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714 Australian Veterinary Journal Volume 83, No 12, December 2005

Volunteering

Following a year that has featuredtsunamis in Asia, hurricanes acrossNorth America, and concerns about

the spread of a new strain of avian influenza,disaster planning is very much on the publicagenda.

As reported in the October AVJ, animalhealth professionals played important rolesfollowing the hurricanes that swept acrossthe United States. Our sister organisationin the US, the American VeterinaryMedical Association (AVMA) organisedVeterinary Medical Assistance Teams whodid an admirable job co-ordinating animalrescues and addressing public health issues.

In a similar vein, the AustralianVeterinary Reserve (AVR) has been, andcontinues to be developed, to utilise the expertise of non-government vets to respond to animal disease emergencies and toprotect Australia's animal health status and related human healthissues.

Launched at the AVA conference in May 2004, there were anoverwhelming number of applications for a limited number oftraining opportunities.

However, another opportunity has arisen for vets who areinterested in making a difference during times of emergency. TheAustralian development agency, AusAID, has asked RedR Australiato put together a register of animal health personnel who may beavailable for deployment within Australia or overseas to addressavian influenza in pre-pandemic, containment, pandemic and post-pandemic phases. RedR Australia is a humanitarian organisationthat provides relief personnel to humanitarian relief agenciesworldwide. The organisation maintains a standby register for UNagencies to call on for expert assistance. It was originally establishedto provide engineering and technical personnel, but this hasgradually broadened to include a number of other disciplines.

Applicants must be Australian permanent residents or nationalsand have expertise in a range of areas relating to surveillance anddisease control, diagnostics, public awareness and emergencymanagement.

Further details will be sent out with the next AVA e-line and arealso available at http://www.redr.org/australia/index.htm

In the meantime, the AVA is working with government agenciesto plan and prepare for the possibility of a pandemic outbreak inAustralia. As such, we have been invited to take part in a theExercise Eleusis disaster planning exercise, that will test our abilityto work with emergency management in Canberra and tocommunicate with animal health professionals in the field.

Another group that utilises veterinary volunteers is

VetCharity.Org which has a website of thesame name - its focus is India and it issupported by numbers of AVA members.And of course there is also AustralianVolunteers International (AVI), which canbe found at www.australianvolunteers.comthat provides access to both long-term andshort-term opportunities.

Moving into 20062005 seemed to start relatively quietly, butthe momentum has built all year asdiscussion of renewal moved through aprocess of identification of issues and mostrecently into action.

It was important to alert all members tothe need for change, then to communicatethe direction of that change before moving

to implementation, beginning with the national office. Personnel and skill base resources have been assessed to ensure

improved Visibility, a heightened emphasis on ContinuingEducation and to make ongoing improvements in MemberServices. This has energised staff, many of whom have embracedthe sharpening of focus and indicated their interest in training toenhance their skills. Within this context, Lyn Osman has accepteda restructuring package that will resource her to investigate the bestpossible initiatives for her future. I acknowledge Lyn's contributionto AVA and I am sure you will join me and with members of theBoard in wishing her every success for the future.

The staffing structure now includes three veterinarians in seniormanagement positions (AVJ, Continuing Education and Policy),and I hope to have funds in the 2006 budget to provide part-timeveterinary back-up support for the Veterinary Director.

There are some constitutional changes for consideration at the2006 AGM, including Presidential terms and Life membership,both of which were mooted at the 2005 AGM.

One of the areas that was not resolved to the satisfaction of theConstitutional Reference Group in 2003-2004 was the Objects ofthe Association. In essence, we retained most of the objects and thewording from the previous constitution, re-sorting them byheadings. Legal advice agrees with the Reference Group that it istime to re-visit the Objects of the AVA and so any member whowould like to be part of a new reference group to look at thoseduring the coming months should contact me at ceo@ava.com.aubefore the end of this month.

Thank you for your support during a lively year of change andbest wishes for a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year.

Margaret Conley

AVA CEO Margaret Conley

Comment

Readership surveyWe need your input into the development of the AVJ.

Please look out for an email that will direct you to an online survey to tell us what you read, what you avoid, what else youwould like to see, what annoys you and what impresses you about the AVJ.

We are sending this to members of several groups but you only need to respond once.

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