QJA NEWS

AGM: VENUE CHANGE

The previous edition of the QJA Quarterly included information about this year’s annual general meeting which will take place at 12 noon on Saturday 6 November. That information indicated the venue for the physical meeting was to be the QJA Office at Wilkie Street, Yeerongpilly.

Please note the date and time are unchanged but the venue will now be the Pullman King George Square Brisbane. A revised Notice of Meeting and Proxy Form is an insert to this magazine.

Like last year, physical attendance numbers at the AGM will be governed by prevailing COVID protocols. For those unable to attend in person, videoconferencing arrangements will be in place. If you would like to attend the AGM (either in person or via videoconference) please register your intent as indicated on the Notice of Meeting, included with this magazine.

MEMBER ACCREDITATION PROGRAM

Launched on 15 May this year, the QJA Member Accreditation Program is now well and truly established. At the time of the launch, there were eleven (11) QJA members who were awarded QJA Accredited status – five who had successfully negotiated the accreditation assessment modules during the pre-launch test phase, and six who were intimately involved in the development and design of the overall program and granted honorary accreditation status. Since that time, many more QJA members have submitted applications to join the program and a significant proportion of those have progressed into the assessment phase.

Several of the inaugural graduates are in the process of being inducted to join accreditation assessment panel and they will soon be involved in marking the assessment attempts of applicants.

In the meantime, there have been some unfortunate delays in marking the assessment attempts of applicants. We apologise for the delays and thank the applicants for their patience. The backlog will soon be cleared and we will welcome many more QJA members to the QJA Accredited ranks.

All QJA members are urged to consider whether they wish to test themselves in the QJA Accreditation Program. To read the program outline and to nominate, follow this: accreditation link

More information: Find out more about the QJA Accreditation Program here:

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

Thank you to all those QJA members who responded to our recent call for volunteers by expressing an interest in applying their relevant expertise to assist QJA with a range of QJA operational programs and development projects. We now have a record of the names of interested parties and a brief synopsis of their relevant experience and expertise.

Over the coming weeks and months, the QJA Board (both current and incoming) and staff will give consideration to the ways in which these expressions of interest can be harnessed for the overall benefit of QJA.

This is an exciting new development which will provide an opportunity for a much larger pool of QJA members to make significant contributions to the ongoing development and improvement of the organisation.

NEW SOFTWARE AND WEBSITE

The new and improved Association Management Software (AMS), mention in the previous edition of QJA Quarterly, has now been implemented, including the release of a related new QJA website.

As a result of the transition from the previous to the new system, members wishing to log into the Member Portal of the QJA website will need to use their email address (in lieu of the previous membership number protocol) and set a new password. We thank members for their patience and assistance in this transition.

Later in the year, our existing Learning Management Software (Moodle) will be replaced by a more functional and user-friendly product called TopClass. More information about this change will be provided closer to the changeover date.

GYMPIE BRANCH STALWART: DAPHNE HORNE- END OF AN ERA

We wanted to recognize Daphne for her long commitment to providing JP services to the Gympie community. Also to recognize her long term commitment to the Gympie Branch of QJA. For many years she has filled the roles of president and secretary and generally kept the branch functioning. She has attended many QJA conferences to maintain her knowledge of the ever changing role and responsibilities of a JP.

Changing from “old” simple JP to JP Qualified in 1996 while others of her ilk would have chosen to stay with the old, Daphne quickly updated her skills and responsibilities as the new regulations came into effect. She has always been the go to person for all things JP in Gympie

In June 2006 Daphne and a few others started a JP signing site at Gympie’s only shopping Centre at the time. A few months later this progressed to the Gympie Court House and increased to 6 hours each week day. Daphne continued to serve very regularly on the roster, and filling in for everyone else until 2020 when, as we know COVID restrictions took hold and her medical advise was to stay away from strangers !!

This withdrawal weighed heavily on Daphne, leaving a large gap in her weekly routine.She had volunteered her time to serve the community at several signing sites for over 15 years and many years before that from her home.She was committed to JP police work, issuing many search warrants, and attended searches as an observer. This must have been very stressful at times.

Of course this is as well as all the other community volunteer work she did including Meals on Wheels, possible longer than she has done JP stuff. Last year Daphne celebrated her 91st birthday. This year she has suffered some significant health issues which has led, with regret, to her having to give up the role of secretary of the Gympie QJA Branch. Hopefully she will remain an active member for a long time yet.

A celebration of Daphne’s service was held recently with colleagues remembering some of the amusing stories around her long J P journey.

On behalf of the QJA Branch and the Gympie community thank you, thank you, thank you for all you service, wisdom and experience.

Betty Smith Branch Secretary