HIA Executive Director Brenton Gardner today welcomed the progression of the State Government’s 1000 Homes in 1000 Days Program to a stage with the first homes being completed.

Mr Gardner said “The program comes at a time when the South Australian building industry is in need of additional Government building projects to offset a significant decline in the new home building market”.

“As the program progresses, HIA hope to introduce a number of new builders to Renewal SA to qualify for future house building and Trust renovation work, thereby creating employment and manufacturing opportunities for South Australians.”

“It will also be good to see the rejuvenation of a number of Adelaide suburbs and

regional towns, as public housing stock is replaced and renewed.”

This Media Release was originally sourced from HIA. 

Sydney-based integrated communications agency, Zadro, has been appointed as the official communications partner for the Australasian Society of Association Executives (AuSAE).

Zadro secured the partnership with AuSAE after completing strategic communications planning and marketing support for the 2016 AuSAE Conference and Exhibition (ACE) earlier this year, where the conference trended on Twitter with hashtag #ACEACT16.

In the coming year, Zadro will focus on developing AuSAE’s online and offline marketing communications to fuel membership engagement and growth; plus supporting ACE 2017 - the pinnacle event for association professionals to be held at ICC Sydney in May 2017.

Brendon Ward, CEO at AuSAE said, “We are delighted to be continuing to work with Zadro across our communications – their team is highly experienced in the associations’ market and understands the unique challenges faced by not-for-profit organisations.

“Zadro is aligned with our mission to foster a strong association sector in Australia and New Zealand and are a great fit to boost our external communications, reach our goals and increase attendance at the 2017 conference,” said Mr Ward.

The partnership comes as Zadro continues to expand into the association and not-for-profit sector in Australia.

Debbie Bradley, Group Account Director at Zadro said, “We’ve been working closely with associations on their diverse communication needs over many years. The sector is a key growth area for our business and we’re excited to be working with the fantastic AuSAE team to advance this industry and provide opportunities for development, education and training of association professionals.

“We look forward to assisting AuSAE in their future communications endeavours,” concluded Ms Bradley.

Zadro specialises in strategic communications, public relations, member research and surveys, marketing, digital and social media, design, employer branding and internal communications services.

The agency works across a variety of industries including meetings and events, business tourism, finance, technology, construction, infrastructure and associations.

Waitakere Indian Association has elected the full slate of officers and board members the year 2016-2017 at their recent AGM meeting held on Sunday 31 July in Auckland.

All of our newest and existing Board members embody the spirit of community and bring talent, expertise and energy to the table. We are very fortunate to have them by our side as we continue to strengthen community in Waitakere”, says the incoming President Mahen Sharma.

There are more than 155,000 Indians living in New Zealand and Hindi is the fourth largest spoken language. Since its formation in 2000, Waitakere Indian Association has been working with various government agencies and local Indian associations in promoting, advocating and integrating the Indian culture and values with the Kiwi way of life.

Waitakere Indian Association is a non-sectarian, non-profit organization open to all. Our mission is to build a sense of community and common purpose throughout the region, and to enhance the recreational, educational, cultural, health and social well-being of the Indian Diaspora in Waitakere, Auckland.

For more information about Waitakere Indian Association call 021 132 4688 or visit www.waitakereindianassociation.nz

The Executive Committee of 2016-2017

President Mahen Sharma

Vice President Sunil Kaushal

Secretary Hasmita Singh

Assistant Secretary Kajal Kumar

Treasurer Naveen Prakash

Assistant Treasurer Mohini Prakash

Executive members Hardip Singh

Manoj Tahal

Sunil Chandra

Preeya Prakash

Chandrika Prasad

Dev Bhardwaj

Arwind Singh (Rohit)

Nawal Prakash

IPP Naveen Prakash

This article was originally sourced from Scoop Media. 

Providing excellent membership value is one of the most important ways associations improve recruitment and retention rates. But where should you focus your efforts? In the latest episode of Association Adviser TV, we spoke with David Lewis, executive director of the Arizona Association of School Business Officials, and Lauren Hoffmann, director of marketing, communications and membership for several regional and national associations, to hear their best tips for making the most of your membership value proposition.

Encouraging members to contact you with feedback helps your association understand how to provide more valuable membership.

Help your members learn from each other by giving a platform to those with unique expertise. 

Associations can close skills and information gaps by providing career development resources and opportunities. 

Encourage individual contact. Let members know you’re open to suggestions and want feedback in order to better tailor membership value to their needs.

The best way to ensure you’re delivering member value is to listen to how your members think you could provide a better service. But don’t just wait for suggestions—anticipate member needs and seek ways to actively improve their member experience. Make sure your members know you’re happy to serve them on a personal level.

Keep a close eye on the industry. Be a connector between news, trends and members. Stay on top of the media to find and share with members the content that is most relevant to their interests and needs. Social media can be a great tool for discovering what your members are talking about, understanding what matters to them and keeping them informed about the latest industry news.

Provide professional development resources. Associations are in a unique position to help close skills and information gaps because of their access to high performing professionals.

Offering unique career development opportunities like classes, workshops, webinars and certifications add great practical value to membership that encourages renewal.

Leverage member expertise. Associations also have the opportunity to shine a light on members who have unique expertise about relevant topics by giving them a trusted platform to share their knowledge with a wider audience. This could be online, on forums or websites or at live events. Associations can call on members to write guest blogs, share their success stories or speak at events. You could also interview them for featured articles in your association’s publication. Help members learn from their high-performing colleagues by facilitating that connection.

To make sure membership in your association remains valuable, anticipate and respond to member needs while encouraging open communication and feedback. Your member recruitment and retention rates depend on you letting your members know you are happy to improve their experience in any way possible. By providing unique opportunities for professional development, learning and networking, your association can have an influence on holding the industry to a high standard.

Establish your association as an industry partner by offering quality benefits that members need and by directly asking your members what you can do to serve them. Being equally skilled at communicating and listening will set your association apart and deliver real value to your members.

This article was originally sourced from Association Adviser. 

The Australian Cricketers' Association is calling for the country's female cricketers to be included in the next collective bargaining agreement, in a move set to cause friction between the players' union and Cricket Australia.

The body representing the players wants CA to give female players the same rights as their male colleagues. At the moment, the women do not have an industrial agreement with CA and miss out on entitlements such as injury payments, access to the retirement fund and visiting periods for partners while on tour.

ACA's delegates met in Melbourne this week heading into the start of negotiations over the next memorandum of understanding. They have stated their concerns with domestic cricket and how they feel it has been compromised by innovation, and also raised issues about the schedule.

The ACA wants revenue from the women's game to be included in Australia's cricket revenue, of which players are entitled to a 26 per cent share, but expects to be rebuffed by CA. The union has also called for greater financial transparency from CA to get a better understanding of how much money the women's game generates through areas such as sponsorship, broadcast rights, ticket sales and digital media.

The two parties had a bitter dispute earlier this year over women's pay. CA significantly increased its commitment to the female game from $2.36 million to $4.23 million. Wages for Australia's elite female players have spiked significantly in recent years but whereas the top men can earn around $2 million annually the leading women have a maximum retainer of $65,000 but can earn more than $100,000 once payments from the Women's Big Bash League and Southern Stars match and tour fees are added.

Players remain concerned with how domestic competitions are being used as testing grounds for innovations such as the pink ball. While players are happy to try new ideas they believe it should not be to the detriment of the contest.

This season's Sheffield Shield competition will feature three different balls – the traditional Kookaburra, the pink ball used for day-night Tests and the Dukes used by England.

"The delegates are a passionate group representing the players who have expressed their genuine interest in maintaining the integrity and growth of the game," ACA chief Alistair Nicholson said. "The delegates have unanimously endorsed these principles and in so doing have made it very clear what the players need to help grow the game. These players are living and breathing custodians of the sport, and their commitment to the game and its growth is absolute."

A CA spokesperson said: "The game of cricket is in good shape and players contribute an important element to this success. We look forward to discussing this with the ACA, but won't be negotiating the MOU in the media."

This article was originally sourced from SMH and was written by Andrew Wu.

New Zealand First is warning again that the forestry industry is heading for disaster.

“While New Zealand’s forests are being cleaned out mostly by foreign owners other nations, including China, are locking up their forests,” says New Zealand First Leader and Member of Parliament for Northland Rt Hon Winston Peters.

“One of our greatest former state assets – trees – are being felled too early, not enough new trees are being planted and raw logs are leaving ports when it is processed products we should be exporting.

“Mismanagement of the industry and turning a blind eye to the plunder of our trees will go down as one of the great failures of the Key government.

“Each month they tick off land and forestry blocks to foreign buyers – now eight of the top 10 forest companies are foreign controlled.

“The way things are going in the coming years, exotic forests planted by people of foresight through the 1980s and early 1990s will be gone.

“From December 2001 to March 2015 the total area of new forest area planted plummeted from 33,674 hectares down to 3051 hectares.

“In the next five years China, our biggest market for logs, will fully stop the commercial harvest in their government owned forests thereby locking up 70.5 million hectares because they have over-harvested,” says Mr Peters.

Speech to Wood Processors and Manufacturers’ Association, July 2016

This article was originally sourced from Scoop Media.

THE Farm Machinery Industry Association (FMIA) has been given clear air to promote ag apprenticeship education.

It comes as State government policy after years of frustrations and blocked doors as the FMIA, and under its old name FMDA, has championed ag education, particularly as it relates to ag apprentices. And it has a solid and influential backer in South Regional TAFE Bunbury director, business development, Chris Mayfield.

Mr Mayfield said the ag training sector is undergoing significant change away from a bureaucratic structure to a more streamlined TAFE structure involving three centres covering 95 per cent of WA.

"And only one regional TAFE will pick up the agricultural industry," he said. "That centre will be the first point of reference to get things done."

FMIA executive officer John Henchy said talks had already started with Mr Mayfield to discuss the association's needs with specific emphasis on the Agricultural qualification AUR 30416 - Certificate III in Agricultural Mechanical Technology.

"Not only will we be focusing on the qualification but on delivery options and those options will be determined by our members in consultation with the management of the TAFE colleges who pick up the challenge," Mr Henchy said.

Mr Mayfield said the Certificate III course would be a Just-In-Time module with less emphasis on certificates and scholarships and more emphasis on developing specialised skills to be job-ready.

"We'll establish a world class training facility to cater for ag mechanical technology at a dedicated machinery training hub," he said. "That hub will be at Muresk and recognised as a Centre of Excellence with industry input into the curriculum.

"We have in-principle support from OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) for unified, flexible delivery methods with protects OEM intellectual property so essentially we'll be teaching the same stuff throughout the State.

"If an employee can't send staff to us, we'll come to them.

"Our trainers can go on-site, to say an ag dealership, to train apprentices.

"We'll have a testing and proving ground at Muresk with on-site accommodation for apprentices and employers will have a 24/7 access to our online training platform to access monthly updates on their employees.

"A dealer can ask for training on-site with the occasional trip to Muresk for a specific component of the course and I would encourage dealers to pool apprentices in one town to get a more tailored package from our training providers."

Answering a question on TAFE colleges not teaching the basics to apprentices, such as drilling steel or flat-bending steel, Mr Mayfield said it would be up to the FMIA to drive needs to the TAFE training council to change training packages where needed.

"This supposedly will be asked for from industry," he said.

FMIA president Alan Fisher confirmed the association's desire to be a conduit to influence training packages required by association members.

Mr Mayfield also said there would be emphasis on training providers.

"For example, the models we are using for dairy traineeship are endorsed by Dairy Australia and I'm employing trainers from within the dairy industry," Mr Mayfield said.

"We can also train the trainers to keep pace with changing technology and there's no reason why OEMs can't work with TAFE colleges in WA."

Mr Henchy said the FMIA detected a desire in the TAFE system to help the ag industry and people were prepared to work with the association.

"We believe it can work and can work well," he said.

This article was originally sourced from Farm Weekly and was written by Ken Wilson. 

Local Government Business Forum has called the New Zealand Initiative’s latest report a breath of "fresh ideas" in the often stale debate about what is the right size for local authorities.

The Local Benchmark: When Smaller is Better highlights how out of step New Zealand is with the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. There central government has embraced the diversity of local government to boost the pace of economic growth.

The report also analysed Montreal’s municipal amalgamation, and found that not only did the merger of 28 municipalities fail to achieve the efficiencies, the process increased the annual cost of running the city by C$400 million.

"When it comes questions about local government efficiency, all too often the only response we hear from central government is the need to consolidate councils in fewer entities and to centralise decision-making," said Forum Chairman Michael Barnett.

"This report shows that bigger isn’t necessarily better. There are other ways of structuring local government that lead to better outcomes. And we need fresh ideas if we are to tackle some of the long-standing problems that drag on our economy, like high house prices, local bureaucracy, and poor democratic accountability."

"Ultimately, both central and local government have a shared interest in getting New Zealand’s governance arrangements right. Let’s use that as the basis for a partnership instead of getting hung up on structure," Barnett said.

The report is being launched today at Local Government New Zealand’s annual conference, where Initiative Research Fellow and author Jason Krupp will deliver a keynote address.

ABOUT THE FORUM

The Local Government Business Forum comprises organisations that have a vital interest in the activities of local government. Its members include BusinessNZ, the Electricity Networks Association, Federated Farmers of NZ, The New Zealand Initiative, NZ Chambers of Commerce, and NZ Retailers’ Association. The Forum was established in 1994 to promote greater efficiency in local government and to contribute to the debate on policy issues affecting it.

For more information on the Forum, see www.localgovtforum.org.nz

This Media Release was originally sourced from Scoop Media. 

All-of-sector meeting tackles housing issues

New Zealand’s building and construction sector is facing the largest challenge of a generation. Auckland housing, the Canterbury rebuild, booming house prices, a lack of resource supply and the aftermath of the global financial crisis are just a few of the issues calling for an all-of-sector forum next month.

The Registered Master Builders Association (RMBA) is leading Constructive, a forum held in Christchurch from21-23 September. Attendees will address New Zealand’s key issues with a view to improving outcomes and performance for all.

David Kelly, Chief Executive of RMBA says Constructive is a fantastic opportunity for the wider building and construction sector to engage with the issues as a whole. Those attending include economists, financiers, insurers, councils, regulators, engineers, builders, architects, quantity surveyors, planners and industry training organisations.

“Housing is New Zealand’s number one issue right now, the Government and the sector need to come together to tackle these challenges and discuss strategies to overcome them,” he says. “Constructive is the first time this broad group will come together. It will play a critical role in New Zealand’s development.”

Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Bill English, along with Building and Housing Minister Nick Smith, intend to discuss the importance of the construction sector to New Zealand’s economy and the challenges that we face ahead.

A number of speakers from a range of disciplines in the building and construction sector will also share their views and participate in discussions to develop strategies for New Zealand’s future success.

This Media Release was originally sourced from Scoop Media. 

The Australian Psychological Society (APS) welcomes the Victorian Government’s recent announcement of a new Multicultural and Social Cohesion Division.

“Maintaining harmony and promoting social cohesion without compromising our social and religious diversity is important to all of us,” said APS President Professor Michael Kyrios.

“Social divisions impact all the community at varying levels, including levels of wellbeing and mental health.”

He added: “At this time, there are forces trying to divide us. We are being bombarded by dangerous and divisive messages that are creating fear by singling out certain groups as threats. Victorians have traditionally embraced multiculturalism and it’s important for Government and community leaders to build on that history.”

As part of his Presidential Initiative, Professor Kyrios has prioritised addressing social cohesion as one of the major challenges facing Australian society in the 21st Century, along with climate change and community wellbeing. Earlier in the year, Professor Kyrios hosted a Social Cohesion Roundtable, inviting experts from key areas to consider what psychology can contribute to social cohesion.

“At the APS we are focusing on social cohesion as a key priority and in particular identifying evidence-based strategies that can help inform policy and programs.”

“We are delighted to see an agency being set up to take a strategic policy approach to promoting social cohesion and celebrating our multicultural society, and we would welcome the opportunity to collaborate as there are many learnings from psychology that can be applied to bring communities together,” Professor Kyrios emphasised.

This Media Release was originally sourced from APS.