These special AuSAE Workshops are suitable for anyone tasked with event planning, managing staff or those who are currently are the CEO, executive, management or on Boards of associations and other not for profits.

23 June - Auckland - 'Tips and Tricks to Maximise the Profitability of Your Events'

Events don’t just happen.

Organising and holding an event takes a significant amount of planning. Whether it’s a conference, workshop or a member networking function, and whether you have three weeks to plan or an entire year, your event’s success is all in the details. This workshop focuses on providing delegates with practical tips, information and tools you can implement immediately to increase revenue and generate outcomes for your stakeholders.

Attend this workshop to:

• Maximise resources to ensure better yield for this important member sector benefit
  
• Further understandthe meeting and conference market
  
• Develop better knowledge of tools to ensure delegate/member and supplier needs are met.

 - Register Here

24 June - Wellington - 'Developing Growth Strategies, Sponsorship Proposals and Risk Assessment for your Events'

From the successful ’Tips and Tricks for Successful Events' Workshops, this in-depth workshop covers three key aspects of Event and Conference management: Growth, Sponsorship and Risk Assessment 

Event Growth Strategy

You can’t measure anything if you don’t have objectives to measure against! You can’t plan the event without the same objectives and how can you put the programme together if you don’t know what you are trying to achieve? If you have a good set of measurable objectives to start out, the rest is easy and the result is almost guaranteed. We will be outlining the next steps which will create an Event Growth Strategy within your organisation to increase the value for your stakeholders and help set measurable objectives.

Sponsorship and Exhibition proposals

One of the secret requirements for successful events is to have it well funded and the best way to raise funds for an event is to have it sponsored and have valued and engaged Exhibitors. One good way to look for sponsors is to provide sponsorship proposals from individuals that are most likely relevant with your target audience or activity. This part of the workshop focuses on providing practical tips, information and tools you can implement immediately to generate valued sponsors and exhibitors for your event.

Event/Conference Risk Assessment 

No event should be organised without a risk management plan. No matter how well planned an event; it is never without risk. By teaching you effective risk management, we will help you minimise negative outcomes, costs and liabilities. We will discuss how to identify risks, the roles & responsibilities, identifying, evaluating & mitigating these risks.

- Register Here

Explore the issues that impact on good governance.

Does your board:

• Spend endless hours on compliance?

• Push their own agendas?

• Try to micro-manage your every move?

• Get off topic?

• Struggle to make cohesive decisions?

• Seem unsure of what purpose they serve?

• Hold meetings that never seem to end?

• Get stuck focusing on the details?
  

CONFORM-TRANSFORM is a one-day practical workshop that will:

• Identify the greatest stumbling blocks to being a powerful association board.
• Give you tried and tested tools to help your board become a successful machine for change.

Jennifer Pelvin (Butler Pelvin & Associates) will guide delegates through the key concepts, skills and tools necessary to achieve strong governance practices. The program offers practical ideas that can be implemented immediately.

On the day you will be guided through how to transform the board of your association. Participants will leave being able to identify key productivity traps and take home the tools that can be used to overcome them. This is the ideal workshop for chief executives and senior management who work with the boards and board members of associations.

Find out more about the event details by clicking on your location below. For AuSAE Members to attend is $95 AUD and non-member, not for profit professionals is $145 AUD

• Wellington, Tuesday 28 July - Register Here
  
• Auckland, Wednesday 29 July - Register Here

Contact us on +61 7 3394 8381 for more information.

Long-time Otago/Southland resident, Wayne Collie, has been appointed as the new chairman of Camp Quality New Zealand (CQNZ).

The Cromwell Company Branch Manager, who has been a Board Member and Independent Trustee for six years, was elected to lead CQNZ at its Annual General Meeting this month. He succeeds former New Zealand and Auckland cricket representative, Gary Troup.

Camp Quality is a not-for-profit volunteer organisation dedicated to bringing fun, hope and happiness to New Zealand children living with cancer. Established 30 years ago, it provides week-long regional summer camps for youngsters aged 5-16, as well as year-round support for the children and their families.

Wayne has an extensive background in community and service related activities. A Lion for more than 30 years, he is a former District Governor and New Zealand Council Chairman and is passionate about bettering the lives of young people.

“We are a small country and our young people are our greatest asset. In my time at Camp Quality I have been truly inspired by the spirit and positive attitude shown by so many of our youngsters and their families,” he says.

“Like many not-for-profits, Camp Quality has to battle for a share of voice in a very crowded space. I’m sure I speak for the CQNZ Board when I say we are all committed to making a positive difference, helping to lift our profile and making more New Zealanders aware of the positive outcomes Camp Quality New Zealand continues to achieve.” 

Mark Winger (Auckland) has been appointed the CQNZ deputy chairman and while no longer a board member Mr Troup will retain an active involvement with the organisation.

According to Child Cancer Foundation statistics, around 150 young New Zealanders are diagnosed with cancer each year. Camp Quality passionately believes in the power of fun to help these children and their families overcome the challenges cancer brings.

ENDS - Scoop NZ  

The Bioenergy Association has signed a collaboration agreement with the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) to encourage New Zealand businesses to use more bioenergy.

The agreement will use the expertise of both government and industry to develop a strategy to expand the bioenergy sector and promote the benefits of bioenergy to a wide range of Kiwi businesses, says Bioenergy Association Executive Officer Brian Cox.

“By working together we will be able to better identify and eliminate barriers for businesses to switch from coal to bioenergy and give them a high level of confidence in the bioenergy sector’s ability to supply best practice products and services.”

He says the Association and EECA are already using their respective expertise to collaborate on two training and education projects, with more planned.

Bioenergy is derived from forest harvest residues, wood processing waste, municipal organic waste and agricultural wastes. They are used to produce wood fuel and biogas for heat and transport biofuels.

Mr Cox says bioenergy currently makes up just over 10 percent of New Zealand’s consumer energy and the Bioenergy Association has a vision of that increasing to 25 percent by 2040.

“The economic consultancy BERL estimates bioenergy has the potential to add revenue of $6 billion a year to the New Zealand economy, so investing in bioenergy is an investment in New Zealand’s future.

“We are very fortunate that New Zealand has large amounts of renewable natural resources that can be turned into bioenergy, creating economic growth, increased employment and a cleaner environment.”

He says through training courses, webinars and conferences for equipment and service providers the Bioenergy Association is increasing its focus on efficient use of wood energy facilities and greater use of municipal solid and waste water facilities to produce biogas.

“This will ensure those contemplating moving from fossil-based fuels to bioenergy can have confidence that the sector is applying best practice.”

The Bioenergy Association is also developing accreditation schemes so that owners of wood fuelled and biogas heat plants have access to registered advisers and accredited fuel suppliers.

ENDS - Scoop

The national student NZUSA is putting its full weight behind the growing calls by the New Zealand Medical Students’ Association, political parties, youth wings and professional associations for the Government to immediately reinstate access to the loans system for medical students.

National President Rory McCourt says the Government’s 2011 introduction of a seven-year cap on what all students could borrow for fees was poorly targeted and could lead to a crisis in the health workforce within a few short years.

“It makes zero sense to block hard-working, aspirational students who want to save lives from being able to borrow what they need to finish their studies.”

“If we’re going to have user-pays education and force students to borrow, we might as well make sure they can borrow enough and for long enough."

“We 100% support medical students' right to finish their studies. It’s the right thing to do for our students and the right thing to do for our health system.”

The union is calling for the introduction of exceptions to loans and allowance limits for courses like medicine.

“We think it’s time for the introduction of exceptions within a National Importance category. The category would include qualifications where graduates are in high demand or their study is otherwise necessary for the advancement of New Zealand’s society and economy.”

NZUSA National President Rory McCourt said the wide-ranging and ideologically disparate support for the move to reinstate access should be a wake-up call for the Government.

“The Government stuffed this one up. It’s time to do what’s right and back our hard-working medical students, on that we agree with the Young Nats.” says McCourt.

- Scoop

The Canterbury Branch of the New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists is deeply concerned by this week's announcement that Relationships Aotearoa is being closed down.

With others who have expressed concern we add our voice over both the closure and the hasty manner in which it has been done. The transfer of services to other agencies may put some clients at risk and will prematurely end trusted therapeutic relationships if the client- therapist relationship is terminated in order to transfer care to new agencies and staff.

Canterbury people still have a need for ongoing counselling services for those affected by the effects of the earthquakes. It is imperative that Earthquake counselling is continued until its contracted end and that clients are able to continue in their established relationship with their therapist. The CDHB reports it is experiencing unprecedented increases in the need for mental health services. We believe the psychological and emotional care of our community needs to continue to be a priority.

Counselling and psychotherapy are not commodities to be negotiated to the lowest bidder, they are a specialist health service that values and respects peoples need for an ongoing private, trusting relationship to work through emotional health needs.

- Scoop NZ

Co-authored with Anna Caraveli (The Demand Networks), this whitepaper tackles the question: if engagement is so critical to associations (and we would argue that it is), why aren’t we doing a better job of it?

Of course, associations have always been “about” engagement, and in the past several years, we’ve had a renewed focus on engaging our members and other audiences. The thing is, most of us aren’t really doing it well. Could that be because we’ve been thinking about engagement all wrong, focusing on what we want members to do and how we define value? Leading Engagement from the Outside-In describes a radical shift in our understanding of engagement, one based on an approach that encourages us to view the world from our audiences’ perspective, focus on the outcomes they want to achieve, build authentic relationships, and harness the power of collaboration to co-create the value our organisations provide -  read more.

Access the document here. Posted by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE

by Laura Tingle for AFR

Drug makers will bear the brunt of around $6.6 billion in savings to be channelled into new drugs and higher returns for pharmacists – who will not face any full-scale assault on their competitive position – under a pharmaceuticals deal finally struck by the Abbott government.

Health Minister Sussan Ley said the deal would deliver "cheaper medicines, a more competitive pharmacy sector and greater investment in new medicines and patient support services" as part of the package.

But consumer groups immediately warned it meant patients would pay billions of dollars more for prescriptions. The pharmaceutical industry greeted the deal with a sullen, if resigned, assertion that it had gained assurances about certainty in price changes for agreeing to the cuts.

The deal, which starts July 1, had been expected to be included in the federal budget, but with both the powerful Pharmacy Guild of Australia and Medicines Australia promising a war over aspects of the deal, agreement has only been struck this week.

The result appears to be a huge victory for the Pharmacy Guild at the cost of manufacturers and also appears to have done little to address competition issues in the pharmacy sector.

Pharmacy Guild executive director David Quilty said that the agreement was "a sound outcome" that has "achieved our primary objective".

"Always the most important thing for us in this negotiation is what pharmacies get paid for dispensing medicines. It is 70 per cent of their business and it was getting severely negatively impacted by PBS reforms," he said.

"We've moved away from linking what pharmacies get paid for dispensing medicines from the cost of those medicines."

No Competition Change

The average annual net profit of a pharmacy is between $140,000 and $150,000. There are 5450 pharmacies nationwide, up by around 200 over the last 5 years.

Any changes to pharmacy location rules, which have been attacked as anti-competitive by both the Harper Review and the National Commission of Audit, have been shelved for another five years.

"The location rules appear quite anachronistic and it is not clear why we are delaying this for another 5 years... the government is saying we will have another inquiry," University of Melbourne health economist Philip Clarke said.

While Ms Ley hailed $6.6 billion in savings from the deal in federal Parliament on Wednesday, the government was less forthcoming about the impact on the budget bottom line, or on detailing the individual savings.

Industry sources estimate retail chemists and wholesalers will receive extra income of between $2.4 billion and $2.8 billion over the next five years than they would have under the current agreement which is coming to an end. Ms Ley described this as a "$2.8 billion investment supporting pharmacy and primary care".

Deustche Bank analyst David Low said gross payments to wholesalers are likely to stagnate or decline as a result of the agreement, but he believes wholesale drug distributors can maintain earnings by reducing the discounts passed on to pharmacists.

"Given the level of spending on drugs via the PBS will be reduced, gross payments to wholesalers will be commensurately impacted," he said.

Thumbs Downs from Consumer Group

The Consumer Health Forum says the figures in the new agreement suggest consumers will "directly contribute an estimated $8.2 billion to pharmacy owners' remuneration over five years and that amounts to 34 per cent of the estimated $23.6 billion in total payments for PBS medicines to pharmacies".

"That's up from $4.8 billion or 29 per cent of payments under the current agreement," CHF's chief executive Leanne Wells said.

The thumbs down from the consumer group comes despite new arrangements which will accelerate the pace at which drugs are priced based on generic medicines rather than branded medicines – bringing the price down by up to 50 per cent and savings taxpayers $2 billion over five years.

"We welcome the government's measures to bring down the prices of some drugs in line with the international market, to announce the listing of new drugs and the introduction of an optional $1 discount on prescription medicines," Ms Wells said.

"However, the agreement represents a lost opportunity to drive reforms to loosen the grip of pharmacy owners on the anti-competition rules and provision of patient services covered by the new Sixth Community Pharmacy Agreement.

"Under the terms of the new agreement the Pharmacy Guild is to be the only party to be consulted on the scope of the promised independent review into the location rules which protect existing pharmacy owners against competition."

The government is going ahead with the proposal to allow pharmacists to discount the price of medicines by up to $1 per script, which it says could "also save some pensioners over $40 per year".

The attraction for the government is that it will take longer for heavy consumers of prescription drugs to get the safety-net threshold at which all drugs become free, saving about $400 million over five years. 

Ms Ley said savings delivered through the package, worth $18.9 billion over the next five years, would support the government's ability to continue to list new medicines into the future.

Medicines Australia, the peak body representing the pharmaceutical industry, is yet to formally agree to the deal, only announcing it has signed a letter of intent with the government for a five-year strategic agreement. The Pharmacy Guild has also said it does not agree with the proposed $1 discount.

MA said, if finalised, the agreement "will provide Australian patients and the medicines industry with a degree of stability and certainty in providing ongoing access to innovative medicines delivered through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme".

Medicines Australia CEO Tim James said, "In response to the government's budgetary challenges, we have agreed to meet all of the government's savings targets.

"In return for providing the majority of $6.6 billion in cuts outlined by the government, our members have been given a number of undertakings and concessions regarding any future price-related savings throughout the life of the agreement.

"Our member companies invest billions of dollars to research, invent and manufacture innovative medicines to treat patients. The continuation of this investment relies on a fair and stable price for a limited period. That is our social compact with governments and patients around the world.

"The continuation of this social compact requires stability in policy making. While this agreement does contain cuts to medicines already proven to be cost-effective, we welcome the limited stability and certainty that this agreement will provide over the coming five years."

Written by GEORGE LEKAKIS Financial Services Editor, The New Daily

Lawyers are charging super members thousands to make a simple insurance claim, says CEO of industry’s peak body.

One of the superannuation industry’s most senior figures has hit out at the legal profession for slugging super fund members who make successful disability claims through their super funds.

Pauline Vamos, the chief executive of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia, believes lawyers have turned to milking fees from the superannuation system in recent years after state governments tightened eligibility rules for workers’ compensation schemes.

Ms Vamos said that ASFA was writing to legal societies across Australia to explain the superannuation industry’s concerns about lawyers targeting the liberal disability definitions of insurance policies offered by super funds.

“Lawyers are taking up to 35 per cent of disability payments made to super fund members,” she told The New Daily.

“Super funds have told me that lawyers are charging $3500 just to fill out a claim form.”

ASFA is the peak body for superannuation providers in Australia and is agitating for law societies to review the practices of their members in relation to insurance claims made through super funds.

Ms Vamos said that historically about 95 per cent of all disability claims were paid out by super funds and that it was hard to see how lawyers were adding value to the claims process.

In letters sent to the Law Society of NSW, Ms Vamos states that fund members “are incurring unnecessary legal costs when making claims, which only reduces their final benefit”.

ASFA’s biggest concern is that lawyers are encouraging clients who are denied claims to issue legal proceedings through the courts, rather than follow their super fund’s internal dispute resolution schemes.

“The feedback we are getting from super funds is that lawyers are superfluous in the claims process,” she said.

“We’ve told the law societies that we’re greatly concerned with the increased involvement of lawyers early on in the claims process.

“We’re also concerned about the failure of lawyers to the tell the truth to clients that most disability claims are paid.”

Ms Vamos said the number of lawyers involved in disability claims had trebled in the last few years, with the recent tightening of workers’ compensation in NSW a major driver of the profession’s interest in insurance policies marketed by super funds.

NSW lawyers defend their new patch

The New Daily sought comment from the CEO of the Law Society of NSW, Michael Tidball.

The society responded through a media spokesman, who defended the state’s lawyers against charges that they were targeting disability insurers.

“Where a (super) member is in need of assistance in making and maintaining their claim it is their legal right to seek legal advice, and if the client instructs, it is their lawyer’s obligation to help enforce their claim,” the spokesman said.

“Lawyers are able to help navigate the complex rules and processes surrounding claims.”

The spokesman suggested there were special circumstances in which it might become necessary for some clients to engage a lawyer.

“In cases of total and permanent disablement, lawyers will often be involved where the member requires urgent treatment, in which case it is entirely appropriate for ‘pressure’ to be applied to obtain a speedy resolution of the claim,” he said.

In response to claims that lawyers were collecting up to 35 per cent of a successful claimant’s payout and charging as much as $3500 for just filling in claim forms, the spokesman said ASFA had not provided more information to support the allegations.

“If there is a circumstance where a legal practitioner has been found guilty of conduct that would give rise to a complaint of unsatisfactory professional conduct, such as overcharging, this should be referred to the Legal Services Commissioner,” the spokesman said.

“We have invited ASFA to provide specific information in relation to such claims, however this has so far not been forthcoming.”

Premiums on the rise

ASFA’s attempt to influence the behaviour of compensation lawyers comes after members of industry funds copped big increases in insurance premiums in the last year.

Two of the country’s biggest funds – Cbus and Australian Super – hiked death and disability premiums by more than 80 per cent in 2014.

Earlier this year two other big funds – MTAA Super and HESTA – announced premium hikes of 110 per cent and 35 per cent respectively.

Superannuation consultants told The New Daily last week that the increased involvement of lawyers in the insurance claims process had been a major driver of recent premium increases.

The peak body for Australian surgeons is asking medical staff to share their experiences of bullying to so it can build up a better picture of the extent of the problem in the profession.

The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons has sent out a survey on bullying to all college fellows, trainees and graduates, while a hotline has also been set up for staff to anonymously detail any experiences of discrimination or harassment. 

An independent research company is carrying out the survey, which the chair of the College's expert advisory group on bullying Rob Knowles said would enable staff who have been bullied to share their experiences without fear of retribution.

"The more accurate picture we can get, the more definite assistance we can offer the College in how they might tackle it," he said.

Neurosurgeon Caroline Tan, who has spoken of how her career was compromised after reporting a sexual assault she suffered from a colleague, welcomed the move as an important part of the effort to tackle bullying.

It comes as Monash Health continues to investigate senior neurosurgeon Helen Maroulis for allegedly bullying staff.

The Age understands the investigation will include interviews with former trainee surgeon Imogen Ibbett after she went public with allegations of bullying against Dr Maroulis on ABC's Four Corners program.

Dr Ibbett also claimed Monash Health did not want to hear about her experience of bullying when she contacted them to discuss it after she left the hospital.

Written by Craig Butt, Health Reporter With Julia Medew on Canberra Times