Fleet Air Arm
Association of Australia
AGM 2007 -
National Secretary Report
Annual General Meeting - 27 October 2007
Annex B - 2007 National Secretary's Report
Overview
This 2007 AGM sees the completion of my 3-year tour of duty, and my belief is that the point has been reached without any major disasters, or at least none that I am aware of. Minor mistakes have been made, of course, lots of them, but most have been rectified quickly whenever possible, and apologies extended as appropriate.
The Nat. Sec's desk, now located in what was once the ill-fated Cronin Centre, received very little use until a few months back due to chaos caused by W.E.C. construction work. It is now being utilised again, with the National body/NSW Division sharing the computer. Miraculously, the latter remained fully serviceable throughout the long period of massive disruption.
Proposed plans for future development of the revamped site have been prepared, one of the most important being the construction of a much needed toilet block.
Membership
The total national membership remains constant, just above the 1,000 mark. The number of brand new registrations has been encouraging, as has the number of lapsed members renewing their membership, but these two positives have been offset by numbers of others leaving, and, although I don't have the numbers to hand, my inner feeling is that far more members have died than usual during the 12-moth period.
FAAAA website
As noted previously, Webmaster Harley Dadswell continues to provide us with an excellent service. In addition to being a great source of important information, numerous "News Pages" items have been added during the past 12 months on all manner of topics. The information below is repeated for the second time in these reports, where Harley provides an overview of the potential of the website. It remains totally relevant, and reads as follows:
www.faaaa.asn.au
The website aims to provide:
- a FAAAA 'presence' to the wider world;
- an outlet for the National Executive and State Divisions to make announcements or publish news;
- a tool for members and others to make contact with former colleagues; and information about naval aviation to the wider world.
A significant part of the website consists of static information about aircraft types, and website users are unlikely to often access these pages once they have seen them. But it is apparent that many visitors to these pages are from outside the Association.
The website's news pages have more potential to interest members. These pages provide information from the National Executive and each of the State Divisions. In the past year, Victoria and South Australian Divisions have made frequent use of these pages.
If Divisions would like to use this facility, any items emailed to the webmaster using the email address faaaa888@hotmail.com will be posted onto the relevant page. The contact section of the website is meant to help anyone find former colleagues or post up personal or FAA-related news or opinions. So far this year, 26 of these messages have been published. It costs about $150.00 per year for the registration of the website name and the cost of a company hosting the website.
Correspondence
The way we communicate in the Association changed significantly during my watch, with computer-generated mail being the norm. The actual quantity of electronic mail transmitted and received during the past 12 months has not been recorded, but is very significant indeed.
Whereas the norm when conducting business in the good old days was to write or type a letter to an individual or an organisation, log it in the correspondence file, address and mail it, and then await the outcome at some time in the future, the electronic method of communicating, in contrast, has totally changed the way we now do those things for ever. It is immediate of course, and it certainly accelerates business action and decision making, but because of its simplicity, the sheer volume of transactions is massive, as it's all too easy to send e-messages.
However, there are two caveats applicable to using the electronic system, the first being that the secretarial need for a fast and reliable computer (and having a standby computer is ideal!). The second is that greater vigilance is required than in the snail mail days, because it's so much easier to overlook a single e-message received in a large batch than it ever would be for a hard copy letter, and the consequences can be embarrassing as I have found to my cost, several times.
FAAA databases
Last year I noted that the ultimate objective for any National Secretary would undoubtedly be to boast of a Slipstream post-out without error, but that it probably would never happen, and it didn't, and sadly it never will now happen on my watch. The better news is that the most recent S/S mail-outs have been remarkably free from those errors, and, as previously indicated, almost all caused by member's failure to report personal detail changes.
Also, as soon as is practical, Divisional Secretaries should notify the death of a member, and a requirement or otherwise for the continuation of Slipstream to the deceased member's NOK.
Acknowledgements
For the final time, I extend many thanks to all the Association Divisional office bearers for their co-operation, help and support throughout the past 3 years. Special thanks go New South Wales's Mike, Greg and 'Windy', the Museum's Terry, and of course my three colleagues on the Nat. Exec. Adieu - Tom McDonald
See also:
2007 Annual General Meeting
2007 AGM Minutes
2007 AGM President's Report
Guest speaker CMDR Nat Gould