Publication:Sea Talk Summer 2006/Defence Families of Australia
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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
To all our Navy families, on behalf of the national delegates and senior representatives, a very safe and merry Christmas. For those of you with loved ones away, we hope that your Christmas is a joyful one - you are in our thoughts.
Several of our own executive have partners currently on operations and will be away from home for Christmas too, so a special Christmas blessing to you and your families.
For those of you relocating on posting we wish you safe travelling and hope that your new posting location brings new adventures for you and your family. We also hope your move goes well and everything fits into the new house!
Cheers
Maureen Greet
National Convenor
Happy 20th anniversary DFA
DFA is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Below is some history on how we came about and how we work: we celebrated with a dinner at Duntroon House in July during our National Conference week.
In 1986, an interim national consultative group of service spouses (NCGSS) was convened by Defence to act as a representative advisory group to assist the department in the implementation of the Hamilton Report. The NCGSS was subsequently given a continuing role as an independent consultative group by the Minister for Defence, Science and Personnel (then Minister Ros Kelly) and the Chief of the Defence Force (CDF).
The NCGSS became the National Consultative Group of Service Families (NCGSF) after the October 1992 conference.
The name Defence Families of Australia was launched by the group's patron, Mrs Julia Anderson, in August 2002 with the aim of "providing a voice for Defence families by influencing policy".
For 20 years Defence Families Australia executive has represented equally our three services, all ranks, tenure and expertise of the ADF to the senior ADF executive.
By literally living and being the Defence community, we try to accurately represent you with our knowledgeable DFA national delegates (NDs) professionally disseminating information and feeding back their regions,' community-specific issues to a Commonwealth level.
DFA NDs communicate with their local senior representatives who volunteer from diverse ADF community roles such as president of a community centre management committee, FSFP Playgroup coordinator, and Editor of ADF community publications, often from remote and isolated localities. DFA SRs email and phone their NDs daily to discuss any regional focus areas. The ND, who is part of the DFA executive, communicates accordingly to our DFA National Convenor either with immediate personal cases or longer term proposals/concepts to assist families and facilitate policy feedback.
The DFA National Convenor facilitates a DFA executive committee of which all the national delegates and communications officers are ministerially appointed. We also have a family network coordinator and research assistant. A communication and consultation process to formulate solutions and strategies via the diverse, collective wisdom of ADF families takes place. With a positive proposal on how to create a solution the convenor liaises with an effective solo representative in command of each unique but integral area of Defence.
Good DFA networks and communications enable a rapid, discreet and positive resolution of a variety of member issues.
Such personal 'grass roots' help to ADF Families improves morale and in turn assists with respite and welfare.
Postcard Competition
DFA is developing sets of free postcards displaying Australian images of our ADF family and community. The cards are to facilitate positive, easy communications for families, to enable people to drop a line on a card bearing happy words. Members can trade, present and use cards on exercises and operations.
We intend to draw on the talent of Defence families for artwork and ask the CDF to judge the submissions.
When submitting your work, bear in mind:
- All artwork - must be in A4 format.
- It should describe what makes you think of Australia and family.
- All work and photos must be your own because of copyright laws.
- Electronic images must be high resolution - no small images please.
- If you would like your submission returned, please include a reply address.
All submissions should be sent to one of the addresses below by December 20 for judging in the New Year.
- convenor@dfa.org.au
- Mailing
- Defence Families Australia, CP2-1-11,Campbell Park ACT 2600.
Support
The more families who subscribe to our family information network show support for our goals of representing your needs, so please take three minutes to enter your details on our website.
Subscribe to DFA Info: www.dfa.org.au/subscribe.php
Need ADF Family Help?
Call us on: 1800 100 509,
or contact your regional ND for local help, details below.
There are lots of helpful links on our DFA web site at www.dfa.org.au
