2023 AGM President's Report

DRAFT
DOCUMENT

2022 continued to be impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and while mask wearing restrictions were relaxed, most of the Executive, including myself, caught it during the year.  Subsequently the running of our Association during the year was again effected.

Our last AGM was once more a meeting held online.  As our number of actual members remains low, we were still quorate and managed to form a small Executive.  Despite easing restrictions Covid was felt even more by schools and the community in general and as a result, SAAME had another quiet year.

Like last year we relied on email, the monthly radio program and our Facebook page for communicating with members.  Fewer face-to-face Executive meetings occurred as the amount of business we had to deal with dwindled.

Our professional development activity regarding our established focus on UNESCO's Global Media & Information Literacy Week held in October was not run partly due to the poor responses we had in previous years.  However we did promote the week in main stream media by having a letter published in the Advertiser which is possibly a first for Australia.

SAAME was invited to contribute to the Education Department's Creative Industries SACE feedback. I attended face-to-face and an online meeting.  It seems the Department is resurrecting the VET course of the 1990s.  However no curriculum drafts were presented and the process was not very organised.

The aging SACE Media Studies Subject Outline continues as another focus for us.  While we submitted some suggestions to the new SACE Faculty Team for consideration, the restructuring and reallocation of staff meant that any changes have again been delayed.

Educators SA (CEASA) held their annual Teachers Day event and for the first time in many years we did not attend.

Despite a quiet year, SAAME:

1. Maintained our Facebook group, MEET (Media Educators Engaging Together) and its membership has increased by to 179.  This site is a very useful resource for Media teachers.
2. Continued to broadcast Media Moves each month on 5PBA-FM with sponsorship from Valley View Secondary School and was still able to give away free movie passes thanks to Steven Watt from Picture This!

SAAME still needs to exame the type of Association we are evolving into, one that offers one-to-one support, resources and one that lobbies for the more explicit inclusion of Media & Information Literacy programs in our curricula.  Teaching Professional Development seems no longer to be the remit of Associations but the aims of SAAME make it not just a subject Association and we are still as relevant today as when we formed in 1983.  MIL is more than film making!

Once again Tim ably filled the role of Secretary and maintained our website which included uploading audio files of each Media Moves program.  I thank him for his efforts.

Thank you to the Executive members of the outgoing committee for helping once again maintain the Association during this unprecedented time.