A NEW BEGINNING

Dear Colleagues, Members and friends,

We have a high respect for all involved, past and present and the achievements gained through personal hard work put in over many years into ATA and State societies.

A workshop was held in Queensland over the weekend of the 3,4,5 Feb. 2006 with interested parties to evaluate the needs of a national organisation and brainstorm ideas for a new fresh simplified structure that includes all blood transfusion dependant people. This allows for the necessary focus to be given on conditions that have similar needs but have often been neglecte because they are less common. It also allows a broader reach and the opportunity to appeal to a larger audience.

We found this weekend to be an extremely positive, fun and productive time. We are now in the very first stages of planning an exciting proactive future for a National body laying the groundwork with strong and healthy foundations.

In the past, many discussions have been held in regards to achieving goals that have been tabled but, never actioned upon due to limitations within the current constitutional structure and limited funding, not to mention the tireless amount of time and energy invested by volunteers, that has always been appreciated.

The most recent discussion was held at the ATA AGM in Sydney 2005 where Isabella & Giovanna presented a proposed change to the ATA constitutional structure. The proposal was based on the needs assessment conducted in August 2005 of which all states were represented. The outcome of discussions held at the AGM was in our opinion disappointing but obviously required to initiate a new beginning outside the current structure. In our opinion, we now realise that trying to change the current structure would be extremely time consuming and costly as opposed to a fresh start.

We felt the only means of realising many of our goals in the near term would be to plan, workshop and plan some more before embarking on the development of a fun, simplified organisation to work in unity and partnership with entities that share our goals and vision.

We invite you and ATA, state societies, etc. to join us in realising this endeavour.

We value your individual response and ask that you forward your feedback in regards to this new development. We look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

We plan to move ahead to build a robust, exciting organisation and hope that you will join us. We have established this small steering committee to keep the development of a vibrant national body on track. Don’t hesitate to contact any one of us to discuss further.

warmly,

Isabella Agius

Bill Christo

Giovanna Inserra

Josie Stockden