Folks,

It’s pleasing to see some more restrictions being lifted in the community and life starting to become more ‘normal’. With a bit of luck and continued community testing, things will hopefully get back to where we were, sometime soon. Personally, I am sitting in isolation after submitting to a precautionary COVID-19 test and am waiting for the results.

With all these restrictions in place, the committee, as have many other association committees, have decided to postpone the AGM until such time as we are able to get together safely and importantly, legally.

Under MITIE’s constitution, we are not permitted to hold a virtual AGM and must afford the opportunity for members to attend in person should they wish. That notwithstanding, we are preparing to release the reports in an interim state in August, in the interests of transparent operations. The final reports will be delivered at the AGM.

As was mentioned late last year, Julian Ridden was no longer able to serve due to time constraints and a change in work circumstances. Anthony England has also had to step away more recently. Consequently we had two casual vacancies to fill.

The committee debated how best to proceed and decided to approach the two other candidates from the 2019/2020 steering committee election to gauge their interest in taking up the positions they had nominated for. At the time there were only a few votes between them at the closing of the ballot.

I’m pleased to announce that Michael Smith (St Aloysius’ College, Sydney) and Wayne Russell (Calrossy Anglican School, Tamworth) have accepted the casual vacancy appointments, which will be in place until the next AGM. They join the committee as general members.

Further, Tanya Bilka has agreed to take on the Member Services role within the committee, looking to increase engagement and services outside of the very important term conferences and forums which are part of the MITIE DNA.

For those not in the know, especially the members that may have joined over the recent months, the committee is now made up of the following:

• President: Ally Eddy (Giant Steps Australia, NSW)
• Vice President: David Nichols (Central Coast Grammar School, NSW)
• Treasurer: Nathan Mares, (Roseville College, NSW)
• Secretary: Matthew Gausden (Somerville, QLD)
• Committee Member: Tanya Bilka (Christian Brothers College, SA)
• Committee Member: Michael Smith (St Aloysius’ College, NSW)
• Committee Member: Wayne Russell (Calrossy Anglican School, NSW)

If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Kind Regards,

Ally Eddy
MITIE President
On behalf of the MITIE Committee

E: ally.eddy@mitie.edu.au
P: 0409 57 6441