TasmanianSchool Administrator’s Association (TSAA) Conference –

July 2009

  • First night there was a Meet and Greet session at the Northern Club, a few hundred metres down the road. Not just for newcomers, included committee and other delegates. We had finger food, drinks and sit down dinner. We paid for our own drinks; cost of meal was included in conference cost.
  • Conference was opened by Tasmanian Premier and Minister for Education and Skills DAVID BARTLETT. His speech seemed to lack an understanding of just what School Executive Officers in schools actually do (he thanked them for putting on bandaids, answering phones,etc). Did not mention anything about the complexities of the role, the managing of huge budgets and building programmes, etc.
  • Master of Ceremonies was TIM COX – an ABC radio morning show presenter. (He was recently named 'Broadcaster of the Year' at the ABC Local Radio Awards). An excellent MC; as a radio presenter he was politically aware and so wasn’t afraid to ‘ask the hard questions’ of corporate personnel during the forum. He also had up to date knowledge of events in schools; was very funny and excellent at filling in those ‘pregnant pauses”.

SESSIONS

  • KEYNOTE SPEAKER - Marcelle Bernard: International speaker, toastmaster and author. She presented “Stand Up – Speak easy Communication”. An energetic, vibrant, expressive speaker who kept our attention, and although we questioned the suitability of delivery (she was a little patronising at times and more suited to high school students), she gave us some extremely useful pointers in public speaking. Her second workshop “Leading for High Performance” was and interactive session about Leadership and was more appropriately presented.
  • KEYNOTE SPEAKER – Sam Cawthorne is an inspiring young man who is a trained musician and dance teacher. He was critically injured in a car accident in 2006; where he actually died before being revived. His horrific injuries resulted in his right arm being amputated, plus a permanently disabled right leg. His remarkable resilience, his mental strength as well as his physical recovery is inspiring. He is an entertaining speaker, who leaves his audience feeling very positive and incredibly blessed for having spent time with him.
  • Andrew Finch – Facilities and Capital Planning. Extremely boring and painful session – read straight from his notes, which were already projected on whiteboard. He made the man who collected bar-codes seem exciting!
  • Phil Dilger – Corporate Service Centre. A much better presenter, but with a extremely sobering message for our Tassie counterparts. He explained how the Global Economic Crisis has had a huge impact on their department. It will result in a huge change in the way schools are assisted. With the roll out of their new SASP system (our EDSAS equiv); there is no corporate training. He said that they could ring the help desk, but there may be no one to answer their calls. They will have to ‘self-train’, using tutorials, fact sheets, and on-line support. He went on to tell us that corporate staff have had to hand in their mobile phones, and their Gov cars have been pooled.
  • AGM was held on Day One; very brief. Previous AGM Minutes; AGM agenda plus Chairperson’s Report were printed in their workbook/programme.
  • Day two saw 2 Wellbeing sessions; we were able to go to both and found them both to be full of excellent advice and good hints and tips.
  • MC Tim Cox lead forum with departmental officers opening up the floor to questions. Lively discussion ensued, revealing they have the same issues as us re reduced support from corporate office.

SPONSORS

  • Nice lot of sponsors, although 2 were situated right away from the others. (Apparently these 2 were late registrations, who were offered a discounted price and so were happy). Sponsors were very generous with raffle prizes – 2 Notebooks and 1 Laptop, plus lots of cameras, portable hard-drives; an interactive whiteboard, gift vouchers, office items, etc, etc.
  • Raffle draws – just seemed to go on and on. Two hours on the first night – 3.30 – 5.30; along with wine/cheese tasting in sponsor’s area. Tim Cox went around to each sponsor to draw tickets, winner had to be in attendance. Delegates lost interest as it went on for so long, and so quite a few prizes were drawn twice. Other draws were at Conf dinner and also on last day.

CONFERENCE DINNER

  • Held at Albert Hall, separate venue 200m away (although Office Max did provide buses to and from).
  • IRIS computing provided $1000 for pre-dinner drinks, which lasted into dinner and was much appreciated.
  • Lovely old hall, but was freezing. Food was prepared at Chancellor hotel, then brought over, and so was quite cold. Meat was tough and gristly – Glenelg Grand do a much better job!
  • 60% of the guests dressed up in 70’s disco, so good audience participation.
  • “Band” (2 blokes with guitars and digital music) provided the music – which did not start until 9.15pm, after a lively game of Spin the Bottle, plus a costume parade.
  • We questioned the suitability of the music - athough the theme was 70’s disco, music ranged from 1950’s “Rock around the Clock” to 1980’s “Love Shack”.

GENERAL COMMENTS

  • There was not much free time. It would have been nice to do a bus tour of Launceston and surrounds, but time would not permit.
  • Committee uniform – we are much more professional; their committee just wore a blue scarf with their own clothes to identify themselves.
  • Code of Conduct – we do not know if they have one, but if not they certainly need one! Conduct on bus by one person was unacceptable. Her language and attitude to sponsors was unacceptable to us. Also, 2 committee members did not surface until morning tea time on Friday, after a huge night at the dinner. They were very subdued and looked ill.
  • School Executive Officers have just won a huge pay rise...but at what cost???

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