All of a sudden, we find ourselves in Autumn. Where has this year gone already? I was heartened to meet with many of our members at the two Town Hall sessions ARTA ran during RT week, and to hear how you all are lifting our profiles within your workplaces – congratulations. We will be hosting more Town Halls in the future. Please see below for planned dates.
Celebrating RT week was an opportunity to share the valuable roles you all play with the people you enable, but also build awareness and clarity to our roles, which are very often misunderstood.
ARTA board continues to lobby as well for our members – Charlise and Daniella represented our members at the recent NACA (National Aged Care Alliance), being a voice for our professionals in aged care.
It was also a moment to share the impact of ARTA, its members and supporting Unions, role in enabling Recreational Officers in aged care to also receive the 15% pay increase. It is great to see this occurring, and now we see this as an opportunity to continue to discuss the value of more of our qualified members within aged care settings.
We have the launch of ARTA’s national conference in this newsletter, ‘Recreation: The Missing Piece’, which is on September 8th and 9th 2023, a call for papers will go out shortly, watch this space. We are always looking for members to assist our board members in this event, and others, so please as always reach out to the office if you are interested in helping.
During October, we also see our strengthening of global connections with the International Knowledge Exchange. This is an opportunity to learn from our colleagues around the globe, enhancing our knowledge – please watch this space for more details soon.
ARTA’s board continue to connect the voices of our members to many external and political spaces, and each as mentioned in the February newsletter holds a portfolio that would encompass communities of practice.
Again we encourage our members to express their interest in the support of the board members within the above portfolios – our board is only as good as the support and feedback from members.
ARTA’s board will have a trade table at the National Dementia and Recreation Conference on the 24th and 25th of May, in Melbourne, we hope to see you there.
As the year continues, so does the ongoing engagement nationally and internationally by the board for ARTA members. I wanted to again thank the board, the office and our EO and NEC for the tireless work that continues to be undertaken for ARTA’s members and we will have more news in April.
Stay safe and always contact ARTA through the office for feedback and ideas, we need you.
Until April,
Renée Smith
ARTA President