From the President's desk
Dear AVA Members,
President's report: Annual General Meeting, Saturday August 15th 2009
There has been considerable change for the AVA during the last 12 months with 5 new members on the board and a strong commitment to rejuvenate the association.
The lead for these changes came from Susannah Foulds-Elliot who was left virtually holding it all together towards the end of last year, and with her enormous determination and professional passion, she has drawn a strong team to move the AVA forward again.
In accordance with her suggestions, and those of the new board, we set out to do the following:
- To increase our membership
- To produce at least 2 and preferably 3 VOICEPRINT Newsletters
- To update and revitalize the AVA website
- To organize at least one event that would attract our multidisciplinary members
- To organize at least one other event at a local level
We also committed ourselves to evaluate the levels of interest in the professional community for the AVA to continue, and pending the energy and achievements generated this year, we would consider mounting the 8th AVA Voice Symposium, to be held in either 2010 or 2011.
It was agreed that the prospect of a voice symposium every second year had been one of the fundamental motivations for this association, and that without a formal scientific meeting it was much harder to maintain the impetus at state and national levels.
No commitment to the scope and format of such a meeting was undertaken – rather – an agreement that we could consider it in the light of how things developed over the next 12 months.
Achievements this year
- Increase in the membership
There has been a modest increase in the membership this year from approximately 50 – 70 members, which is very promising given that many previous members were under the impression that the association was no longer functioning. There are three international members, but only 2 student members. This raises an important issue for us to consider.
- Production of VOICEPRINT Newsletters
Susannah Foulds-Elliot, Sally Collyer and Jane Bickford have shared the Editorship responsibilities of Voiceprint during this last 12 months and it has been very exciting to see 2 excellent VOICEPRINT newsletters so far with the third currently being compiled.
I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate our co-editors on their marvelous efforts here and to those board members who have taken the time to write articles for each publication.
The newsletter is attracting attention overseas as well as throughout Australia, and we consider this is one of the best ways for us all to keep ourselves informed about what is happening in the voice world.
In order to sustain the high level of interest in the newsletter, and the excellent standard of the publication set by our editors this year, we would encourage all members to consider ways in which you could contribute.
One article or item from each AVA member over the next 12 months would be an enormous support to this informal but vital publication.
- AVA website
We have engaged the services of John Waller who along with the input and advice from the board and other association members – has made great improvements to the AVA website offering information, contact details, accessibility to VOICEPRINT and details of up coming functions. The feedback about the website has been very positive and we are aware that the money, time and effort being put into this have been very worthwhile. We would like to acknowledge John Waller for his excellent help in this area.
- International Tour – Christina Shewell
We are delighted that all the planning and hard work on everyone’s part has led to our being able to mount this international tour with 1 and 2 days workshops in 5 states throughout Australia. The tour became possible as a result of a most generous gift of $10,000 from a patient of Dr. Alison Winkworth, and we are most grateful to this very kind person and to Alison for helping to negotiate this generous gift to the association.
This tour was designed to pull together as many of our members as possible and it is very exciting to see the interest from practitioners around the country to come and hear Christina.
Significantly, many of us are delighted to be meeting one another again and I am so pleased to see that registrants for the workshops are coming from speech pathology, vocal pedagogy, spoken and singing voice performers, researchers and academics.
This is exactly what we hoped would happen.
In addition to those board members that have worked so hard to make all this happen, we are indebted to Cecilia Pemberton, Jocelyn Priestley, Caroline Silver and Helen Sjardin for offering their hospitality and leadership in their respective states to help this all come together.
- National event
It was intended that otolaryngologist Matthew Broadhurst would also give a number of presentations this year with respect to his experience in phonosurgery and we are anticipating that this will now happen early next year. We look forward to hearing from Matt about his experiences with Steve Zeitels in the USA and the further developments to his own work since returning to Australia.
Future Directions
- Membership
We have all been very encouraged with the interest regenerated in the AVA and I do hope that it will continue. It seems to me we now have to do all we can to increase the membership in general, and with particular attention to our student membership. This is where the future lies.
- Website
The scope and development of the website has been a great success and this is one area that I feel we need to expand further. Advice and suggestions from all members would be gratefully accepted here.
- Voice Symposium
I think this is something we do need to consider very carefully.
On the one hand the symposium was the springboard for our scientific forum, our multidisciplinary passion for voice and working together and has generated exceptional goodwill amongst our respective professions.
Some of the best research in Australia in the voice area was generated by this meeting, and the outcomes of this should not be underestimated.
The symposia were also very hard work, and we never managed to get SPA or any other central group to take on the mounting of this conference, so each time we did it in a different state we had to re-invent the wheel. We oscillated between doing it as an AVA venture or in collaboration with ANATS and neither approach suited everyone.
Personally I enjoyed it most when it was a joint venture and hope that we might do it this way again in the future. Mounting our symposia did require enormous amounts of time and effort for conference committees and our relatively small membership.
I think it is true to say that after our last conference in Sydney in 2005 – there has not been the energy or courage amongst the members for this to continue which I think is most unfortunate.
Perhaps this is the major item for our board and membership to consider over the next 6 months with a view to a symposium, even if a more modest one, in 2011.
- Leadership
For many years now there has been a very strong contingent at the top of each of our professions, but I think we need to be putting in a conscious effort into encouraging and developing opportunities for our younger members.
Many are now ripe for greater involvement and leadership in the voice area. It can’t be done simply by the more experienced members – saying – ‘we have done our bit – now it’s your turn’. This has been done in the past and had a devastating effect on the morale and state of the association.
I think if we are going to sustain the AVA, we need to be grooming our younger members across all the disciplines, actively engaging them in organization and participation in functions, and preparing them for leadership within the association.
Acknowledgements
In addition to those that I have mentioned already, I should like to acknowledge the AVA secretariat through SPA and Filomena Scott for her most able assistance.
I am most grateful to all members of the board for their marvellous good will, time and effort, and in particular their support in mounting the Christina Shewell workshop this year.
It has felt a bit like a juggernaut, but we now feel very confident it will be a great success.
In addition to her brilliant work as co-editor of Voiceprint, Sally Collyer has taken the minutes for all our board meetings – sometimes with as many as 12 people on the line, and Tony Smith has been most creative and generous in taking on the applications for the CS workshop with helpful advice and good humour.
Adele Nisbet and Jean Callaghan have continued to lead as Co-editors of Australian Voice - the official journal of the AVA and ANATS, and we look forward to our many more members making contributions to this journal.
Finally I wish to thank Susannah Foulds-Elliot for her gentle and totally committed work as secretary, subtle advisor to me and the new board. She has contributed tirelessly throughout the year, and we are most grateful for her remarkable efforts in designing the brochure for the Christina Shewell workshop. I think it is fair to say, we are all indebted to Susannah for our association still being a vibrant body.
I wish you all well for the next year and do hope the AVA continues to flourish.
Jan Baker
President AVA 2009
For Members Only: update your membership to access Voiceprint 36 which contains -
President’s Message – an overview of AVA - where we are and where we might want to go next.
Christina Shewell in Melbourne – photos and overview.
Commentary by Dr Susannah Foulds-Elliott
Christina Shewell in Adelaide – photos and overview.
Commentary by Jane Bickford, Lecturer, Speech Pathology and Audiology, Flinders University of South Australia
Discover what happened at the ICVT7 (The International Congress of Voice Teachers) in Paris from 15-19th July. By Cathy Aggett, PhD Candidate, Music.
Australian singer and researcher undertakes a study course with world-renown voice scientist, Johan Sundberg, 27-31st July in Sweden. By Cathy Aggett, PhD Candidate, Music.
Breathing in singing - for flautists! – a request from the South Australian Flute Society led to the publication of this article in SA Flute News. It is reprinted here with permission. By Dr Susannah Foulds-Elliott.
What’s in a Name? Reading the Literature on Voice Training as a Training Voice Teacher by Dr. Marty Crerar (School of Performing Arts, Faculty of VCAM, University of Melbourne).
This reflection considers the work of three well-known and respected practitioners in the field of voice and voice training for actors. It is based on a literature review conducted on the work of Cicely Berry, Patsy Rodenburg, and Kristin Linklater.
Speech Pathology Australia Aspire Conference, Adelaide 17-21 May 2009 Overview by Jane Bickford, Lecturer, Speech Pathology and Audiology, Flinders University of South Australia
PEVOC – Pan European Voice Conference, Dresden , 2009
Read about the Pan European Voice Conference, which is held every two years in a chosen European city. This is an event that brings speech pathologists, singing teachers, otolaryngologists and speech physicists together to discuss current and upcoming research on the human voice. By Samantha Warhurst, Speech Pathology Honours Student, University of Sydney
Upcoming Conference dates for your diary.
 |
|
 |
| Melbourne |
 |
 |
| Sydney |
Christina Shewell on her national tour
(click photos to enlarge) |
