Queensland Water Directorate Celebrates Membership Record
Date: 29-Jun-2017
Many would be aware that the budgetary constraints which have impacted our members over the last few years have also placed increased pressure on qldwater as a membership body. In particular, we had a strong track record of attracting government grants to support both our direct work and the industry more broadly, and the rapid loss of these income sources from 2012 meant a significant effort to achieve savings and accelerate development of other secure income streams.
I like to think we have managed these issues successfully while continuing to meet members’ service expectations, and this has been affirmed this year by our best ever membership result:
- 2 of 2 Torres Island council Service Providers,
- 15 of 15 Aboriginal council Service Providers,
- 51 of 51 (non-indigenous) council Service Providers,
- 1 of 1 council owned Water Corporations,
- 2 of 2 council owned statutory authorities in SEQ,
- 1 of 2 state government owned Statutory Authorities (Water Boards),
- Gold Affiliate Member – Trility Pty Ltd
or a total of 72 members involved in the urban water industry.
In addition, I am pleased to announce continued major sponsorships for 2016 from Dial Before You Dig (Water Connections Tour) and Ixom (Taste Test).
Our Water Skills Partnership membership has grown to 40 subscribers and we now have over 20 subscribers to the full version of SWIMLocal with a number of others considering the product. Our events are continuing to operate at cost recovery, providing low-cost professional development and networking opportunities to members, in part thanks to the support of several other regular sponsors. We continue to work closely with our parent bodies to support their events and activities, particularly IPWEAQ, LGAQ and AWA.
I’d like to make one last plug for the Innovation event on 4/5 November, but you’ll have to be quick. There are still a couple of LGAQ scholarship opportunities available to support attendance from representatives from small councils, which we match with free registrations. Unitywater has put a major effort into the tour, and there is an excellent program of presentations and discussions developed by our Technical Reference Group. It’s also the last chance to be part of a state-wide taste test grand final, in its current format. Special thanks to SPEL for its generous principal sponsorship, along with supporting sponsors Lonza Water Treatment Technologies, Royce Water Technologies, and Water Research Australia, and I look forward to seeing you there.
Once again, thank you to our members and supporters for the result this year, and to the qldwater staff and representatives of our reference groups for their significant commitment to member service. We should all be proud of the level of collaboration and information exchange we are able to achieve.
Dave Cameron
CEO
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