Speak Out October 2016

From the President

A s I write this introduction, Brisbane is just beginning to develop a purple tinge as the jacaranda trees burst their buds, reminding us that the year is progressing. For the northern half of Australia, it is time to start cranking up the air conditioning, and for the southern half turning off the heating. It seems such a long time since I last wrote the introduction to the August Speak Out . Since that time we have celebrated Speech Pathology Week, launched the Speech Pathology 2030 document; worked with the NDIS and others to understand and fix the problems with the NDIS Portal; liaised with the NDIS to manage the registration issues occurring in some states; presented to the Victorian inquiry into Autism services; finalised research grants; attended the IALP (International Association of Logopaedics and Phoniatrics) conference in Dublin; commenced a project looking at credentialing; the Ethics Board conducted their annual training weekend and continued to provide the regular ongoing member services. That is only some of the activities that your Association is carrying out to ensure that speech pathologists are well placed both now and into the future to provide the best service that they can. While we (CEO Gail Mulcair and I) were at the IALP conference in Dublin we took the opportunity to meet with the other countries in the strategic group of the International Communication Project. This face-to-face meeting was very beneficial for progressing the ICP actions, as well as a great opportunity to meet and form better ties with our counterparts in the countries involved in the mutual recognition agreement. We were able to network with the wider group of professional associations present at IALP. I also managed to fit in a visit to the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, which was a great chance to explore how another speech pathology professional body does its business. This month the Board will meet with Branch Chairs, members and some senior national office staff to determine the framework of our strategic plan for 2017-2020. Thank you to those people who will give up their Saturday to come and meet with us. We will also be presenting the Book of the Year awards to the successful authors and inducting a new author into the Hall of Fame – that would have to be one of my favourite parts of this job! My thanks to the judges for the Book of the Year – you read a large number of books. In addition to these stand out activities, we continue our day to day work of providing advice and support to members, advocating for speech pathology services and ensuring our high professional standards are maintained. I hope that you enjoy reading about all these activities and more in this edition of Speak Out . I look forward to sharing the outcomes of our strategic planning early next year.

Gaenor Dixon

Gaenor Dixon National President

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October 2016 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

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