Dear Members

It’s a great honour to have been elected your President. I am energised but also humbled by this appointment. I recognise all too well that Joe Agius has been extraordinarily effective in this role. He’s a hard act to follow – but I promise you I will give it my best shot.

My three big priorities:

Advocacy

My advocacy for you will be within the NSW Chapter & its committees, but also for you at National Council.

My advocacy for you will be through traditional and social media to communicate to the wider public, government & business groups the value of using an architect and investing in architecture.

Equity

I am passionate about gender equity. As a founding member of the Gender Equity Taskforce, I will support the profession to embrace equitable workplaces.  We can do this by:

• keeping more of our women in work through the maternity period of their lives;
• letting men know that they too can have flexible work hours to help raise their children; and
• supporting mid career architects up-skill, up-career and get registered.

Membership

Together we are stronger. I want our membership to grow. With greater numbers we have greater power to effect change.

I want you to feel your membership is of great value to you, whether that is through a more cost effective membership, better information through Chapter Council and its committees, or one of the service arms of the profession like Acumen.

I look forward to working with you and for you during my two-year term.

Farewell to Roslyn Irons

One thing we as members need to realise is that the quality of the Chapter Manager is crucial to the effectiveness of the President, the Chapter Council, the committees and to the many and varied activities organised by Chapter staff. We have been fortunate that Roslyn Irons has been exemplary in the way she has developed outreach opportunities for the Chapter and has re-organised the office structure to enable it to carry out its work in partnership with members.

After seven and a half years Roslyn has been given the opportunity to return to the health services industry as State Manager of the NSW & ACT faculty of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. We are very sorry she is leaving us, but grateful for all she has achieved for the Institute in her time with us – and we wish her well in her new role.

Shaun Carter
NSW President Elect