Greetings from your new Society president.
On September 1, the term of the newly elected board began. A number of the existing board members have rotated to other board positions, and some of the committee members were elected as directors to the board. You can find the new board and their responsibilities on our web-site. Congratulations must go to Victoria Rati, CFA, for a rewarding term as president to the CFA Society of Sydney for the last two years. She achieved many significant successes during her term, so I have big shoes to fill! I am thankful that she remains as a director on the board for the next two years.
A big thank you goes to you for the valuable information you provided to us in the bi-annual member survey. This, combined with the outcomes from the board’s strategic off-site meeting, provides the critical elements to develop the strategic plan for the Society for the next two years.
But before we look forward, let’s review the Society activities of recent months.
- In June, you will have received our special edition newsletter, outlining our efforts and successes for celebrating CFA Day, increasing the profile among key journalists in the Sydney community. The Society is currently working on establishing an ongoing public relations program to continue the momentum we achieved from that event.
- We continue to offer a wide variety of educational content including workshops, seminars from both local and overseas speakers, and web-casts. Sourcing speakers from our members’ employers is an area that continues to expand, and we thank those sponsors for their contributions to education for our members.
- After relaunching the Society’s CFA Review Course in the first half of 2007, enrolments were higher than expected, so with this success, we decided to roll the course out for the Level I December 2007 exam. You can read more about our offerings to candidates in the rest of the newsletter.
- The last Employer Advisory Board meeting involved more detailed discussions on investment workshops, which is one of the Society’s key initiatives for the coming year.
- You may have noticed a number of positions available on the Society’s job-line. As more positions are advertised there, more people will be looking at the space - it gains its own momentum. If your firm is seeking to fill investment positions, the CFAS job-line could be the place to obtain exposure to highly qualified investment staff. For any enquiries, please contact our communications director, Michelle Wigglesworth, on communications@cfas.org.au.
Major initiatives for the Society in the coming months include:
- Increasing our educational program offering to more workshop style events
- Increasing our public relations effort
- Revisiting our careers services to members
We hope to have more to report on these initiatives for the next newsletter in 2008.
The CFAS annual dinner and award ceremony will be held on the 14th of November. In 2007, we are congratulating over 100 people in Sydney who passed the level III exam this year. This is a great opportunity to mingle with industry peers, and also to provide support and congratulations to new CFA charterholders, so I encourage you to attend.
Olivia Engel CFA
President
