SA State Council was celebrating 50 years of ICPA in SA with the theme of Looking Forward, Looking Back. Port Augusta Branch convened the conference with aplomb.
Port Augusta Life Member and proud Foundation member of Port Augusta Branch, Colleen Manning gave a reflective Opening Address, considering looking back is important to see how far we have come. Colleen did School of the Air herself with five sisters and five cousins on ‘Marloo’. When she came to do SoTA with her own children, the first, most valuable advice she received was to ‘try to be organised’. Before ICPA, Colleen observed everyone was ‘paddling along in their own isolated canoe’ (how many of us can relate to that?) and that ICPA was like a big umbrella giving isolated families a community, which is even more important now there are fewer people in the bush. Early fundraising efforts went into making art and craft kits and buying sets of encyclopedias. Colleen described ICPA as being inspiring and motivating, sharing and providing contacts and fun.
The guest speaker was the most impressive Sarah Prime, speaker, social entrepreneur, and changemaker. Check out sarahprime.com . Sarah began her life on the Eyre Peninsula, determined to leave, landed a series of jobs around Australia and then the world with a ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ attitude culminating in being a CEO. Sarah was shocked to return to the rural town of her childhood and observe the rural contraction and decline. In response, Sarah founded the Champion’s Academy, starting with the knowledge that the biggest predictor of community health is the strength of the local sporting clubs.
Jane Gloster chaired a panel of esteemed Branch/State Foundation and Life Members who were asked to give a brief history of themselves and ICPA, why they joined, what they were most passionate about, most important areas of advocacy, favourite memory, and words of wisdom. The ‘what happens on conference, stays on conference’ rule must have a sunset clause!
The AGM was held, and all constitutional positions were filled:
President Belinda Hatcher
Vice-president Lisa Slade
Secretary Hollie Williams
Assistant Secretary … (not a constitutional position)
Treasurer Michelle Hilder
Publicity Officer Helen Williams
Immediate Past President Jill Greenfield
All 23 agenda motions were carried with many speakers for the motions and plenty of emotion in the room. Federal Council commented on issues such as NAPLAN, DETA, National Code for Boarding School Students, and AIC for kindergarten children.
A compilation by Sue Wilson, Sally Sullivan, and Nikki Mahony.
