President’s Report to LDA AGM

Saturday 23 August 2008

Kelvin Grove Campus, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane


Ruth Fielding-Barnsley, President of LDA

Welcome to members of LDA and members of LDA Council, and especially our new members of Council who have travelled to Brisbane to attend our Council meeting and AGM.

In presenting this report to the AGM I would like to thank all members of Council for their support during my term of office as President. Also special thanks to our wonderful administrator, Kerrie McMahon.

LDA has had a productive year with several initiatives including the launch of our renamed Journal, the Australian Journal of Learning Difficulties, now published by renowned international publisher Taylor and Francis. Thanks to Professor Kevin Wheldall and Dr Alison Madelaine for their contributions in bringing about this change.

Our DVD Supporting Students with Learning Difficulties has also been successful and a copy has been sent to Sir Jim Rose to assist him in his review of provisions for people diagnosed with dyslexia in the UK. Thanks to Molly for the initiative of advertising the DVD on the DDOL network website.

Our membership has remained stable over the year at just over 500 members, including individual members, consultant members and group members. We are aiming to expand our membership in other states and to extend our program of seminars and workshops. This year our AGM and Seminar is being offered here in Brisbane for the first time, so thank you all for your support.

Our consultants and referral service continues to grow in Victoria, but due to declining support LDA has regretfully decided to discontinue the Queensland Referral Service. Our website continues to attract visitors, and we have opened a new discussion forum. Thanks to Jan Heffernan who has worked tirelessly on developing and maintaining the website.

Next year we will again be participating in the Joint Brisbane Conference organised in conjunction with SPELD (QLD) and RSTAQ. It will be held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on the 25th and the 26th September, 2009. This conference was very successful in 2007 and the planning committee, including Dr Gary Woolley and Dr Louise Mercer, are working hard to make next year’s conference even more successful. Already they have secured two excellent international speakers, Professors Maggie Snowling and Charles Hulme, to present the keynote addresses. I was lucky enough to attend the British Dyslexia Conference this year and to hear these two speakers present their research. I am sure they will be a big draw card for our combined conference next year.

I was also able to hear Sir Jim Rose present an overview of The Rose Review in the UK. LDA has extended an invitation to Sir Jim Rose to present the findings of the Rose Review in Australia next year and we have been extremely lucky in gaining an acceptance to our invitation from Sir Jim. We have planned his trip to coincide with the combined conference in Brisbane next year and he will also be presenting in other capital cities during his visit.

Our LDA Award winners this year were Professor Kevin Wheldall, who received the Mona Tobias Award, and Rossbourne School, who received the Bruce Wicking Award. Our Tertiary Student Award winner was Anne Bellert, from the Catholic Education Office in Lismore. We will be making the Award presentation to Anne immediately following the AGM. Arrangements will be made for the presentations of the Mona Tobias Award and the Bruce Wicking Award later in the year. I would like to take this opportunity of congratulating all our Award winners for 2008.

Our new LDA Council for 2008/2009 will see a number of changes. Kevin Wheldall, who was President of Council from 2006 to 2007, and also our Executive Editor of Publications and Editor of the Journal from 2005, is this year retiring from Council. I thank Kevin for all the work he has done for LDA, particularly in terms of leading LDA through a difficult period and raising the status and profile of our publications. Rosemary Carter, Convenor of our Consultants Committee, will also be retiring, after serving on Council for more than 16 years, and acting as Convenor of the Consultants Committee for ten years. Hugh McCusker, our Treasurer, will be retiring after serving two years on Council, and Jan Heffernan, after four years on Council. Jan also acted as the Queensland Referral Officer from 2002, and as website editor from 2006. Norina Buchanan, a Victorian consultant, is also retiring from Council. Norina has been active in Victorian zone meetings, and has also assisted with the organisation and planning of the Victorian Consultants professional development program, as well as the LDA 2006 Conference. I thank all these members of Council for their contribution to Council over the years.

We now welcome five new members to Council. I am particularly pleased to welcome Associate Professor Lyndsey Nickels, from the Macquarie University Centre of Cognitive Studies, as President-elect, and also Dr Pye Twaddell, previously Secretary of AUSPELD, Dr Louise Mercer, Dr Barbara Nielsen and Joan Cooper, who will be taking on the role of Convenor of the Consultants Committee. Craig Wright will be our new Treasurer, and of course Max Coltheart will take over as President.

I wish Max Coltheart and his team on Council all the best for the coming year.


To see a full listing of LDA Council Members for 2008/2009, please click here