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PRESIDENT'S COLUMN
| I would like begin by thanking all the members of the 2008 Federal Executive for their contribution and commitment to promoting the interests of the Society and labour history more generally, as well as their efforts to implement the decisions arising from our constitutional review process. |
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I'm pleased to report some wonderful developments have occurred in this regard during the past year, all of which were foreshadowed in my last report. At the meeting of the Federal Executive held on Friday 27 June 2008, it was resolved
That the federal executive supports the move towards a national membership for the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History. Branches will collect the national membership fee as part of their branch subscription and forward $1.00 per member with a list of members to the Federal Secretary by 30 September to ensure voting rights at the Federal AGM and full voting rights of branch representatives on the Federal Executive. The rate for the Labour History subscription will remain separate.
This decision represented the culmination of a lengthy constitutional review process and it has brought to fruition the Society's transformation into a national membership based organisation. From now on the Society will provide the necessary resources to maintain a national membership register. |
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The impact of this change will no doubt become evident over time, but one of the immediate benefits has been a much closer relationship between the Federal Executive and the Branches. In practice greater exchange was made possible during 2008 through the holding of executive meetings by teleconference. As a result, all members of the Federal Executive have become more aware of each other's concerns, interests and activities. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Greg Mallory for accepting the role of Branch Liaison officer and for proposing that Branches should regularly exchange their own newsletters and other publications in order to ensure that members can be aware of and participate in each other's activities, seminars, conference and the like. In order to pursue this initiative the June meeting of the Federal Executive agreed that a standardised sheet with a list of all publications and information on their costs would be sent out with membership forms. |
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The Federal Executive has also been working to increase knowledge about the Society and the journal via the internet. During 2008 we farewelled our long-standing web support person, Nick Irving and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank him on behalf of the Executive and the Society for his contribution over many years. Given the changes noted above and the resulting need to provide Branch Secretaries with access to the Society's website, the Federal Executive set up a sub-committee to investigate the restructure and redesign of the website and to find a web manager to oversee the site. I am pleased to announce that James Bunton has been engaged to fulfil these activities. The current website will continue to function until the redesign is completed, at which time each branch will have responsibility for their section of the site. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Melanie Oppenheimer for her contribution as Website Monitor and the other members of the web sub-committee for their contribution to this outcome. |
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Over the last few years, our members in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales have been investigating the possibilities of establishing a Branch to overcome the problem of distance that separates labour historians who live and work in different towns and locales and who are interested in responding to the whittling away of labour history course offerings and labour heritage in the region. I would like to thank Rosemary Webb for taking the lead in this process and also for setting up a new 'virtual' Branch by means of the North Coast Labour History blog. The use of this medium will provide a virtual space to capture and connect regional labour history, expand links between historians and the local labour movement, and to promote the Society on the North Coast. I refer members to investigate the initiative themselves at: <http://northcoastlabourhistory.typepad.com/north_coast_labour_histor/> |
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