Perdrix Address – NACAA Past, NACAA Recent, and NACAA Future
Presenter(s): Stephen Russell
Affiliation(s): NACAA, ASNSW, CWAS
Session details: Saturday, 2018-03-31 04:30:00, MCON
Abstract
I’ve been involved with NACAA since I attended my first event in Wollongong in 1970. In this talk, I would like to reflect on two phases of NACAA’s history: the early years where attempts to create a national body failed, and the formation of NACAA Inc more recently. I believe that the INC phase of NACAA has been a success, thanks to the hard work of several people. It hasn’t all been plain sailing, though. Some things didn’t go at all as I expected, mostly due to my own naivety. There are lots of war stories that I could talk about, but I’ll concentrate on the incidents that have taught me a lesson or two. Finally I would like to present how I hope that the future INCs can avoid the mistakes that I made, and provide advice on the challenges that I think NACAA faces in the future.
Biography
I attended my first NACAA in 1970. I’ve only missed two NACAAs since then, though I missed a lot of NACAA XXVII due to illness. In 1976 I became the first NACAA Secretariat, which sounds more significant than it turned out to be. More recently I’ve served in various positions on the NACAA Inc committee, including a few years as its General Secretary. In my retirement, I continue to look after the NACAA web site, with increasing assistance by some wonderful helpers.