda.
It could be said of my first term in Office that I've taken the horse to water. The second term will be all about getting the horse to drink. The important and urgent need from the outset will be to raise funds from Governments (Federal and State), Companies and Philanthropists. With well planned in-house and collaborative projects and programmes in development and with the backing of our powerful allies on Council we should be able to forge ahead. To carry out these plans we shall also need to establish quite soon a professional secretariat, consisting initially of two or three administrators. It is clear that a modern ANZAAS cannot be run with wholly voluntary labour. Funding for this secretariat must be in place by the end of 2009 if ANZAAS is to have a worthwhile future. Seeking this funding will constitute almost all of my effort on behalf of ANZAAS for the next twelve months. It goes without saying that I shall appreciate all the help and advice that I can get from the Membership.
At this point I'd like to mention the other big development of this past year. ANZAAS has acquired its own internet server and at last our Webmaster is able to give our website a thoroughgoing make-over. The change of format is already becoming apparent across the website and for those who have been watching developments on the Victorian web pages over the last couple of years there will be no surprises. Nevertheless, however good the layout, it will be all to no avail unless the information from across the Country (and that means from the individual Divisions) is kept relevant, lively and up-to-date. The New Website will be at the core of the New ANZAAS. The website should have a fast growing readership and be a major source of new members.
One Divisional highlight that deserves a mention is the double event Sustainable Energy Forums that were staged in Melbourne during April by ANZAAS-Vic in conjunction with ATSE-Vic and the City of Melbourne. The two Forums were addressed by well respected sustainable energy leaders and were later broadcast by ABC National Radio. The aggregate audience for the two events was just short of 1500.
I'd like to make special mention of Rachel Morison, our young year 12 Editor of ANTENNA. She has done a magnificent job during the year in what turned out to be difficult circumstances as our Communications Team have been undergoing policy discussions and changes with regard to Mercury and the website. It is my hope that ANTENNA can be published directly onto the website in future enabling the publication to be readily accessible to all young students whether members of ANZAAS or not. Perhaps those students who are members of ANZAAS might be accorded a private dialogue facility so that their feedback can be used to help Rachel further develop the publication. Incidentally the current issues (September) of Mercury and ANTENNA, both focusing on Youth and in particular Youth ANZAAS 2008, have attracted an unusually large amount of positive comment.
There were two other decisions and one ongoing development that occurred this year and that the membership should be aware of. It has been decided that Youth ANZAAS 2009 will be held in Melbourne next July and Youth ANZAAS 2010 is being planned for Sydney in conjunction with ASTA's National Congress, CONASTA. (The collaboration with CONASTA follows the successful collaboration in Perth in 2007). The third issue relates to the formation of a Queensland Division. I've been trying, with the help of the Queensland State Government, for most of my term to set up ANZAAS-Qld. Just recently a new initiative has sprung into life there and I hope that next year I will be able to report that ANZAAS-Qld is in operation and, with luck (better late than never) Youth ANZAAS 2011 could be hosted by the new Division in Brisbane.
For those of you who have followed my columns in Mercury over the last few years there will be no surprise in the strategy that has guided ANZAAS over the last year. I think it is fair to say that on balance ANZAAS has taken three years to turn the corner. From here on in the figurative foot will have to be firmly on the accelerator.
Finally, for any doubters, I borrow those ringing words of late issuing from another Continent: Yes we can.
Mike Murray
26 November 2008
Chairman, ANZAAS Council
Post Script: Some Members may be interested in the history of ANZAAS with respect to the Association's interactions with other scientific bodies over its life. I draw your attention to Chapter 2 in the book The Commonwealth of Science - ANZAAS and the Scientific Enterprise (1888-1988) edited by Professor Roy MacLeod and published by Oxford University Press (1988). In that Chapter written by Professor MacLeod himself and entitled From Imperial to National Science, you will see that the 'science advocacy continuum' concept is not new. It has appeared in various guises over the years and the current strategic course for ANZAAS can only be said to be a variant of these; specially fashioned I hope to suit our own contemporary period.
I hope to invite Professor (now Emeritus) MacLeod to address our next Council Meeting.
MM