A new survey indicates a significant number of senior doctors and dentists intend to quit their job in the next five years. The results were released at the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists' annual conference in Wellington on Thursday. It said 2424 of its members took part in the survey, a response rate of 63 percent.

A quarter (572 survey respondents) said they planned to leave either medicine or the district health board they worked for in the next five years. Of those who intended staying, 40 percent might look at reducing their work hours, 30 percent would like to decrease their on-call and/or shift work, and 8 percent would like to stop doing on-call work altogether. They cited age, poor job satisfaction, culture, remuneration and workloads as key influencing factors.

Association executive director Ian Powell said it pointed to a looming exodus of public hospital specialists, which should worry district health boards. "Hospital specialists are going to work even when they're sick or experiencing symptoms of burnout, and many of them are starting to look for the exit doors." The association said the top factors that would encourage them to reconsider leaving were flexible working hours, the ability to take leave, better remuneration, more opportunities and a better workplace culture.

What respondents said: - "Feel under-valued, being bullied, passive violence at workplace. Cost-cutting putting clinicians at risk. Little appreciation from managers for the skills older practitioners bring to the job. Some members of department view 'old fogies' as inferior."

"Why stick it out when I can earn more and work less in private practice? My only concern is I will truly miss working in a team and teaching medical students, junior doctors and allied staff. I am fed up with targets and chronic under-staffing and lack of resources."

The survey has not been finalised yet.

Doctors under pressure, association says - "A third of rheumatologists and endocrinologists who answered plan to leave medicine entirely in the next five years, with smaller but still considerable numbers planning to do the same in obstetrics and gynaecology, public health medicine, otolarnygology, and geriatric medicine," the association said.

"Smaller and mid-sized DHBs [are] facing a potentially bigger exodus of senior doctors than some of the larger DHBs."

In the Wairarapa District Health Board, more than half of those who took part in the survey planned to leave either medicine or that DHB within five years. Mr Powell said senior doctors, along with other health professionals, were under intense and sustained pressure to keep the public health sector functioning effectively "in the absence of ongoing resourcing and longstanding shorgages that have yet to be properly addressed."

Pressure was taking a toll on doctors' wellbeing and job satisfaction. 

This article was originally sourced from Radio NZ and written by Karen Brown.

Research Association of New Zealand (RANZ) chief executive Robert Bree said political polling in New Zealand is among the most accurate in the world with 97% to 98% accuracy in the last three general elections. Mr Bree was commenting on American pollsters not correctly predicting the outcome of the United States presidential election, with only one pollster out of about 200 calling a Donald Trump victory.

He said New Zealand’s MMP system ensures votes largely translate into seats. Pollsters in New Zealand subscribe to the RANZ Polling Code https://researchassociation.wildapricot.org/Resources/Documents/Political%20Polling%20Code%202014.pdf.

Nevertheless, Mr Bree said New Zealand pollsters will be keen to learn the lessons that emerge from American polling which did not detect the level of desire for significant change from the status quo in approximately half the voters. "The more radical Trump’s opinions and messages, the more they resonated with a disenfranchised mainstream in middle America. The media strongly amplified the anti-Trump sentiment of polls and largely ignored the depth of pro-Trump sentiment."

Mr Bree said polling shortcomings included: 

a. Secret Trump voters (lower participation of the conservative white majority in the opinion polls and over-representation of liberals)

b. Shy Trump voters (people who when polled were too embarrassed to admit they were voting Trump)

c. Voter turnout numbers. Media and Democrats over-estimated the turnout of minorities on voting day when in actual fact the heartland voter came out in record numbers

"The difference between Democrat and Republican vote was actually only around 200,000 votes with Democrats on the upside, but due to the FPP (first past the post) electoral college system and the concentration of those votes in coastal areas, the Democrat vote didn’t translate into electoral wins."

This article was originally sourced from Voxy. 

Working at a nonprofit can be a pressure cooker. Trying to manage huge workloads with limited resources, can easily trap us into thinking that working nights and weekends after a full day at the office is the answer. Overworking will not only steal your clarity, but ultimately zap your energy.

We’ve all heard the advice on a plane to “put your oxygen mask on first,” but we roll our eyes and call it cliché. That simple statement is probably the most powerful piece of advice you’ll ever hear about the importance of taking care of yourself first above all others.

In our book, The Happy, Healthy Nonprofit: Strategies for Impact Without Burnout, we lay out the symptoms and causes of burnout and the remedies through deliberate self-care. And while we discuss strategies for bringing self-care into the workplace or”We-Care,” we believe it is important to begin with the individual.

As we were writing the book, we began to recognize that we were feeling stressed out. Our solution was to put into practice many of the things we were researching and writing. We’ve distilled them here for you.

1. Take Care of the Basics

Every human being depends on what we call the Wellness Triad, the three most basic and essential needs we have as human beings to be at our optimal health and peak performance: Sleep, Nutrition and Exercise.

“We are in the midst of a sleep deprivation crisis,” writes Arianna Huffington in her book The Sleep Revolution.

How do you get good and sufficient sleep when there’s so much to do? Start with a bedtime ritual for yourself. If you’re a parent, you probably have or had a bedtime ritual for your children, but yours may have looked like ours: Stay up late to try to get things done and finally collapse from sheer exhaustion – or wake up in the middle of the night panicked about the things we didn’t get done that day.

A bedtime ritual of bath, reading, a cup of herbal tea, meditation, or other calming activities, can bring your brain noise down a few notches and allow you to settle into a less agitated state to get some rest. Set a sleep schedule and stick to it, but don’t beat yourself up if you can’t fall asleep immediately.

In terms of nutrition, the smallest incremental changes can completely transform your energy levels and affect your ability to both think and rest. Cutting down caffeine and sugar can literally change your life. Drinking more water is something we all know we should do but most of us fail to do it regularly yet it can help you avoid the depletion and energy ebb of dehydration. Replace packaged, vending machine snacks with fresh fruits and vegetables. Put a fruit basket at your desk or in the break room at your office to tempt yourself and others to snack well.

In terms of fitness, simply adding any type of movement in your day can invigorate you and could save your life. As Nilofer Merchant points out in her popular Ted Talk, “sitting is the smoking of our generation.” Buy a standing desk so you can alternate between sitting and standing – or set one up using books, crates or other objects you already have in your office to prop up your computer.

Set an alarm to stand up, stretch and walk around at regular intervals throughout your day. If you’re on the phone a lot, switch to a mobile phone so you can walk around your office while talking. Hold “walking meetings,” literally bringing people together to meet while walking around the office or identify walking paths at your office.

2. Completely Disconnect

The ubiquity of our mobile devices has made us more mindless about how often we use them. We’ll be the first to tell you that technology is awesome, but we need to learn good habits around using our tech devices, and we’re suffering because of it.

Engaging in Tech Wellness starts with a better awareness of how our devices are interfering with our relationships and our ability to pay attention. Shut off your device entirely when you are in a meeting unless you are using it to support your participation in the meeting.

A few changes at home can also have a positive impact on your brain and even sleep. Set up a charging station at the door and leave your devices there so they don’t interfere with your time after work to unwind. Keep your smartphone and other electronics out of the bedroom so you can decompress and relax at night. Don’t use your smartphone as an alarm clock, especially because you’ll be tempted to check it the moment you wake up and start the vicious cycle of tech abuse all over again.

3. Go On Real Breaks

Your body and brain need downtime to replenish your energy. Take a break from your computer and walk outside. Don’t use your computer keyboard as a lunch tray. Just a few minutes can refresh and reset brain so you can perform your work with more focus and energy. And if you’re someone who is accumulating vacation time without taking it, you’re hurting not only yourself but your organization as well. Furthermore, if you don’t use your vacation time, you are essentially working for free.

Use your vacation time and take real vacations where you are completely disconnected from work, emails and the mobile devices that connect you to work. Invest in a digital camera to take vacation photos and leave your smartphone off and tucked away for emergencies only. You’ll return to work with more clarity and perspective that will serve your organization and cause far better than staying late at the office scrambling to finish your tasks.

4. Set Boundaries at Work

You may not be the boss at your organization, but you are the boss of you and should stand firm when a work request interferes with your day-to-day health and wellbeing. We’re not talking about the demands of relief workers in war torn countries but rather the more mundane but destructive requests to sacrifice your time, your breaks, and your health to do more with less.

Just say no to requests that obliterate the lines between your work and home life. Set strong boundaries to protect your schedule and set up your schedule to take advantage of times during the day when you have peak energy, taking breaks during those times when your energy wanes.

Prioritize what is important to you, not just at work but in your life, and make time for the things that really matter – like family and friends. Having outside interests and putting them into your schedule as essential appointments help you bring more creativity and fresh ideas to your work.

Bottom line: You are your first priority. If you burn out, you can take others down with you. If you really believe in the mission of your organization and the people you serve, make sure you are the best you can be to make real change in the world.

This article was originally sourced from Social Fish and written by Maddie Grant. 

The “member until you cancel” model has intriguing potential for associations, but a new survey shows they have a lot of work to do to adopt it. In the span of a few months last year, here on this blog we explored both the potential power of automatic membership renewal combined with monthly payments as well as an example of one association that had launched just such a model.

Up to now, there wasn’t a great name for it, but a recent survey on associations’ usage of automatic billing and installment payment plans gives it a name that, at least in my mind, just might stick: “perpetual membership.” Mark Jones, CAE, president of enSYNC Corporation, an association technology solutions firm, says his organization has been using the term for several years. While “recurring billing” or “installment plans” sound like accounting techniques, “perpetual membership” makes the concept clearer for associations by “putting something around it that really makes them think differently,” Jones says. Hence the title of enSYNC’s study released in October, “The State of Perpetual Memberships.”

I like that terminology because it does indeed capture the style of membership model in which a member provides billing information up front and then belongs indefinitely until he or she chooses to cancel. It’s a model long used by fitness centers, utility companies, and magazines and now growing among popular subscription services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and a bevy of other companies in the “membership economy.” Associations are masters of the annual cycle, but perpetual signals the genuine shift in mindset that adopting such a model requires in the association setting.

The enSYNC study suggests, however, that, while usage of recurring billing and installment payments might be growing, most associations still have a long way to go toward truly embracing perpetual membership.

Among associations responding to the survey, 26 percent said they offer automatic renewal, and 48 percent said they offer installment plans (monthly, quarterly, or other). Despite the small sample size of 84 organizations, these numbers are roughly in line with other industry benchmarking. Marketing General Incorporated’s “2016 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report” showed 29 percent of associations offering automatic renewal and 41 percent offering installment plans in 2016—numbers that have been growing over recent years.

The enSYNC study digs deeper into the practices, though:

• On average, about 23 percent of members opt in to automatic renewal at associations that said they offer it.
  
• Just 14 percent of associations offering automatic renewal said they use tokenization, a payment card industry (PCI) practice recommended for secure data storage.
  
• Only 41 percent of associations offering recurring billing said they require members to initialize a cancellation instead of still sending an annual renewal notice.
  

These represent some clear growing pains for associations introducing perpetual membership options to their members. Recurring billing and keeping members until the cancel require significant shifts in processes, systems, and mindsets, and associations aren’t all the way there yet, says Sherry Milligan, CAE, vice president of nonprofit strategy at enSYNC.

“In the association world, we’re so used to asking our members what they think, what they want to do, and what they think of what we’re doing that it’s hard to get out of that loop,” she says. “I think we’re on an exponential learning curve right now about PCI compliance and tokenization and storing credit cards and how you do it securely and why you need to do it. So, I think if we do this survey again two years from now, we’re going to see a lot of different answers in these areas.”

The good news is that many associations offering automatic renewal and installment payments told enSYNC that they’re seeing some important benefits. At least half of associations offering either automatic renewal or installments reported improved member satisfaction and retention. Improved recruitment was reported by more associations offering installments (46 percent) than those offering recurring billing (18 percent).

Fewer survey respondents reported gains in staff efficiency (41 percent among respondents offering automatic renewal; 27 percent among those offering installments). One reason may be the need to contact auto-renewing members to update their stored payment information (for example, when credit cards expire), but Jones noted that payment technology providers are beginning to provide services to automatically update users’ credit card information. Though such a service may carry an additional fee, Jones says associations he has worked with have said the auto-updating can catch as much as 70 percent of accounts that need updating.

With continuing improvements in technology and a greater understanding among associations of the dynamics of the perpetual membership model, Jones says the opportunity for greater staff efficiency is significant, and it could lead to even further gains in member service and satisfaction.

“We can work on more valuable member services than being a billing administrative association in which we’re spending all our time kicking dues notices out,” he says.

Would perpetual membership work for your association? Have you considered or tried automatic renewal or installment plans? Please share your thoughts or experience in the comments.

This article was originally sourced from Associations Now and written by Joe Rominiecki. 

The Victorian Transport Association (VTA) elected Cameron Dunn as the new president during its annual general meeting in Melbourne yesterday.

Dunn will replace Brendan Hopley, who will remain a member of VTA’s executive council after having served as president of the association for four years.

Dunn, who is also a member of its executive council, has held the position of VTA vice president for the past four years.

He has over 30 years’ experience in the Australian transport sector, and has served as MD of privately-owned national bulk and dangerous goods transport company FBT Transport since 2009.

Dunn is also the current deputy chairman of the National Bulk Tanker Association (NBTA), and a member of the Plastics and Chemicals Industries Association (PACIA) board and the Australian Road Transport Industry Organisation (ARTIO) Victoria board.

"It is a great honour to have been elected President of one of the oldest and most influential transport associations in Australia, and I thank my fellow councillors for entrusting me with this significant responsibility," Dunn says.

"I look forward to working closely with the Council, Peter Anderson and the secretariat to positively advocate on issues impacting our industry, and help to make our members more productive, profitable and successful."

VTA CEO Peter Anderson welcomed Dunn to the new role and thanked former president Hopley for his contribution to the industry and the association.

"Cameron Dunn has been an active and valued member of the VTA for many years and on behalf of the executive council, secretariat and membership, we congratulate him on his election as President of our association," Anderson says.

"Cameron has a unique familiarity with the numerous issues facing our industry on a state and national level, and with his experience and contacts he will play a vital role in advancing our strategic efforts to influence positive legislative, regulatory and practical change.

"We are thrilled that outgoing President Brendan Hopley will remain a member of the executive council, and we sincerely thank him for the generous time, effort and dedication he applied to his four years as president.

"Brendan has successfully overseen a period of positive and significant change and transition at the VTA, and I look forward to his ongoing counsel and friendship."

This article was originally sourced from Fully Loaded. 

Flight attendants have voted overwhelmingly to formally merge with E tÅ«, to form the country’s biggest aviation union.

The Flight Attendants and Related Services Association, or FARSA has been in an operational merger with E tū for the past two years.

FARSA President, Marja Lubeck says members have voted over the past fortnight on the merger, with 90 percent in favour, which is a vote of confidence in the strength it offers members.

"We are now a part of the country’s biggest private sector union. We cover 50 percent of all aviation workers in New Zealand, with 7000 members and growing," says Marja.

"We always believed we were stronger together and that’s been endorsed by our members. This is an exciting opportunity to create a new union for aviation workers, including a stronger voice for young workers, who can look forward to the many benefits this merger will bring."

This article was originally sourced from Voxy. 

The Auckland Old Folks Association was founded in 1945 to provide social services for the elderly in an inner-city neighbourhood of social, cultural and demographic diversity, particularly through fostering gatherings among its members “irrespective of status or creed” in a hall designed for that purpose.

In 2011 the association’s purposes were extended to support arts and cultural production, with a particular interest in performance and intergenerational cultural exchanges. While the association now also supports events by and for younger members, its humble past remains central to the Association’s mission, where art practices, activities, research and thought retain a connection to the ordinary demands of being a community.

In an era of professionalisation the vitality and substance of making often give way to commercial demands. The Association’s goal is to establish an independent platform that allows work to be produced holistically, and where some of the demands to excel; to develop a brand; to have a following; and to be new and extraordinary, can be set aside in the interests of a non-exclusionary process and lasting generosity.

The Association’s goals are long-term, aiming to support activity over the lifetime of participants and contributors. The organisation as a project in itself will always be open to renewal, existing as an expression of the energy of those involved.

The Association acknowledges the remarkable legacy of the original Auckland Old Folks organisation, and seeks to maintain the qualities of pragmatism and service the OFA has given the community and the local environment.

The Association’s committee currently consists of Sean Curham (coordinator), Alex Monteith, Cat Ruka, Danny Butt and Mark Harvey. Terms of membership of the Association are currently under development.

This article was originally sourced from OFA. 

Confirmation by crossbench Senator Brian Burston of his support for a Senate Inquiry into the Child Dental Schedule (CDBS) has significantly bolstered the chances of the threatened scheme surviving into the new year, and beyond.

It is the latest decisive step in a determined campaign by the ADA to save the CDBS which has attracted widespread support from the dental profession, allied health professionals and the public.

Since its launch in January 2014, the Child Dental Benefits Schedule (CDBS) has had a significant impact on the oral health of Australia's children, providing over 9.7 million services in just over its first two years of operation (January 2014-January 2016).

In a meeting with the One Nation Senator, the ADA argued the many merits of the CDBS, as it has done since the Government intimated and then confirmed earlier this year that it intended to close the scheme.

The ADA underscored that the oral health of many of Australia's children was at serious risk with 1 in 2 children experiencing decay in their deciduous (baby) teeth by age 6 and nearly half of children aged 12 years having a history of dental decay in their permanent teeth.

Consigning the rectification of this oral health deficit among Australia's children to the Government's proposed new scheme, the Child and Adult Public Dental Scheme (caPDS) is a regressive step thanks to its reliance on an already overstretched public system to deliver the necessary oral care.

In light of these very real concerns, Senator Burston agreed that his party would vote to direct the closure of the CDBS to a Senate Inquiry when the legislation to close it reaches the Upper House.

This article was originally sourced from ADA. 

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — Grain Trade Australia (GTA) appointed Pat O’Shannassy as its new chief executive officer (CEO), effective Nov. 1. O’Shannassy became interim CEO of GTA following the passing of Geoff Honey in June.

“Pat has been very effective in the interim CEO role and has established strong working relationships with the board and staff, members and the broader grains industry,” said Peter Reading, chairman of the GTA.

O’Shannassy was previously a director of GTA and a past director of the Australian Grain Exporters Association (AGEA) and member of the Commodity Markets Council (U.S.).

“Pat has vast industry experience, having spent more than 20 years in the grains industry in Australia and USA,” Reading said. “He has a diverse experience across the entire value chain, with roles in management, grain origination, trading, trade policy and business strategy, gained from working for trade houses, financial institutions as well as customer service and information focused businesses.”

O’Shannassy holds a bachelor’s degree in agriculture from the University of Melbourne and a post-graduate diploma in applied finance and investment.

“The grains industry is progressing through an exciting phase in its growth and development,” O’Shannassy said. “I look forward to working with GTA members and all segments across the value chain and continuing to make a contribution to the ongoing success of the Australian grains industry. The grains industry is such an important part of the agricultural and export sectors of the Australian economy.”

The GTA was formed in 1991 to formalize commodity trading standards, develop and publish the trade rules and standardize grain contracts across the Australian grain industry. GTA's role today is to help ensure the efficient facilitation of commercial activities across the grain supply chain.

This article was originally sourced from World Grain, and written by Holly Demaree. 

The Australian Information Industry Association has a new chair, elected at its annual general meeting in Brisbane on Thursday 3 November. He is John Paitaridis, universally known as JP, managing director of Optus Business. He previously served as one of the AIIA’s two deputy chairs.

JP is well known in the industry. He joined Optus four years ago to help boost its credentials as a provider to the business community. He was previously with arch-rival Telstra for many years, in a variety of senior sales and management roles, most recently as managing director of Telstra Enterprise and Government.

His election to the AIIA chair is effective immediately.

Mr Paitaridis said in a statement that he intended the AIIA to have a greater focus on nurturing partnerships and collaboration.

“The AIIA has a significant role to play in leading and promoting the ICT sector. To do so, it needs a big vision and clear agenda, and I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

And a challenge it will be.

The AIIA is still in a parlous financial situation, the result of financial mismanagement and bad business judgements going back ten years. Between 2005 and 2011 it made significant losses – except for a small profit in 2010. It has lost money again in the last two years, including a massive $443,000 loss in the 2015-16 financial year, on revenues of $4.7 million.

It has been more successful in increasing revenues from events and sponsorships, though these barely cover the cost of sales. Its biggest event is the annual iAwards, held in each state and nationally, which lost $259,000 last year.

The bad financial news was delivered at the AGM by Charles Lindop, CEO of KTM Capital, who was re-elected as treasurer.

Membership fees – and the number of members – are declining, and have not been meeting targets.

Membership is down to just 281 – only 59 of whom are from medium and large IT companies, and from which the large majority (79 per cent) of the membership revenues come. The organisation has a complex sliding membership scale, with larger vendors paying massively more than the SMEs and micro-businesses that comprise the bulk of the membership.

Off the record, many members and those who know the organisation well have told InnovationAus.com that all is not well.

The AIIA has often been criticised for representing the interests of multinational vendors over those of smaller indigenous companies.

A key complaint, often repeated, has been that the board no longer has a strong representation from the CEOs of the very largest vendors, and that it is not as cohesive as it was.

Mr Paitaridis replaces Kee Wong, founder and managing director of technology management consultancy e-Centric Innovations, who did not recontest the position of chairman, but who was re-elected to the board.

Mr Wong had been chair since 2012. The two new deputy chairs are Elizabeth Vega, CEO of Informed Solutions, and Mike Pym, CEO of Pyms Technology Lawyers, both of whom were previously on the board.

There were four elected positions to be filled among the 16 person board. As well as Mr Paitaridis and Mr Wong, Kate Burleigh (managing director Intel Australia) and Marie Johnson, (managing director and chief digital officer, Centre for Digital Business) were re-elected.

Three members stood down, and an additional three board positions will be appointed over the next three months.

Other board members are:

• Mark Nicholls, managing director, Information Professionals
  
• Martijn Blanken, group managing director and chief customer officer, Telstra
  
• Matt Codrington, executive director Australia & New Zealand, Lenovo
  
• Murray Hurps, general manager, Fishburners
  
• Pip Marlow, managing director, Microsoft Australia
  
• Peter Strohkorb, CEO, Peter Strohkorb Consulting International
  

Retiring from the board were Peter McGrath (former CEO of Nextgen), Martjin Blankin (chief customer officer at Telstra) and Rob Hillard (technology leader at Deloitte).

The AIIA press release quotes CEO Rob Fitzpatrick saying the organisation wants to sharpen its focus and extend its relevance after a period of consolidation.

“Strategic plan”. “Consolidation”. “Sharpen our focus”. ”Extend our relevance”.

Mr Fitzpatrick, who has been in the day-to-day management role since January this year, and Mr Paitaridis, have a big job ahead of them.

This article was originally sourced from Innovations Aus.