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In February, we launched the AGDA Victoria Strategic Framework Making a Visible Difference. Developed by Brett Phillips and Alec Law, the Strategic Framework set out 6 key areas by which we could communicate to our members, they are: 1. Community 2. Ethics 3. Advocacy 4. Education 5. Excellence and 6. Visibility. We outlined an ambitious number of initiatives, activities and events for 2006/07 under each of these areas and on behalf of the Victorian Council I am pleased to report that some fabulous work has been initiated and completed, but like most things, the more you scratch the surface, the more you find can be done. However, here is what has been done in the last 12 months:

Community - Initiatives

AGDA Partnerships

AGIdeas:

For the first time in the 16 year history of this internationally acclaimed conference, AGDA provided George Hardie as a speaker at the event through its International Speaker Tour and has committed its continued support in 2007.

Victorian Government & lab3000 State of Design Festival:

AGDA was a Professional Design Association Partner for the 2006 State of Design Festival and provided content for the festival through the Perils and Pleasures of Publishing Forum. In addition, Michaela Webb judged the communication design category of the Premier's Design Awards and on behalf of AGDA, I was asked to judge the Premier's Design Leadership Award which was jointly won by Ken Cato for his commitment to design education through AGIdeas.

National Design Centre:

AGDA continued its support of the Melbourne Design Festival through the provision of content to wide appeal, Back2Basics, 48 and Designer Speed Dating.

ACMI:

AGDA Victoria through Domenico Bartolo is in discussion with ACMI to develop a moving image event and position itself as the premier design association for broadcast designers in Australia.

RMIT:

AGDA further developed its relationship with RMIT through the support of the Character 3 Forum and through the use of Casey Plaza as the venue for a number of AGDA events in 2006.

AGDA Online

AGDA 2006 Feedback Survey:

Our first initiative to make AGDA a professional body that is directly relevant to its members and more broadly representative of the Australian graphic design community as a whole. With 463 responses, 70% being AGDA members, 39% of the total responses were from Victoria. The mains reasons people saw for joining AGDA were, support for the community, professional development in design, networking, events and professional development in business.

AGDA Victoria Electronic Newsletter:

As a commitment by Council to have a wider reaching voice, we have developed an electronic newsletter as an environmentally and cost effective communication tool to make members and non-members aware of a range of AGDA and broader design community activities. We currently have 951 people on our mailing list with an active response of around 55%, which is well above the industry standards of 30%.

Community - Events

AGDA Victoria 2006 Programme Launch:

An opportunity for Council to communicate the 2006 Programme and meet face to face with members and non-members and discuss the future direction of the industry. Over 250 people attended the event.

AGDA Beer o'clock:

Although only one was held in 2006, in 2007 we are looking to engage a different studio each month to host a Beer o'clock at their local watering hole.

AGDA AGIdeas Drinks with George Hardie sponsored by Red Connect:

An opportunity to talk face to face with George Hardie, along with other AGIdeas international speakers Leonardo Sonnoli and Jonathan Ellery.

AGDA National Awards in Canberra:

AGDA ACT has secured the Great Hall at Parliament House for the 2006 National Awards ceremony in 3 weeks time. I encourage all members to attend regardless of whether work was entered of not, it is an opportunity to meet a wonderful group of like-minded people from across the country and share ideas.

2007 AGDA National Conference:

Joint planning by National and the Queensland Chapter is also underway for the 2007 AGDA National Conference next August.

Daylesford Designer Weekend in 2007:

Planning for the rebirth of Storm Design's successful Designer Weekends is underway.

Ethics - Initiatives

AGDA Green:

An online registry of environmentally focussed suppliers and resources to the design industry is being developed by AGDA National and is hoped to be launched in 2007.

AGDA Anti Free Pitching:

An issue that haunts the industry and it is not going away. At a National level we are looking spend devoted time in addressing the issue from both a designer and client perspective. In Tasmania, AGDA has been able to get government sector to agree to stamp out free pitching for their work. In 2007, we here in Victoria are aiming to do the same.

Ethics - Events

AGDA Christmas Drinks:

AGDA Victoria is aligning with a registered charity to provide gifts for the homeless. Entry to the Christmas drinks will be via gift or donation to the named charity. Information regarding this event will be distributed in the coming weeks.

Advocacy - Initiatives

AGDA Superannuation:

Both Brett Phillips and myself have been championing the development of alternate revenue streams other than membership and sponsorship at AGDA National level. We are part way into developing alternate AGDA Superannuation Fund models that can be managed by a third party provider. The aim is to provide members with a superannuation product that provides low fees and good flexibility of investments while also providing AGDA with a small agents commission, the benefits of which would be realized long term on an ongoing basis. The potential is to develop additional financial and insurance offerings for members down the track.

AGDA National Organizational Structure:

AGDA National Council through its designated Governance Working Party is looking at the feasibility of physical office space and full time Executive and support staff.

AGDA Constitution:

A new constitution has been drafted and members will be asked to vote on the changes in the coming months. One major step forward for the organization has been to approve parity voting, which means one vote for each State representative at National Council. AGDA is a national organization and the responsibility of each National Councillor is to preside and address national, rather than state-centric design agendas and issues.

AGDA Advisors:

During the end of 2005 and 2006 AGDA Victoria Councillors were responsible for the following advisory roles:

• Homesglen Tafe Graduate Certificate in Graphic Design Curriculum Steering Committee
• Gordon Institute Degree Program Review
• National Design Archive Advisory Group
• Monash University external review of the Bachelor of Design (Visual Communication) and the honours degree of the Bachelor of Visual Communication

Advocacy - Events

Designer Speed Dating:

A wonderful new event format, developed and run by Alex Tyers where 12 designers and 12 design seekers (yes real clients with real jobs) got 3 minutes each to meet, greet and let the sparks fly.

Contracts and other Legal Issues Seminar:

AGDA supported Choy Lawyer's seminar on all things legal, although a disappointing turn out, Trevor Choy has agreed to run a similar seminar early next year, due to the positive feedback from those who attended and from the feedback to an article posted on this website You get what you pay for by Andrew Lam-Po-Tang.

Education - Initiatives

AGDA Victoria Student Council:

In 2006 we re-establish the AGDA Victoria Student Council, the student council is made up of 20 students from 11 institutions with one of the student members reporting to the state council. As a result of this initiative, the student membership in Victoria has increased by a staggering 28%. I believe that the future of AGDA starts at this level as we need to encourage designers from an early stage encourage students to play an active part in this dynamic community. Dianna Wells needs special congratulations for the work she has put into getting the Student Council up and running as do the students who have made a commitment to making AGDA a more relevant organization for them, they are:

• Michael McKenzie - Swinburne University
• Frits Bovill - Swinburne University
• Ben Jennings - Swinburne University
• Jonathon Doncovic - Monash University
• Natalie Schade - Monash University
• Sarah Jenkins - Monash University
• Su-An Len - RMIT Communication Design
• Heide Currington - RMIT Communication Design
• Michael Burman - RMIT Communication Design
• Natalie Pereira - Victoria University
• Beau Ryan - Victoria University
• Clayton White - Victoria University
• Ross Dickson - Ballarat University
• Joanne Nave - Gordon Institute of TAFE
• Stefanie Kunovic - Gordon Institute of TAFE
• Steph Stephenson - Holmsglen TAFE
• Nadia Tinker - Holmsglen TAFE
• Belinda Taubman - Chisholm Institute
• Scott Triffle - Chisholm Institute
• Josh Eades - Ballarat TAFE
• Jools Thatcher - Australian Academy of Design
• Simon Young - RMIT TAFE
• Clare Sheldon-Williams - RMIT TAFE

A number of these students have actively helped as support staff at a number of our events and we thank them for there assistance in doing so. Also thanks to Aquent for providing meeting facilities for the Student Council.

AGDA Inform:

Presentations on AGDA by council members were given at the following institutions, Monash University, Swinburne University, Australian Academy of Design, Holmsglen Institute, Chisholm Institute and RMIT University.

AGDA Student Awards for Most Professional Student:

Student awards were given out at the following education institutions: RMIT University, LaTrobe University, Gordon Institute, Brighton Bay Art Design & Photography Program, Monash University, Chisholm Institute and Holmsglen Institute.

AGDA Student Mentor Programme:

In 2007 we are planning to launch a creative mentoring programme. A draft outline of the program is in development and we will be looking for educational institutions to support and help implement the program.

Education - Events

First Five Out:

A Student Council event with the enormous assistance of Dianna Wells, which looks at the sometimes difficult transition period from student to professional.

Back 2 Basics:

The renamed Refresh, again was an enormous success this year thanks to Fiona Sweet and her sub-committee of Liz Grant, Helen Watts, Caitlin Zeigler, Nancy Bugeja and Alex Tyers. It gave members the opportunity to participate in a number of workshops from printmaking to typography.

AGDA Awards Workshop:

The workshop gave a valuable insight into the process of judging, presentation of work and which categories to actually enter a job into.

Excellence - Initiatives

AGDA National Biennial Awards 2006:

A record number of award entries were received this year, well over 2000 and for the first time a student awards category was included. The awards ceremony is on Saturday 28 October in Canberra hosted again by Shaun Micallef who has made the AGDA's his own. We also thank Rita Siow for securing WACOM as a new and premium sponsor of the awards.

AGDA Commissions:

In 2006 AGDA commissioned George Hardie and David Lancashire to design a limited edition of 100 A1 posters commemorating George's 2006 Tour. Screen printing was sponsored by Superscreen and paper by Red Connect. Posters will be used as revenue raisers for AGDA.

Excellence - Events

George Hardie International Speaker Tour:

With an audience of over 2000 people George Hardie touched us all with his ability to make pictures tell stories. In addition to George Hardie, attendees also had the opportunity to hear Leonardo Sonnoli and Irma Boom all for the one ticket price.

48:

The brainchild of Andrew Ashton and with the assistance of Michaela Webb, this dynamic new presentation format which gives speakers 6 minutes to communicate a single idea was a revelation this year. The first event attracted over 200 students and professions to brave the conditions on wet July evening. Designers on the whole are not comfortable talking about design in front of a larger audience, 48 aims to provide this opportunity and experience to a large number of designers. Look forward to more 48's in 2007.

Pleasures and Perils of Self Publishing:

A reworking of a successful forum in Sydney earlier in the year saw Kevin Finn, Kate Bezar, Andrew and Mark Moffitt from Sydney joined by Jeremy Wortzman of Is Not fame. Programmed for the State of Design Festival, its appeal was wide and varied, even attracting general public. Many thanks to Michaela Webb for an enormous effort in bringing this event together.

Basel in the Barossa:

After presenting at the 2005 Noosa National Conference, Rita Siow has convinced Wolfgang Weingart into bringing his famous Basel Workshop to the Barossa Valley, dates are still to be finalized so watch this space as only a small number of places will be available.

Bob Gill Talk:

Saatchi Design have organized the legendary Bob Gill of Fletcher/Forbes/ Gill fame to speak in Melbourne on Wednesday 8 and Thursday 9 November 2006. AGDA Victoria through its partnership with RMIT have helped secure the venue, negotiate member discounts and promote this rare opportunity. Tickets are selling fast as Bob has broad appeal to the advertising industry, don't miss out.

Visibility - Initiatives

Now is New poster exhibition:

To coincide with the launch of the 2006 Program, Domenico Bartolo coordinated 25 designers to create a series of A0 posters for the evening.

AGDA Website:

Long overdue, the AGDA website is preparing to have a complete overhaul under the direction of National President Simon Pemberton. Andrew Lam-Po-Tang and Robert Black have a new content management system in place, while the front end is in development and due to be launched in 2007.

AGDA Online Store:

AGDA National is looking into the feasibility of an online store proposal put forward by Brett Phillips. This would provide the opportunity to offer everything from AGDA Awards Compendiums, magazine subscriptions, ticketing for AGDA events and online memberships renewal.

Visibility - Events

AGDA Moving Image:

AGDA Victoria through Domenico Bartolo is in discussion with ACMI to develop a moving image event and position itself as the premier design association for broadcast designers in Australia.

I think you will agree that this is an extensive list of initiatives and activities developed in a short period of time. None of it would have happened without the dedicated support from a wonderful group of people who are the AGDA Victorian Council. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Michaela Webb, Andrew Ashton, Brett Phillips, Dianna Wells, Alex Tyers, Fiona Sweet, Dom Bartolo, Alec Law and Andrew Lam-Po-Tang for their ideas, commitment and hard work.

To Alex, Alec, Fiona who are standing down from council I hope that I will have the opportunity to work with you again in the future. To Andrew Lam-Po-Tang who is stepping back from his involvement with AGDA both at a state level as Councillor tonight and at National level as Website Editor at the end of the year we thank you for the systems and protocols you established as AGDA's first General Manager, for being the driving force behind the AGDA website and we are indebted to you and what you have done for the organization and wish you every success in the future.

I would like to thank Robyn Brazier for assisting with the Secretariat role, Stephanie Brady and Annie Bunting from Ease Productions and Lisa Murray from Round for assistance with administration and event bookings.

To our range of supporters who have assisted us in 2006, Emperors Mind, Red Connect, Finsbury Green Printing, Spicers Paper and Paperpoint, K.W.Doggett Fine Paper, RA Printing, Aquent, Superscreen and Taylor'd Press, we thank you also.

For the record, membership for AGDA Victoria in the last 12 months has risen 8% from 694 members to 748 with the main increase being student membership which is up 28%, a result of a dedicated focus in 2006.

Moving forward, we need to build on the work that we have started and are looking for your support to continue to find new ways to make AGDA more relevant to you and the industry.

Thank you.
David Pidgeon
AGDA Victoria President, 2005/06