April 2007

FROM THE PRESIDENT

After a chat with Sue Hart in our Secretariat, I have decided to make communication the theme for this message.

One of NELA's strengths as a national organisation is that members can access colleagues in other jurisdictions to exchange ideas and learn new information. The flipside to that great diversity is that sometimes, it's hard to keep in touch! For that reason, the National Executive is focussing this year on improving the delivery of information to you.

One way is the journal, which you should have received with this Bulletin. While it's a little late, it is filled with useful and thoughtfully written articles and case notes. The NELR editor, Wayne Gumley, and his State sub-editors work hard to collate material for the journal but it is often a struggle. I encourage you to think about contributing an article or a case note in future issues. There are lots of interesting things happening so if you are in a position to write about them – please do!

Our other main method of communicating information is through our website – www.nela.org.au. Hopefully by the time you read this, our new website will be live. While I loved the look and feel of the bright red parrot on the old page, it was time for a revamp and an opportunity to make the website more user friendly. I hope we've achieved that. There is still some information to go up on the site and there will be some concerted effort in the short term to make sure those information gaps are filled. The aim is to make the website the main repository of information about NELA and its activities, past and present. So revisit the site often to get updated information about the 2008 National Conference in Perth, seminars happening in your State or Territory or ELRANZ projects. There is a username and password required to access certain parts of the site. These were mailed out to members a few years ago, but if you can't find that information, please ring the Secretariat. My thanks to Vice-President Greg Rose and Sue Hart for their efforts in relation to the website project.

Of course in order to deliver information to you, we need to know where to find you!! If your contact details have changed recently (especially your email address), please let the Secretariat know so that our records can be kept up to date.

As always, if you have any thoughts about NELA please do not hesitate to contact me.

Robyn Glindemann

President