The alumni of the Australian and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) have stepped up to take a more prominent role in shaping the organisation’s future.
Established last year, the ANZSOG Alumni Council represents the interests and views of the school’s 3,500-strong alumni community and in its first meeting for 2019 spent time identifying pathways to be involved.
Chair of the Alumni Council, Simon Kent said ANZSOG research had revealed alumni wanted to contribute and the Council had been formed, in part, to investigate options to bring this to fruition.
“There is clearly a desire among alumni to contribute to ANZSOG. They want to go beyond social events and use their skills to do things,” Mr Kent said.
He said this could include being an ANZSOG Ambassador, mentoring or presenting, or even being involved in ‘tiger teams’ which could tackle public sector problems, giving alumni the chance to work together to deliver solutions.
Mr Kent said there was a critical mass of ANZSOG alumni across Australia and New Zealand who were looking to use the skills they had gained in ANZSOG programs.
“The Council will put together information about what activities are being proposed and send it to alumni for feedback,” he said.
“This was a really good second face-to-face meeting, and we were able to be a bit more specific about what we want to do. There will be more offerings and opportunities to tell alumni about.”
The inaugural Alumni Advisory Council was chosen from 45 applications and consists of 14 members from across ANZSOG’s jurisdictions.
Besides Mr Kent, members are: Jill Charker and Natasha Ryan ( Commonwealth); Alastair Shields (Northern Territory); Janet Schorer and Liem Ngo (NSW); Jill Bond and Margaret McLeod (New Zealand); Ashley Bunce (Queensland); Cathy Taylor ( South Australia); Ginna Webster (Tasmania); Paulleen Markwort and Talava Tuhipa-Turner (Victoria); and Coan Harvey ( Western Australia).
ANZSOG Alumni interested in the workings of the Council can contact it at [email protected].
