By Jonathan Craig
As usual, there’s a lot coming up in BCA’s calendar, and we understand that it can be difficult to keep track of everything. This section is our attempt to make things easier for you, by collating all the dates in one place for handy referencing. This time round, information about our upcoming AGMs, Spring into Action, and our next National Convention in 2021.
Spring into Action
The NSW/ACT State Division will be organising various social events throughout October as part of their Spring into Action program. Stephen Belbin provides more detail about what you can expect in his piece on the program, and you can expect more events to be announced soon. You can also get in touch with Stephen directly using the contact details at the end of this issue.
National Women’s Branch Annual General Meeting
The AGM and elections for the National Women’s Branch will be held on Saturday, November 16, at 1 PM Melbourne time. For more info about them, please see the branch update earlier this issue, or get in touch with branch President Janene Sadhu via the BCA office, or using the contact details later this issue.
BCA’s 2019 Annual General Meeting
This year’s BCA Annual General Meeting will be held in Sydney on Saturday, November 30. We are currently confirming details but expect that the AGM will run from around 11:00 am for an hour or so and will be followed by a social event. We will let you have more information including venue details shortly.
Again this year we will be working to make the meeting available to our members across the country. In particular, we will be using technology to allow for members to gather in various locations where they can be linked into the Sydney meeting via video conference. We are asking our branches to consider hosting a satellite gathering in their location and envisage that this might include being part of the AGM and then holding a local social function as an end of year celebration. Members who join through these locations will be able to participate fully in the meeting as they will be able to ask questions and cast their vote on key business items.
For those who will not be able to attend in Sydney or at one of the satellite venues we will again stream the meeting via the Internet so it will be available via a computer, smart phone or other internet enabled device.
2019 BCA Election Process
Ahead of the AGM we will be conducting elections for vacant positions on the BCA Board and National Policy Council. This year one Director position will fall vacant and we will be calling for nominees for election to the National Policy Council from members in Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia. In addition, elections are due in NSW and the ACT for membership of the NSW/ACT State Division Committee. We will conduct these elections in parallel with the Board and NPC ballots.
WBU and ICEVI Joint General Assemblies
The World Blind Union (WBU) and the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment (ICEVI) will be holding their third Joint General Assemblies in Madrid, Spain, from the 19th to the 24th of June 2020. The WBU is an internationally recognised organisation representing people who are blind or vision impaired in 190 member countries. The ICEVI is a membership organisation with a mission to promote education for all children who are blind or vision impaired, almost 90 per cent of whom live in low income settings.
The ASSEMBLIES, which will take place at the Marriott Hotel, will be hosted by ONCE, the National Organisation for people who are blind or vision impaired in Spain. BCA will be represented by CEO Emma Bennison and BCA’s vice President, Helen Freris. Observers are also welcome to attend the assemblies. If you’re interested in attending, or for more details, please direct inquiries, in the first instance, to Emma Bennison, via email to bca@bca.org.au.
National Convention 2021
Following our most successful Convention ever, held in Hobart earlier in the year, we are already planning for “Convention 21”. This will be held in the Brisbane area over the weekend from Friday 23rd to Monday 26th April 2021. We anticipate the event will be similar in format to the Hobart Convention, with subject specific workshops on the Friday and a range of social activities on the Monday.
As with the Hobart convention, there will be plenty of opportunities for members to contribute to the planning of the event. We will update you with further details as they come to hand.