Welcome to IABC NSW 2022 AGM.
My name is Megan Thomas and I’m the president of IABC NSW. 
Today we’re in Aurecon’s beautiful office which is on the land of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation. 
So, I’d like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which we meet today and pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging. I’d also like to acknowledge any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people with us in the room today or on Zoom.
Can you believe another year has almost passed, another year of adjusting to a “new normal” and a veritable feast of communication issues and challenges to deal with – from cyber security to floods to the war in Ukraine to financial pressures and the cost of living. These things have tested us but they have also enabled us to hone our craft and demonstrate the value we bring as communication professionals. Together we can have a tremendous impact on the world around us.
This is my first year as the NSW Chapter President and I feel privileged to give this report. As a membership association IABC NSW has once again showed a commitment to the profession and showcased and supported its members throughout the year. I'm so proud of this Board who have selflessly given their time and commitment. Being a volunteer takes individuals who are passionate about enhancing the credibility of our profession and prioritises their Board role in amongst the challenges of busy full time careers, families and lives. Thank you all for everything you have done this year. You are truly an excellent Board and together there have been so many highlights.   
At the beginning of this year the board and I committed to a clear, measurable strategic plan and priorities for 2022, under the theme “Inspiration” 
Our priorities were 3 things, to create:
1.	An exceptional member experience
2.	Enhance professional credibility 
3.	Increase brand awareness 
And our major goal was to increase membership to 200 by end of 2022 and attain a member Net Promoter Score (NPS) of +20 by 2023.
I’ll step through the highlights for each of our priorities.
1.	An exceptional member experience

Events 
One of the most important ways we provide our members with an exceptional member experience is through our celebrated events program.
This year we ran 8 exceptional events, showcasing top quality speakers and highly relevant topics.
Our highlights were:
•	Partnering with Streem to discuss how Data and Analytics is changing the way we communicate 
•	Partnering with SEC Newgate to discuss why ESG initiatives are falling short and what communicators can do about it
•	And last month we held a fantastic event with Meta and how the Metaverse is changing the way we work and communicate.  

We are thrilled to have invested in technology to enable us to run hybrid events. This also meant that, for the first time, we could invite other Chapters to participate in our events program and likewise NSW members benefited by being able to attend an additional 2 events through IABC Canberra (Comms in the Public Sector) and IABC Victoria (Mental Wellbeing in our industry).

Evidence of the success of our events program speaks for itself with an excellent 90% average rating. We aimed to have 25+ people attending each event - our average for the year was close to 35. A massive thank you to Luke and Karen for leading the events program and achieved these fantastic results.  
Mastermind Circles 
After a highly successful pilot last year, in 2022 we cemented Mastermind circles as a permanent sustainable program with two intakes.  

This unique, NSW offering is for members at similar stages of their career and is designed to help expand knowledge, solve problems and share experiences with other circle members. 

After round 1 this year, we were thrilled that 93% of participants rated the program excellent, very good, or good. A personal highlight was winning a Chapter Management Award and it being announced while I was at the IABC World Conference in New York. 

A big thank you must go to Cath Hollyman for being the mastermind behind the mastermind circles, and to Cat for stepping in while Cath was on maternity leave in the second half of the year, and of course all the Board members who ran and participated in the groups.   

In other highlights…

Buddy Program 
Our unique buddy program continued to help us build relationships and bring a personal touch to our community, helping them get the most out of their membership. 

Hunter & Coastal region group
This year we set up a Hunter and Coastal region group to enable those living outside Sydney to network. Led by Anne Molloy and Paula Batho, the group has been building an active local community.    

Member Experience Survey 
Always seeking listen to our members and adapt our approach, in September we ran a comprehensive member experience survey, building on our 2019 benchmark. I’m absolutely delighted that we achieved an NPS of +28 (+32 from existing members). This is a huge improvement from -18 in 2019 and exceeded our major goal expectations for the year. 

Financials
This year we made giant strides forward in the Chapter’s Financial Management thanks to our new Treasurer Anthea Cudworth. We set out to offer great member financial value while maintaining responsible fiscal management. Anthea will take us through the Treasurer’s report next, however a few highlights are: 

We created the first forward-looking budget for 2023 to better understand the potential offers we could make to members in light of prevailing inflationary pressures.

We developed an event pricing template for hybrid, virtual and live events, and a COVID guide/policy for any events where this was required. 

Pleasingly, 71% of those who responded to our member experience survey rated IABC NSW as 4-6 out of 6 in terms of value for money.

We negotiated a higher rate of return and a longer tenure for our term deposit, tripling the income return on our reserves.

We secured continued sponsorship from Salt & Shein for the year, and we made 13 speaker donations to charity, totalling $650. 

2. Enhance professional credibility 

Gold Quills 
Gold Quills are acknowledged as one of the most prestigious awards programs globally for strategic communication and there is exceptional work going on across NSW as evidenced by this year’s five Gold Quill winners out of 8 entries – Optus, NSW Public Service Commission and Woolworths. PSC also took out the Best of the Best award – Communication for the Web. 

Nine pairs of Blue Ribbon Panel evaluators gave their time and expertise to conduct rigorous evaluation against globally accredited standards.

The winner’s stories were shared at the Gold Quill Showcase event attended by 30 people and the event was rated 9.6 out of 10 for satisfaction, significantly increasing the likelihood of people submitting a future Gold Quill entry. 

Thank you to Jen for so ably leading the Recognition portfolio and continuing to raise the profile of the Gold Quills. 

GCCC exam and mentoring program 
We had 5 candidates sit or about to sit the GCCC exam via online proctoring, a new option enabling more flexibility for when the exam is sat. Thanks to the efforts and professional development passion of Jane Hamilton, the exams have also been supported by a certification info session and study group. We look forward to hearing the exam results! 

Secretarial
This year we brought greater rigour to our governance, reporting and documentation. We also improved communication to members about Board activity with minutes of all board meetings available on our website. Additionally, we increased security of IABC NSW file storage and ease of access to information for the Board.  

A big thanks to Chris Saxby for your proactive, thorough and reliable efforts throughout the year which has really helped us get more organised, efficient and transparent.  

3. Increase brand awareness 

We enhanced our branded materials with revised logos and updated website content. We developed a pack to showcase our benefits which helped secure new corporate members.

Our LinkedIn followers grew to 826, surpassing our target of 750, and we achieved above 10% story engagement on our posts and our monthly newsletter, which also achieved above industry standard open rate (35%). Our website visitors also showed a YoY increase. Well done Sabrina for managing this busy portfolio and bringing greater visibility on our channel’s performance. 

For our member month campaigns, we leverage global materials across a variety of comms channels and trialed paid “boosts” on Linkedin, increasing our reach to targeted roles.  

One of the many benefits of the IABC is that it brings together the collective network and resources globally, regionally and locally for the benefit of our members. This year we committed to greater alignment with Global and APAC to strengthen our offering and reduce potential duplication. And we’ve continued to forge closer ties and relationships with other chapters, highlighting the range of exceptional resources, content, academy courses and new Special Interest Groups (SIGs).

This year we benefited from sponsorship and support of event partners Streem, Sec Newgate, Meta and the Public Service Commission, who generously provided event spaces, and speakers.  

I also want to say a huge thank you to Lucy Newcomb and Salt and Shein for their ongoing sponsorship and support. 

We send out our sincerest appreciation to all our speakers this year; we couldn’t do it without the generosity of the people who give their time and resources for the benefit of the community. 
Membership 
While we did not achieve our goal to increase membership to 200 by end of 2022 and our member retention needs improvement at 52%, we were thrilled to welcome a number of new members. Our total NSW membership will be close to 150 once we have final new members processed.  

We also retained Optus, Greater Bank, Aurecon, Westpac, EY, The Smith Family and Minter Ellison as valued Corporate/Small Group Members and we welcomed Transgrid, Sydney Uni, eHealth NSW, FTI Consulting, and several new individual members from Westpac and Woolworths. Our Corporate and small group membership now represents around 45% of our membership base. 

What an amazing number of achievements! I couldn’t be prouder of the board – your IABC NSW chapter has been led by Anthea Cudworth, Chris Saxby, Jane Hamilton, Jen Black, Cat Dundas, Steph Cook, Cath Hollyman, Luke Morgan, Karen Godfrey and Sabrina Muysken. 
 
All have incredibly busy careers and lives and to show up at board meetings, events and lead your portfolios as volunteers shows your passion for our industry and great friendships and connections we make being part of this community. This Chapter would not function without you. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. 

Briefly to the year ahead, for 2023, there will be some changes to the NSW Board, which I’ll we’ll come to in the next agenda items. 

When we think about our focus for the new year, we know that the last few years have created challenges for all member organisations, as people find themselves with less time and less money. As we look to 2023, we need to review and assess how we can continue to encourage members to stay, participate and join. 

We also want to better understand what our members value the most, and we're going to do some further analysis on this. We want the IABC to be heard and seen on the national stage. We want to advocate for professional communicators to give more of our peers and colleagues the opportunity to step into the senior most positions at their employers. This might involve undertaking research that demonstrates our value-add, or it could mean advocating for communicators to hold more senior positions with more influence than ever before. 

In wrapping up my first year as President, I’ll say it’s been a wonderful learning experience and an honour. I’m grateful for the support of this Board and its commitment to serving IABC members and community. I look forward to continuing to provide inspiration, connections and professional growth to our members in 2023. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

New Board Members 

As part of our Board governance we run a thorough selection and nomination process to bring on new Directors. Candidates are assessed against criteria including alignment to IABC values, their experience and potential contribution, capacity, diversity and role fit.    

I‘m really pleased to let you know that the Board Nomination Subcommittee (me, Chris, Anthea and an independent advisor Carol Allers, past Chair of IABC Africa Regional), met and approved the submissions of three new Board Directors for 2023. We’ll now move to formalising their appointment.
 
The proposed new Directors are Asha Oberoi, Alicia Baertsoen and Andrew Blunt. They bring a diverse mix of experience and skills, and provide valuable representation of key groups within our membership. They have all been active contributors to the IABC already.  

I’m now going to ask each of them to introduce themselves and talk a little about the contribution they’d like to make. 

Motion to accept the new Board members
  
I’m thrilled that tonight we get to welcome Asha, Alicia and Andrew to the Board and that they will be joining us for Christmas drinks. In know they will have be terrific Board members and will have a great impact in the years ahead. 

Exiting Board Members 

Kieran will officially step down for the Board after a year as immediate Past President following 2 years of Presidency and a total of eight years dedicating himself to the IABC in various Board roles including comms, then digital, membership and events. With Kieran’s strong connection to IABC and personal values around unity in community and creating connections, he is of course remaining a valued member at large and I know is always available as a sounding board and mentor for which I am very grateful. 

Stephanie Cook will also be stepping down but we are pleased that she will remain connected to the Board in an advisory capacity. Steph has been an active Board member for the last 3 years, in particular looking after the membership portfolio. During that time she has wrangled reports, answered membership queries and supported the retention and growth of our membership. She has also been instrumental in managing our buddy program. Thank you for all your hard work Steph. We will miss you at our regular board meetings but look forward to continuing to benefit from your experience and staying closely connected to the IABC.       

Sabrina Muysken will also be stepping down after 2 years on the Board and we are also pleased that she will remain connected to the Board in an advisory capacity. Sabrina has managed the busy Communications portfolio, which has seen her do everything from our website to our newsletter and socials. This is such an important role and Sabrina has added greater visibility and rigour to our channel measures and performance than we’ve ever had before. Thank you Sabrina for everything you have done.         

Continuing Board Members 

Megan Thomas
Anthea Cudworth
Chris Saxby
Jane Hamilton 
Jen Black 
Cat Dundas 
Luke Morgan 
Karen Godfrey   
Catherine Hollyman. Welcome Cath back from your maternity leave.