This blog post appeared on Graham Catt's LinkedIn

As a CEO my job is to create a vision for the future, and to talk about how we’re growing and changing. I’m often asked by colleagues about what we’ve reformed and how we successfully changed.

It is also my job, however, to avoid change for changes’ sake, and to protect and nurture the things that shouldn’t change, because they are at the heart of our organisational culture.

I had a call yesterday from an AVA member, concerned about an old classmate whom he knew was working in Vanuatu. Two emails later, we’d been able to reassure him his colleague was OK, and let a vet in a bad place know that people were looking out for her.

The AVA is the professional association for veterinarians, and animal health and welfare lies at the heart of the profession. Taking care of our people lies at the heart of our professional association.

It is sad but true that things don’t always go well for people, veterinarians included. We can be impacted by everything from natural disaster, to illness, to financial troubles. So the AVA needs to be there for our people, their families and their teams when things don’t go well.

We have a range of resources available to assist people. A counselling service, benevolent fund, wellness resources, and we are currently developing our national graduate support framework.

These are important and we’ll continue to grow them, but often it isn’t the formal support service that makes all the difference. It might just be a drink with someone who cares, advice from someone more experienced, or someone checking up on your welfare when you least expect it.

That is why our most valuable resources haven’t really changed much for nearly 100 years. People. Connections. Community. And the ability of our association to act as the fabric that can pull all of these together.

Graham Catt is the CEO of Australian Veterinary Association and is on the Board of the Australasian Society of Association Executives