AAA Member Update #14

 Welcome to our member update. Our fortnightly update is our way of communicating more effectively with all AAA members. 

I thank you all for trusting me with your Association and I reaffirm my commitment to ensuring that your Board and I are always focussed on the Corporate Governance of the AAA and what is in the best interests of our members.

I would firstly like to thank the outgoing members of the Board and their combined dedication to the AAA and the membership. Thank you to Ian Frith on his strong leadership as President and Sharon Dawson and Andrew Hulme for the work and outcomes in their capacity as Directors. As has been announced, both Steve O’Keefe and Sue Harris tendered their resignations at the conclusion of the AGM. I would like to thank both Sue and Steve for the outcomes they achieved in their respective roles as Vice-President and Treasurer.

I would also like to recognise the mountain of work our CEO Amanda and her team of Tanya and Vanessa do in the office to keep the wheels turning at all levels. The new Board is 100% committed to an inclusive and productive relationship with our staff and I personally look forward to developing those relationships over the coming months.

I am very pleased to retain the corporate knowledge of the two remaining Directors, Trevor Parry and Ian Preuss along with the two newly elected Directors, Prue Walduck and Rochelle Veitch. I thank all of the team for their dedication to the ongoing management of our Association. I look forward to the times ahead and working with you all.

I am also very pleased to announce the addition of Sarah Wheeler to fill one of the vacant Director positions. Sarah received a significant amount of the member vote at the election and it is appropriate that the Board recognises this as the will of the members. Thank you Sarah for agreeing to come on board.

Your new Board is already working hard on putting together the foundations of many new initiatives and we plan to announce these to the membership after our first Board meeting in the next few weeks. We also expect to soon be requesting Expressions of Interest (EOI) to fill the vacant Treasurer position, EOI for a new Showing and Judging Committee and some additional working groups to assist both our CEO and Directors. If you think you might have an interest in helping to guide the future direction of our Association then please consider becoming involved. I am keen to harness the passion and skills of our diverse membership to achieve positive outcomes for our industry.

One of the areas that I and the other candidates campaigned on was improved communication from your Board to you, the members. A key element of good communication is ‘listening’. The Board and I are available to hear your thoughts and concerns at any time. All of our contact details are available on eAlpaca and will soon be on the website. I encourage you to make contact and engage us in productive conversation. Please be mindful that at times we may not be at liberty to discuss certain matters or specifics. I also want to acknowledge the great work Amanda is doing with her communication on our website, Facebook, other social media and general promotion of our industry as evidenced by the public attendance at our recent National Show.

Please be aware that at times Amanda, as our CEO and Company Secretary, will be communicating decisions made by the Board. In these instances Amanda is the Boards messenger. Please, as the saying goes, “Don’t shoot the Messenger”. If you take exception to any communication please address your concerns to one of the Board members in the first instance. I am available to take calls anytime.

On a purely personal note, an especially large thank you to Bronwyn (the Commander of Domestic Affairs) for supporting me and I promise to not leave you a ‘Board Widow’ as you so eloquently put it.

To our members good luck with your spring cria drop. I sincerely hope for good rains for those that are in such desperate need and a distinct absence of fires.

Finally, your Board pledge to work hard for our Association on all fronts at all times. Please be patient over the next few weeks as the new Board finds its feet. We need a little time to allocate new roles and responsibilities and get on with the job that the members have entrusted us to do.

Farewell Ian Frith, outgoing President (read by Sue Harris at AAA AGM)

Congratulations to the new President and Board members. I wish three things for the new Board - (1)  That they can share a common vision of the industry’s future and work towards it;  (2)  That they can enjoy the process of working together for the good of the alpaca industry; and (3)  That they can work together as a united Board.

Before I return the chair to the out-going President, I want to wish him well also in his alpaca farming and to thank him for his tireless work for the future of the industry over the past three years. In that time, Frithy has led a Board that has listened to feedback from the Council and members and has overseen the following initiatives:

• The move from the old ABRI system and implementation of the eAlpaca registration system and the revised fee schedule associated with the move
• Introduction of a new Constitution
• Introduction of the Australian Guaranteed Alpaca Product Swing Tag and Trademark
• Move to incorporate the Alpacas Australia magazine with World of Alpacas
• Introduction of new IAR Rules in line with eAlpaca
• Sale of AAFL Preference Shares (which had no verifiable market value) for $70,000 and commitment of $60,000 of that money to three equal funds for Youth Development, Commercialisation & Market Development and Research & Development.
• Appointment of three life members – Lyn Dickson, Julienne Gelber & Jenny McAuliffe.
• Youth removed from the Education Portfolio and established as a separate portfolio.
• National Alpaca Youth Education committee formed with representatives from all states. Subsequently youth group committees were established in each of NSW, Victoria, Queensland & SA, each with their own bank account and reporting to the AYE Committee.
• Revision of Showing Rules Manual to reduce the maximum fleece age for suri alpacas in halter classes as a step towards making the show standard for suri as well as huacaya align with the requirements of mechanised spinning mills.
• Creation of a new Charter for the Showing and Judging Committee and a new Showing & Judging Committee appointed after all members of the previous Committee resigned.
• Three visits by Board representatives to China over two years to establish and strengthen ties with the China Wool & Textile Association (CWTA) and the China Agricultural Animal Association (CAAA) and several Chinese woollen mills introduced to the AAA by the CWTA. First sample of 160kg ready to be dispatched to one of those mills.
• Working with Children, Young Persons and Vulnerable Persons Policy adopted.
• Returned to the Australian Wool and Sheep Show at Bendigo with a trade stand to promote the alpaca industry, broadening to a commercial fleece show in the second year.
• Moved the national AAA office from Mitcham in Victoria to Canberra and leased out the Mitcham office at a rental that more than paid the rent for the office in Canberra
• Resulting stronger connections with Animal Health Australia, Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, Austrade and other national government and industry bodies.
• Alpaca Youth education (AYE) Charter approved and capitation equal to 50% of Youth membership fees received to be directed to the State youth group to which the youth member belongs.
• Social Media Policy created and approved.
• Q-Fever testing aimed at satisfying the MPI in New Zealand so that ban on export of Australian alpacas to NZ is lifted. Tests funded jointly by DAWR and NSW government.
• Appointment of Amanda Olthof as CEO. This has been a major achievement for the alpaca industry. With Amanda, has come meaningful connections with government departments and authorities, much better communication to members with fortnightly newsletters and through social media and most importantly, a can-do attitude to promoting the industry to itself, to government, to the commercial world and to the public. It is largely thanks to Amanda’s work in promoting the National Show this year that we had close to 3,000 members of the public attend and enjoy the event. She is the key to putting the alpaca industry on the political map!
• Following the ready acceptance of black shirts and vests as Show Ring attire at the Australian Alpaca Spectacular, a three –year trial of the option to wear either white coats or black shirts and vests in the Show Ring at AAA shows.
• Pilot fleece levy program with a long-term view to finding sources of funding for the AAA which are not primarily reliant on member subscriptions or animal registration fees.
• Arranged Chinese delegates to attend the 2018 Australian Alpaca Spectacular (National Show) and to visit a number of alpaca farms in the three days leading up to the show.
• Alpaca of the Year and Best New Breeder awards established and trialed for the first time this year.
• Survey of all members to gauge member views about changes required or desired to the existing regional regulations and new Regulations drafted based on member responses to that survey.
• In response to requests from judges and other members, suri fleece classes have been aligned with the huacaya fleece classes from 2019.
•  Judges’ intake weekend run by the SJC in June this year with a second phase weekend in full swing right now in SA.
• Development of a new strategic plan for the three-year period from 2019.
• New website created and its launch is imminent.

Frithy, as President you have worked so hard for the alpaca industry and you have encouraged and inspired the Board to work with you to broaden the horizons of the alpaca industry.  On behalf of the industry, I thank you and wish you a happy return to a more peaceful life.

Finally, I began by saying that I wished the new Board the ability to work together as a united Board. The new President and members of the new Board have expressed an intention to move away from the vision of the outgoing President and Board and to follow their own, equally strongly held vision for the future of the industry. Steve O’Keefe and I feel that there would inevitably be some conflict between the vision that we hold for the industry and that held by most other members of the new Board. To give the new Board its best possible chance of having a shared vision and working as a united Board, Steve and I have decided to step down from the Board, effective from the close of this meeting. We shall tender our written resignations to the new President this afternoon.

We both continue to have great enthusiasm for, and belief in, the alpaca industry.  I hope to go on contributing to the industry by doing useful work outside the policy-making role of the Board. For a start, given the work I have done in eAlpaca since Fiona Vanderbeek retired from the Board last year, I am volunteering to join the eAlpaca working group that Andrew spoke of establishing in his electioneering material.And now, I return the chair to Ian Frith to complete his final task as President in chairing this meeting to a close.

Sue Harris, Out-going Vice President

Youth update 

Youth paraders: With the launch of the new AAA website all youth paraders documentation can be found in one place. There have been some changes to Documents so please ensure you have the updated versions on file. There has also been some new inclusions - Ie: incident report, volunteer forms and OHS checklists. 2020 national qualifications for the state master trainer awards are still being updated. 

Young judges: All young judges information is loaded and can be accessed via AAA  website. Please note that there are new scorecards and overjudge worksheets dependent on the type of competition that is being held, fleece, halter or both. In collaboration with AAA SJC, new protocols have been written re the convening and selection of animals and fleeces which must be adhered to. 

Parader judges: A list of parader judges has now been loaded to the website.   Parader judges code of conduct and progression protocols have also been updated and approved. 

We will be running Workshops for paraders, young judges and judges/convenors as well as camps, information days and competitions over the course of the next 12 months.

Please keep your self updated with our calendar of events and don’t hesitate to contact your AAYE state representatives or state youth groups for any advise or assistance you may need. 

Thank you, Jillian Elwers-Holmes, AAYE chair. 

Upcoming events

• 30 September - Royal Melbourne Alpaca Show