President's Report to 2010 AGM

It is my pleasure to present the President’s Report for 2009/2010 to the 59th AGM.

The report will be in three sections; General Comments, Management Committee Activities and some further Substantive Matters.

General Comments

Towards the end of 2008 and early in 2009 it would be fair to say that the PNGAA was in an unsettled state—both within the Management Committee and in the membership generally. Great expectations had been raised and in some members' eyes they had been dashed.

A complete review of the Rules that govern our association was undertaken in early 2009. These new Rules were adopted enthusiastically at a Special General Meeting in the first half of 2009. The revised Rules allowed for all members to vote for the Management Committee, rather than just those who turned up at the AGM. As a result there was great interest in who would form the new Management Committee.

Indeed interest was so strong that there was talk that behind-the-scenes lobbying was going on. Certainly the positions were strongly contested with many more people putting their names forward than could fill the positions. Sadly however that was not the case for the hard work positions of Una Voce Editor, Secretary, Treasurer and President. I must say that I am not sure that such a situation is at all healthy for the Association: if nothing else it smacks of predeterminism. We must avoid the situation where a particular office holder appears to “own” his or her position, and so I encourage members to be willing to stand for all positions on the Management Committee at next year’s election.

Having said all that, I want to say what a fine committee we have. All the unsettledness and turmoil of twelve months ago has gone. A united and purposeful Management Committee is now in place and is getting on with the business of the PNGAA. Its members come from Sydney, the Central Coast, Canberra and Brisbane. There are equal numbers of men and women and there is a wide age range as well. Sadly earlier this year Management Committee member Chris Diercke passed away. The Rules allow for the Management Committee to fill casual vacancies and Mr Phil Ainsworth of Brisbane accepted the committee's invitation to join it.

It has been my pleasure over the past twelve months to represent the PNGAA in different ways. I have met with the High Commissioner of Papua New Guinea, the PNG Consul-General in Sydney, and the officer occupying the PNG desk in DFAT (Mr Colin Milner). I also represented the PNGAA at a number of Independence Day functions.

As the Management Committee consisted of many new members they took the opportunity to look afresh at how the PNGAA operates. It would not be stretching things to say that in many ways the PNGAA, on a day to day basis, immediately prior to 2009 has been kept afloat by two people—Ross Johnson and Andrea Williams—and we owe them a great debt. The new committee has brought in changes to the administration of the association, and I will go more into that in the Substantive section of this Report.

The sub-committees of the Management Committee have continued and a new one formed to promote the PNGAA. Some of these have functioned satisfactorily, others less so. I think it would be useful for the Management Committee to re-examine the concept and value of the sub-committees in the year ahead. One valuable aspect of sub committees is that they bring many ideas together for discussion and action and at the same time can prevent individuals going off doing their own thing.

PNGAA Activities

I will now touch on a number of the Management Committee’s activities over the past year.

Pam Foley continues to send out birthday cards to members of certain ages and Ann Graham condolence messages: both of these are very much appreciated by our members.

The promotion of Papua New Guinea art and artists has been promulgated by Juli Alcorn with a view to holding an Art Exhibition. The plan is now to hold this in conjunction with a PNG cultural display at the National Museum in 2013.

Lapel Pins have been designed and struck for members to wear if they choose with a view to promoting the Association. Also by way of promoting the Association to new members is to no longer use the Associations former name on documents, etc., except where we are corresponding on behalf of our members who are Superannuants.

PNGAA members have been at the forefront of securing a Memorial to the Montevideo Maru victims at Subic Bay in the Philippines. Indeed the PNGAA appropriately helped pay for the erection of the memorial and members of our association attended the service of dedication. Since then there has been formed a Montevideo Maru association and that organisation will now take the lead in promoting knowledge and recognition. Not surprisingly that association consists of a number of PNGAA members.

There has been quite some discussion during the year on the use and appearance of the PNGAA website. Most members of the Management Committee are generally happy with the website as it stands, and there are ongoing improvements being made. In this regard it is appropriate to acknowledge Nick Booth who oversees and contributes to these improvements.

A lovely Christmas Function was once again held at the end of 2009, with a very happy and friendly atmosphere in the attractive surrounds of the Killara Golf Club.

The annual subscription has been raised by $5.00 per annum from this year onwards after many years of no increase.

The Management Committee is exploring ways to ensure a more formal relationship with the Fryer Library at the University of Queensland where the PNGAA Collection is held. While Dr Peter Cahill is at the Library the relationship is excellent. However the PNGAA needs to ensure that the relationship is properly set up and a Memorandum of Understanding is being explored. This matter is ongoing.

Substantive Matters

Administration Changes

It has become clear to the Management Committee that there is a need to secure administrative assistance particularly in the areas of bookkeeping, sales of items and payment for functions, banking and updating membership records. In the past volunteer members have seen to these matters, but as volunteers age they are less willing or able to undertake these duties and younger members do not have the time. Therefore we have engaged a secretarial service to assist us. The Management Committee believes this will be a real benefit to the good management of the Association.

Former Kiap Recognition

We were approached by Chris Viner Smith to consider supporting him in his endeavours to have Kiaps recognised by the Australian government for their service in PNG. Will Muskens was asked by the Management Committee to look into it and canvass the opinions of a number of our Queensland members who were former Kiaps.

There were two areas that Mr Viner Smith sought our support for: (i) a form of National Medal under the Australian Honours system; and (ii) Research into the work of Kiaps in bringing PNG to nationhood with a display at the National Australian Archives and articles in an appropriate journal, etc.

The former proved very contentious among former Kiaps and it was considered by the Management Committee that it could not support such an endeavour as our membership was divided on the issue.

The latter we were happy to support and Deveni Temu, on behalf of the PNGAA, is working closely with Mr Viner Smith and others, including staff of the National Archives, to bring that to fruition. It is expected to be ready for viewing by 16 September, coinciding with PNG’s 35th Anniversary of Independence.

The National Australian History Curriculum

Members may know that the Federal Government is promoting a national school curriculum to be used across the nation and to replace the individual states' curricula. Naturally this has caused both delight and distrust. The PNGAA Management Committee became interested in the History Curriculum when we became aware that there was no mention of Papua New Guinea or Australia’s role either as a territorial administrator or in helping that country to nationhood. It seemed to us that this was a gross omission of a highly significant part of Australia’s history, so we sought ways to address it. Here I must pay tribute to Andrea Williams for her determination in following this up and bringing in many others, including Deveni Temu, to put together an excellent submission to the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority.

 It is our hope and I believe our expectation that this submission will bring about appropriate change to the national History curriculum. If it does, then the PNGAA has played a major role in ensuring that our school students learn about Australia and its citizens’ unique and outstanding role in Papua New Guinea.

[The PNGAA submission on the curriculum was completed in May, and can be found here. - Webmaster]

President

I need to inform the Association that since taking on the role of President last year there have been some significant changes in my life. While one matter is private, another is that I have been given the opportunity to undertake research at Sydney University: this requires a full time commitment. I do not believe that I can properly hold the position of President while undertaking these other commitments. Therefore I will be stepping down as President of the Association from today. I am pleased to say that I believe the PNGAA is in a far happier state now than it was some twelve months ago. If I have played some part in this positive change then that has been a worthwhile contribution.

I informed the Management Committee of my intention to step down in February this year so that it could have time to find a replacement, which it has done. I am delighted to be able to hand over the Presidency to Mr Dennis Doyle who will give a far more dynamic leadership than I believe I have been able to give. He is a fine man and the Association will benefit greatly from his leadership.

I would like to thank those who voted for me as President, but as the position was uncontested, I can’t. I do thank those who have made me welcome and have encouraged me as President, especially our older members and members of the Management Committee.

Concluding Thanks

The Management Committee members have worked well and purposefully this past year, serving on various committees, attending various functions or meeting on behalf of the Association: I thank them for it. Particularly I need to express my thanks to our Office Holders, Marie Clifton-Bassett, our secretary, Andrea Williams, who edits Una Voce and Will Muskens our Treasurer. Each of these three contribute hours and hours of their precious time each week for the benefit of the PNGAA and its members.

It is good to be a member of the PNGAA: I think functions like this that bring us together are a delight.

Our Association continues to flourish!

This ends the President’s Report.