WAIER President's Report 2019

Western Australian Institute for Educational Research

President's Report 2019

Eva Dobozy
WAIER Co-President

Successful year

It is with immense pleasure that I note that this year again proved to be successful in terms of relationship building, professional engagement and strong financial position. The financial statement to be reported later by the treasurer is very sound. The Annual Research Forum was again a great success, with encouraging participant feedback, a timely and engaging keynote address and the important award ceremony. The journal, Issues in Educational Research continues to thrive online, and is an important aspect of our work. The marketing and digital communication through the WAIER Digest is a wonderful digital communication tool ensuring regular communication and engagement with our membership. Thanks to the great effort of the WAIER executive committee we are going strong and our membership is increasing. Although I don't have exact membership numbers, I can confidently say that the 2019 WAIER membership is above 200. A number of significant events and initiatives are worth noting:

In January 2019 we held our inaugural Planning Day, which was very well attended and generated a number of great ideas. They will need to be revisited and built upon in 2020.
The change to our constitution and update WAIER Inc. Rules to enable deductible gift recipient (DGR) status.
New research grant funding, namely a $5000 Fogarty Foundation student research prize, this is in addition to the $2000 research grant sponsorship.
The inclusion of an Acknowledgement to Country protocol in all official events and executive meetings, which promotes awareness of the past and ongoing connection to place and land of Aboriginal Australians.
The WAIER executive reached a decision to cease the offering WAIER Research Seminars given the decreasing member interest and low level of attendance. New communication and engagement channels with members may be needed to stay current and engage with educational researchers in WA and beyond.

Future work

The strategic planning commenced in 2019 will need to continue in 2020, providing clear direction about WAIER's operations and future strategic initiatives to ensure we serve our membership and fulfil our mandate. In this regard, I find it crucial that we, as the WAIER executive committee, have a strong digital presence, increase Forum participation and support and promote the journal through our editorial assistance and through the publication of contemporary and topical education research.

This year, we saw a bit of a reshuffle of leadership positions as I took on the co-president role. I was fortunate to have Sue Beltman beside me as friend and mentor. Sonja Kuzich stepped into the role of vice-president, but kept her role as research grant coordinator, ECA award reviewer and also organised the framing of awards certificates. Her outstanding contribution to WAIER was acknowledged through the receipt of the 2019 WAIER PTCWA Professional Service Award.

Angela Evangelinou-Yiannakis has once again been excellent in her role as secretary. This is such an important role and Angela is so dependable and I truly appreciate her work. Greg Hine has continued as treasurer, which required a bit of a juggling act given his teaching commitments on a Friday afternoon. I also truly appreciate all the 'behind the scene' work concerning ATO communication concerning our DGR status etc. Helen Dempsey continued as our experienced Forum Coordinator and was supported by Fiona Boylan and Clare McBeath. As always, they did a superb job and the Forum was a key highlight of the year.

Brad Gobby and Madeleine Dobson did an outstanding job as our digital communications coordinators. I really appreciate their great ideas of how to engage our membership digitally and communicate our achievements. Brad and Maddie's work certainly had a great impact this year. Maddie also acted as sponsorship coordinator and Brad as our webmaster.

Clare McBeath and Roger Atkinson have continued their excellent work with the WAIER journal Issues in Educational Research, which is gaining popularity with educational researchers all over the world. Roger is also our WAIER Archivist, an important role indeed. Jette Oksis took on the role as awards coordinator and did a superb job coordinating the review of the many ECR applications and attending the PGA event at ECU.

Thank you also to our other committee members, Chris Glass, Michelle Murphy, Rosana Stout, and Paul Gardner, who were always willing to help out with various tasks, especially in relation to the annual Forum, website and journal. Your input during meetings is greatly welcome and I hope you will take up the opportunity to volunteer for elected committee positions.

So once again thank you to all of you for your commitment and contribution to WAIER and for your creativity in thinking of new ways we can support research in our community. I look forward to working with you all again in 2020.

Thank you.

A/Prof Eva Dobozy
WAIER Co-President
November 2019

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Created 25 Nov 2019. Last corrected 25 Nov 2019. This URL: http://www.waier.org.au/archives/ann-reports/presidents-rept-19.html
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