We were fortunate to be able to recognise two of TEFMA’s latest Business Partners; Roof & Building Service who specialise in providing water penetration solutions who sponsored the Forum satchels as well as the daytime catering, and Operational Intelligence for sponsoring the Business Partners networking session following the Forum.
The Forum was well attended with 39 delegates including; members, Business Partners and speakers. Some members travelled great distances to attend the Forum including; Corrie Cook, Peter Fehl, Dean Macaulay and Chris Stevens from NZ, Vito Forte and Trevor Humphreys from WA and a special mention goes to William McGuinness from Charles Darwin University in the NT.
The theme of this year’s Directors' Forum was fitting, ‘30 Fabulous Years – Planning for the Next Generation’. This tied in at a time where we celebrate TEFMA’s 30th anniversary.
Since the AGM went on-line the Directors' Forum has become the only opportunity the Board have to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing the sector and TEFMA directly with our key stakeholder group. With that in mind the Forum programme was developed to assist the Board to facilitate a conversation with its members to help establish the strategic direction for TEFMA well into the future.
Our new strategy highlights the need to seek out meaningful strategic partnerships that can help shape and sustain TEFMA’s future. The first speakers reflected that objective, with Chris Whelan from Universities NZ and Mike Teece from Universities Australia, providing us with an insight into how TEFMA can have a more prominent role in supporting our VC’s and DVC’s Corporate in their interaction with Government around property and asset related issues.
Vicki Williams, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Finance & Infrastructure at the University of Canberra spoke to the topic of ‘The Educated Life’. We then heard from Nick Alsop on the Green Building Council of Australia’s agenda to enhance its model and tools to advance sustainability outcomes in the Tertiary Education Sector.
In line with TEFMA’s desire to improve our benchmarking capabilities, Ben Eastment from VOICE Projects delivered a presentation on why understanding our client’s satisfaction with our services is so critical to TEFMA and the sector. Wayne Millar highlighted the potential for TEFMA to broker a consolidated approach for members to facilitate a Client Satisfaction survey.
Outcome: The Board will circulate a paper to members to determine the level of Member interest in pursuing this matter further.
Peter Fehl from the University of Auckland spoke to the construction and operational restraints that have been facing the New Zealand sector for several years.
It what is a significant occasion for TEFMA, we welcomed Steve Taylor from GJK who, with Glenn Mowbray, announced that GJK were entering into an exciting new agreement to become TEFMA’s Premier Education Programme sponsor for the next two years. Along with support for TEFMA’s professional development programs the agreement provides for the launch of a regional events program to bring together members and business partners in a new series of focus sessions based around the needs of our regional members. TEFMA is very excited to see where this long-term partnership will take us and we thank Steve for his leadership in bringing this opportunity to the table, and Glenn for his unwavering commitment to TEFMA.
To help establish our new strategic priorities the Members participated in an on-line survey to ensure their view was included in TEFMA’s future strategic focus areas. The following graph provides a summary of the results that reflects the Members view on the order of priority the Board should follow in relation to the identified strategic focus areas.