Developments and staff changes at Social Traders
Developments and staff changes at Social Traders
Social Traders has been a hive of activity over the past year and a range of initiatives are coming to first-stage completion:
• Investment decisions from The Crunch initiative will be announced shortly following an intensive capacity building phase over the last six months. A second round of The Crunch is planned for Victoria in 2011-12 that will draw on experience and feedback from the 2010 pilot.
• TheSocial Enterprise Builder, an online business planning resource and guide designed specifically for social enterprise will be launched on Social Traders website later this month
• The Social Enterprise Finder, an online social enterprise directory, supporting networking, buying and selling will be available next month.
Social Traders is expecting to hear soon the result of our proposal to the Federal Government to lead in the delivery of $1million in social enterprise development support to Government funded social enterprises. Other activities and initiatives continue, such as promoting social procurement, the Build Social Enterprise Trading Turnover (BSETT) project, social enterprise tours, our learning and development program and monthly e-bulletin.
A growing number of e-Bulletin subscribers, visitors to our website, and the calls we take each week is demonstrating how much our information and development support services are needed and valued. The Social Traders Board and management team are highly focused on configuring resources and opportunities to meet growing demand and to plan for Social Traders’ next phase.
Just as demand for our services builds, we are sad to see two members of the team moving on to take up exciting new challenges.
May Lam, who has led Social Traders’ policy, research and strategy work, has accepted a position as Deputy CEO at Jobs Australia (JA). This is a great opportunity for May to return to an organisation she left seven years ago to work overseas. As part of her new role May will manage policy development on employment and participation services in Australia, an area very close to her professional experience and expertise. With Social Traders’ and JA’s interests and activities very similar in many ways, we look forward to strengthening collaboration between our two organisations.
Nina Howard has been our Social Enterprise Navigator, providing valuable assistance and information support and building networks of social enterprises. Nina is leaving to accompany her partner on an international development posting. This is not surprising given Nina’s abiding commitment to supporting social enterprise development in Cambodia, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea and India over 10 years.
May and Nina have made valuable and important contributions to our organisation during its establishment phase. Both of them will be leaving us in May. We know they will continue to be friends of Social Traders and wish them every success.
David Brookes
Managing Director
