I was always quite sceptical about getting so heavily involved at an Executive level within an EWB chapter. The time commitment scared me. However, with my minor involvement with EWB at the University of Melbourne and at WorleyParsons, I could see the passion, innovation and drive of many people across the organisation. People at EWB are leaders and change-makers in their field of work.
It was not until after our series of workshops in mid-to-late 2010 – to restructure the Victoria Region Chapter – that I decided to take on the role of President. Our organisation needed the Region Model to work and we accepted the challenge. The opportunity to learn about community development, capacity building, and managing effective relationships from leaders in the not-for-profit sector was too good to let it slip.
Since that time, we have consolidated five local projects and two local partnerships, two focus groups (Local Projects and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island engagement) and had heaps of fun along the way. We managed to do all of this through eight key areas (each with dedicated Champions and Coordinators) which are summarised on the following pages.
To do all of this during Engineers Australia’s Year of Humanitarian Engineering is a testament to the quality and passion of the Team Members. I would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who has been involved with EWB in Victoria throughout 2011 (including all the champies at National Office). I hope you have benefited from the experience and relationships at EWB as much as I have.
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