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QJA AWARDS
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LIFE MEMBER: KEITH REVELL
From 26 October 2019, Keith retired as QJA Director after 10 years of continuous Board membership including two terms as President. The QJA owes much to Keith, who has continued the initiative of raising the QJA to pre-eminent body to lead and advocate for the membership. Through Keith’s efforts the QJA has also become a leader amongst our peer associations nationally. The 10 years served, fail to adequately demonstrate the great impact and influence Keith has made to the QJA.
In addition to the 5 terms he spent as a Board Director, Keith was also the resident IT consultant and was personally responsible for the substantial improvements in the QJA’s Information Technology functionality and capabilities, including in his last year the development of the very successful e-Logbook system.
Keith Revell, receiving his LIfe Member award
As QJA moved into the arena of a Registered Training Organisation, Keith took on the responsibility of finding a software platform to support the students and trainers. After selecting Moodle as this platform he proceeded to train and support internal staff on its use. He often flagged potential problems within our digital records management system before the issue impacted the business and actively searched out cost effective solutions.
Support for MYOB and QJA document management was also provided with many “out of hours” visits to the office to resolve hardware and software issues.
Keith through his leadership, established continuous professional development as one of the QJA’s core values and an integral part of the QJA business. To back this he established, assembled and maintained the comprehensive portfolio of Member and Branch Professional Development resources and made them available on the QJA website.
From a Board perspective, Keith was instrumental in the use of Office 365 and, more importantly SharePoint, so that all the Board documentation as well as the entire documentation for the QJA was stored in a secure and accessible repository.
Interaction with branches, members and potential members was made easy through a refreshed and easy to use website.
Video conferencing became the norm for Board meetings under Keith’s guidance. Today, all Directors meet from the comfort of their own home for Board meetings. This allowed both Directors and the Business Manager to reduce travel and meeting costs.
Keith also filled the substantive role of Journal Editor for 4 years from 2009 and was responsible for the Journal being available online to the members. Again, upgrading the journal look and reducing printing and postage costs while delivering a superior product to the members.
Keith was a founding member of the QJA Logan Branch and immediately put his hand up to serve on the committee of the new branch, only to find himself as chairman, serving in that capacity from 2008 to 2011, when he then assumed the role of Branch Secretary from 2011 to 2013. Under Keith’s leadership, Logan branch soon demonstrated best practice in professional development workshops.
A total dedication to duty, and often going above and beyond as a Board Director, Keith’s oversight of the IT functionality, the formation of a Finance & Audit Committee and the Registered Training Organisation Committee ensured our compliance with the regulatory bodies.
Along the way, Keith has also been a delegate for QJA attending the ACJA conference on numerous occasions, twice as President of QJA and twice as a representative delegate. 2016 saw QJA host the national conference thanks to Keith’s help.
Keith has been a mentor and source of inspiration and knowledge to many members of the Board and the QJA and continues to be held in great respect. It was because of this great respect, that the Board determined that he should have a roving brief to visit branches that were experiencing difficulties and needed advice and assistance. Even in his self-imposed retirement from service to the QJA Board, Keith continues to provide technical support for the eLogbook and other IT services as required.
At all times Keith has displayed leadership and has traits that are most desired in both our Board and members.
MEMBER OF THE YEAR: SARA GAULT
Sara is outstanding in her role as a JP, actively supporting her local branch of the QJA and the community. Becoming a JP (Qual) in September 1994, Sara exemplifies the principles of a JP in her office dealings and when she fulfilled the roles of Director, Treasurer and President during the 18 years she was a member of Zonta. Along with her current duties as branch secretary, Sara is the President of Business & Professional Women (BPW) North Lakes, continuing to pursue the values of equity and social justice, so integral to the role of a JP. Extending her role as JP, Sara also assists local police with afterhours warrants and other documents and fulfills the role of an independent observing witness at property search and seizures.
Sara Gault, an incredible asset to the QJA, is an outstanding member of Caboolture QJA Branch. She is the driving force behind the acceptance, promotion, and production of QJA Branch activities, events, professional development, and member engagement, always reinforcing the QJA’s mission to enablemembers to be highly competent and professional practitioners.
