ysa melbourne annual report...

Y.S.A. Melbourne Inc., PO Box 4456, Melbourne Uni VIC, 3010 28

Young Scientists of Australia Melbourne Chapter Annual Report 2011


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Who are the YSA? The Young Scientists of Australia (YSA) are a group of young people ranging from high school students to university graduates, sci-ence nuts to music stu-dents. We are dedicated to the promotion of science in a friendly, social environment, and our members stretch across the country. Our five chapters in Melbourne, Syd-ney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth have approximately 1000 members. We regularly meet for social events and are actively in-volved in the staffing of sev-eral science schools nation-wide. We also appear in science shows, promote science to students, assist at university open days and generally try to “get science out there”. If any of the above inter-ests you and you are not already a member, head to our website or contact one of our executive committee members for more detailed infor-mation. It takes people to organ-ize AND people to attend for YSA to work. Offer any ideas and sugges-tions at committee meet-ings or simply help make the day by coming along to one of the social events. Feel free to bring friends, as we‟re not ex-clusive!!

Young Scientists of Australia Melbourne Chapter

Overview Highlights President‟s Foreword Our 2010-2011 Committee Programs Social Events Major Events TSE Publications The Ball YSA and the Community Promotion and New Media Your Organization The Committee Financial Overview Membership Report Constitutional Change Policy and Guidelines

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Annual Report 2010—2011


Highlights of 2010 - 2011

Every year a different chapter takes a turn at hosting the YSA National Camp. After hosting the first NATCAMP in 2008, it was once more YSA Melbourne‟s turn. In a fun filled weekend in April, 26 Melbournites and 8 interstaters gathered at Rowellan Scout Camp. There were many cra-zy activities, orienteering, ropes courses and more. Each chapter pre-sented a workshop on a different area to share our skills and experi-ences. YSA Sydney dealt with communication, Brisbane with innova-tion, Adelaide with Future Challenges in Science and Melbourne with Teamwork and Leadership.

Natcamp

The YSA Elemental Ball will be an extravagant evening of elegance and excitement. YSA Melbourne has been trying to host its first ever ball for many years, and finally it has succeeded. 80 guests will have a great night at Leonda by the Yarra, on tables decorated with an ele-mental theme by the hard working Ball Sub-Committee. There was gold bullion, Hydrogen cars, Aluminium origami and pictures of Feynman. Advertising went out in invitations and online with specifically made web clips.

The Elemental Ball

This year YSA Melbourne was involved in 4 big TSE programs. Swin-burne University occurred first, in September. This was the second year YSA has been involved, and this time we opened up staffing to all members. Then Monash Clayton and Melbourne Universities in early January were as successful as ever. We also were involved for the first time in helping establish a new program at Monash Gippsland. Swin-burne and Melbourne had 100 students, Monash Clayton had 120 and Gippsland 12. With a team of great staff, everything ran smoothly and was great fun. YSA Melbourne had great feedback from partner organi-zations on our work.

The Science Experience 2011


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Highlights of 2010 - 2011

Social Events This was another year of great socials, with new additions and refinements on old standards. We had two science themed socials: Dinner with a Sci-entist and Mind, Body, Science. These were great events, which were enlightening and also fun. We‟ve maintained a spread of different themes and types of socials from the sporty, to the adventurous or the cerebral. There were also our major events such as Ice Skating, Murder Mystery 3: A crisis in time, the Amazing Race and more. Attendance has been high, averaging around 40 for the year, and each event has been cost neutral. Publications YSA Melbourne has produced 5 Plasma publica-tions this year, with 3 of those have been digital and 4 TSE Plasmas. Yes, we‟ve digitized Plasma and filled it with even more science content that‟s fresh and in glorious colourful detail. With well crafted new online submissions forms, its now as easy as clicking a few buttons to submit a story for Plasma and get your self published. Each Plasma has been increasing in it‟s coverage of not only YSA events but also science developments in an easy to under-stand way. New Media Facebook, Youtube and podcasts are areas YSA Melbourne has been diving into bringing science facts, humour and event updates in a unique blend that uniquely YSA. We‟ve been releasing updates on events via Facebook pages and events, posting podcasts of the Radio show and making funny but enlightening vodcasts. Financial Performance YSA Melbourne started this year in a difficult cir-cumstance, with approximately $1,300 in the bank and $600 of Assets. With keen financial insight, bal-ance and skill we‟ve been able to run YSA events

averaging at a cost neutral basis. This enabled us to bankroll larger events where we made a loss or purchase new merchandise. YSA Melbourne cur-rently has a secure and sound financial position with approximately $8,000 in the bank and $2,000 worth of assets. However $3,000 of that will go to-ward paying for the ball. This money has been used soundly to enable us to run events like the Ball, Natcamp and more and enable them to be afforda-bly priced for all. We also raised $200 for the Prem-ier‟s Flood Appeal with your help at a social event. Committee Performance The committee was keen to learn and improve itself and the way it operated. Therefore it conducted pe-riodical surveys and assessments of it‟s work and evaluated them. This was in the form of a numerical and constructive criticism based system. The re-sults will be discussed later but the committee used it to help find their areas of weakness and improve individually and collectively. Communications, ap-proachability and overall performance were meas-ured as part of our self development process to try and ensure we did the best possible job for our members and continue to improve. Looking ahead What‟s left for YSA Melbourne to do? The internet is an important tool and though we‟ve started to use it more, there is still much more work to do. We will be updating our website, expanding our podcasts and vodcasts and science content. Science Socials will feature more prominently as will our large fun events like another ball. Science advocacy in the community and working with different groups will also be a key part of YSA Melbourne, as we expand into science communication work. We will also be working on delivering new leadership and science communication training programs and frameworks to help you all gain the skills you need to be future scientific pioneers.

Financial Summary Socials Statistics Opening balance $1335.10 Closing Balance $7976.10 Assets worth $2071.10 $199.50 raised for the Premier’s Flood Appeal $2464.00 spent on acquiring merchandise $6599.30 to be spent on the Ball. $1852.82 spent on Socials

14 Social events 1 Camp and 1 Ball Averaging 40 attendees per event Maximum (flood minimized total) attendees 90 3 Scavenger hunts


President’s Foreword

Summary Thank you to you

our members for an incredible year.

From a tough start ,

we pul led together to have a great year.

Much hard work by

a great commit tee meant excel lent re-sults.

We are not only se-

cure but looking to expand further.

We‟re moving into

new areas. We‟re br inging

more science. There is even more

on the horizon with more communi ty engagement and empowering a new generat ion.

Now the sun sets on this committee as this term draws to a close, and let me say firstly that a large amount of thanks is in order. This year has been a truly incredible one for YSA Melbourne. There have been 4 huge TSEs, Natcamp, great science filled socials, new merchandise, a new era for Plasma and of course the Elemental Ball. All of it would not have been possible without the sup-port of the most important people, which is of course you, our members. Your passion, enthusiasm and sup-port for all these great things have allowed us to do so well. When this committee began it's term, we were faced with a dire situation. Our bank balance had dwindled very low, our signatories were 3 years out of date and our very incorporation was in doubt. Many fresh new faces filled our committee, but faced with the myriad of challenges ahead it would have been easier to just try to survive. The lofty ambitions of having a large event such as a Ball seemed like a distant hope. Now I think you can see that such a dire situation can be salvaged and turned around. Not only did our com-mittee manage to survive the year, but they built up one of the most successful years we've had on record. It was a lot of hard work and many late nights. Around each corner lay unexpected challenges and new devel-opments. Throughout this our team did not give up. Their efforts often go unnoticed. It can be hard to see the many hours that people put into crafting decora-tions, writing articles, and planning a radio show or a social. Sleepless nights preparing for TSE or the ac-counting challenges of running the treasury are things that can be easily overlooked when the organization is running well, but are exhausting for those involved. Our committee has given up weekends, holidays and more, all to work towards making sure that you, our members, have a flourishing and vibrant YSA to come home to. They have done a great job this year and deserve our heartfelt thanks. What has YSA done this year? We said we would bring more TSEs, so we have expanded into the Swinburne and Gippsland Programs. We strongly believed that the more science we had, the better YSA would be so we've had two great science socials, Mind Body Sci-ence and Dinner with a Scientist. We invited the country to Melbourne as we hosted for the second time, the YSA National Camp. Fulfilling a long yearning, using creativity and determination YSA Melbourne finally host-ed it's inaugural ball, 'The 2011 Elemental Ball' As time


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We have an extensive committee that has been busily work-ing hard this year on delivering the best they can for the or-ganization. We have a Secretariat („Top Four‟) of Justin Sor-bello, Dean Mollica, Matt De Bono and James Cavallo. The Secretariat handles the high end operations and day to day business of the committee. They organize meetings, en-sures tasks get done, run the finances and set the direction of the organization. They also are responsible for training and assisting the rest of the committee. Our Portfolio holders, Ricardo Cannizzaro, Katherine Charl-ton, Stephen Beagley and Amelia Wales are responsible for areas the organization has deemed critical. They look over these areas and ensure our members get the full benefit of our socials, publications, science events and website.

Finally, the Members Without Portfolio (MWOPS), Loughlin Turpin, Emily Beagley, Lucy Caine, Tessa Marshall and Dan-iel McLucas do not have a specific area but provide help where able. The MWOPs were rotated through the various sections of the committee and they all assisted and learnt about the way each different section operates. They also as-sisted with our subcommittees. Three subcommittees were formed under this committee, TSE, Science and The Ball. These three subcommittees were made up of members and non members of the committee and worked on specific projects.

Our 2010 to 2011 Committee (L to R) Dom Guinane, Matt De Bono , Stephen Beagley, James Cavallo, Justin Sorbello, Dean Mollica, Emily Beagley, Ricardo Cannizzaro, Loughlin Turpin, Lucy Caine, Daniel McLucas, Tessa Marshall, Amelia Wales.

moves on YSA needs to adapt and grow, so we digitized YSA with e-Plasma, our radio show Heliopause's produced podcasts and we filmed science filled vodcasts. You asked for them, so we produced t-shirts and hoodies in exciting new colours. In order to make science accessible and humorous we created a new sci-ence show in collaboration with Melbourne University. With all of this happening it has been an incredibly busy year. Without your support, help and enthusiasm, none of this would have been possible. As this YSA year draws to a close and we look into the future, you might ask "what is next"? If this year proves anything it is that you can expand to achieve many great things and that no hope is too high. We will be expanding with more science into schools. We will establish stronger ties between YSA and other organizations placing us as a key voice in the science scene in Australia. We will be using those ties to bring more science content to our events whilst maintaining their unique brand of fun. Most importantly, it is time to grow and empower a new generation of leaders to be ready to take Australia into the future as strong women and men of science. Let us go onward into this glorious dawn and create a scientific future.


Social Events

Sporting Based Socials provide a physical way for members to build friendships, bond and be active in a fun way. With the great success of this category in the past, we have continued social events such as Ice Skating, Rock climbing and Swimming. The success of sporting socials can be attributed to a common experience of overcoming tasks in a team (such as in rock-climbing), or simply participation in an activity which brings mem-bers physically together, where members can enjoy themselves by making new friend-ships and developing previously established social networks. Additionally, the October Swimming Social provided a relaxing, low stress environment, for our members, primari-ly as students, as they entered the end of year exam period.

Sport and General Events

Over the past term YSA Melbourne's social calendar has maintained its balance between facilitating member interac-tion, promotion of education and the transferral of skill sets, particularly to the younger member demographic. Several key elements of the previous year‟s social calendar were refined and refreshed, to achieve both continual improve-ment and sustainability for returning members. This strate-gy has been met with a consistent attendance of socials. At our Post TSE Ice Skating social we hit our peak attendance for the 2010/11 social year with 90 members (falling below our usual of 120 due to the severe flooding which occurred early February), and we‟re currently averaging 40-45 mem-bers per social. Without a doubt however, the most antici-pated social event of the year is our upcoming Elemental Ball, which is expected to have well over 80 members and non-members in attendance.

Embracing new ideas

Social Fact box: Alternat ing Sat-

urday and Sun-day monthly events.

Peak at tend-

ance 90 at Ice Skat ing despi te Statewide f loods.

Averaging 40

attendees. Affordable but

high qual i ty events.

Diverse mix of

sport , themed and science so-cials.

Several large

events to boost the calendar.

New promotion

methods have been explored.

Streamlined

onl ine RSVPS and Facebook integrat ion.

The Formula Our socials are run monthly, alternating between the first Saturday and Sunday of the month. The social formula has become increasingly dynamic throughout the term, how-ever we have kept Flinders Street Station at 11am, as our usual place and time of meet-ing, as it has helped to simplify things. The social calendar of YSA Melbourne is divided roughly into four types encompassing physical activities, large scale gatherings, themed and educational events. Being sensitive to the demand of our member base, the nature of each social varies month to month, providing a contrasting and interesting mixture of events appealing to a wider member demographic. As with the previous year, this strate-gy has received much positive response from our member base, with large scale gather-ings acting as the centre pieces of the social calendar.


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A new type of social, educational, is the most recent con-tribution to the Socials Calender, and was implemented in an attempt to align our social activities with our goal of promoting science to the youth. The method of choice was the transferral of skill sets vital to scientists, such as analysing, problem solving, communication, teamwork, and more recently ethics. Having grown considerably in momentum, this term saw the development of several new socials such as the ScienceWorks Scavenger Hunt and the November Invite a Scientist to Dinner event, held in conjunction with CSIRO, who also subsidised a “Bring a friend for free” initiative which helped further the promo-tion of science to the community. Our guest speakers in-cluded two esteemed science communicators Chris K.P. and Marty Ross. Chris K.P. works for CSIRO as a director of Science Cabaret shows and is a science communica-tion all rounder, whilst Marty Ross is an academic from The University of Melbourne and avid promoter of mathe-matics who writes a regular column in The Age. Most notably this year was the refinement of the „Mind, Body, Science!‟ social, where we focussed again upon member development, whilst facilitating an informal and entertaining environment. The Mind segment encom-passed several problem solving activities requiring both teamwork and lateral thinking, as well as the return of the popular ethics scenario (Unfortunately the new scenario wasn‟t run due to time restrictions). The Body segment was intended as both the entertainment for the day and a throw-to to the Ball. A private dance instructor was hired to teach participants how to dance Hip Hop, in preparation to the Ball. Despite fears of participants being embar-rassed, they took to the activity with much excitement and enthusiasm. Finally, for the Science segment, a board of older YSA members was constructed to create a forum like environment where we discussed a range of topics from year twelve and university pathways, to scientific news and principles. This year the panel consisted of the Social Co-ordinator, the President, and YSA Alumni Te-gan Dobbie, and was held in the Laser Room of the Mel-bourne University Sports Centre. The audience sat on ex-ercise balls which added to the unique YSA feel of the event. The ultimate goal of the introduction of educational socials is to ensure the passing on of critical skills from our older demographic to your younger one, skill which

Science Socials

Member Involvement

Themed events have and continue to be high points in the social year. Keeping with a sea far-ing theme, our traditional Pirate September Social saw us plundering the Melbourne Aquarium, dressed up as pirates. As well as being scientific in nature, the visit encompassed the fun which could only come from dressing up and masquer-ading around the city, activities which are quite out of the ordinary and thus extra entertaining for most members. The participation in these quite public activities promotes a sense of belonging-ness within the YSA community via a situational common experience shared by all in attendance, and recounted numerous times at future socials. Our 3rd Murder Mystery Social was Science His-tory themed, and starred a number of prominent scientists such as Edison, Tesla, Da Vinci, Freud, and Feynman. This move to a science theme re-flects the overall movement to include more sci-ence content in socials.

Themed Socials

Social Statistics: Average price per social: $15 Average Attendance: 40 Highest Attendance: 90 Lowest Attendance: 30 Number of Nerf Guns awarded: 4 Number of Meals served: 945

Member involvement in Social events has, and continues to remain high due to the contrasting and unique events. However, the suggested agenda for next term‟s Social Co-ordinator would be to look at creating even more opportunities and events for members and their friends to engage in science content, through a series of Science So-cials. The nature of these could range from organ-ising future Invite a Scientist to Dinner events, or-ganising a party of YSA members to attend key-note speeches at science conferences, discus-sions and forums, and should aim to collaborate with other organisations whose interests are akin to that of YSA. The success of this term‟s social calendar has been the product of innovation, greater executive support in planning and execut-ing socials, and the ever-increasing amount of sci-ence content being brought to the membership base.

will hopefully be retained by the members and assist them with their future ambitions.


Major Events

Large scale events provide a way of generating enthusi-asm and attracting new members, whilst being very memorable and enjoyable. During the past year, events such as Natcamp 2011, Trivia Night, and the 2nd Amaz-ing Race formed the centrepieces of the socials calen-dar. These socials aimed to keep both enthusiasm and attendance at sustained levels throughout the year, par-ticularly in periods where there is traditionally a waning of interest (such as end of year exam time). Large scale events required large expenditure, which re-sulted in higher participation cost. As with previous years, we focussed on the challenge of finding the balance be-tween magnitude of event and participation cost. Highly anticipated and publicised socials such as the “Mind, Body, Science!” Social and Trivia Night attracted the high-est participation cost of $20 and $22 respectively, the cost agreed by the executive to be the maximum the av-erage member would be willing to pay for a social. Every social this year either broke even or resulted in a gain, thus costing the organisation absolutely nothing to hold events for our members. To make large scale events fur-ther extravagant and memorable, greater funding and ef-fort was allocated for prizes, and participation incentives. The 2011 Elemental Ball is no exception to this trend, scoring the highest cost for any one day event in YSA Melbourne‟s Calendar. Please see the later section for a complete description of the Ball, and its organisation dur-ing the past term.

Trivia Night 2011

Major Event Fact box: Large scale

events are an important part of the calendar with around three a year.

Cost is kept at a

low point to en-sure its accessi-ble for all mem-bers.

Quality is quite

high, just see the Nerf Gun prizes for Trivia.

Trivia in Lygon

Street with MC‟s Amelia and Loughlin.

Natcamp in-

volved adven-tures through the countryside of Victoria.

The Amazing

race tested the mental and phys-ical abilities of all involved.

It was our fifth annual Trivia night, and it was a great event for all. With acted dramatic scenes, visual chal-lenges, pop culture, science and more. MC-ed by the lovely Locky and Amazing Amelia. With questions com-piled by our MWOPs, it was a great event with around 40 attendees. Prizes included playdough, nerfs and grip-py ball catchers. The previous year‟s venue for Trivia Night exceeded ex-pectations for price and space requirements, both being key criteria for a good Trivia venue. Therefore, the deci-sion has been made to continue with the venue for this year.

Large ambitions, small price


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Although the planning took much longer than the camp itself, NatCamp was well worth it. With a climb to the top of the hill, suitcase in tow, starting NatCamp off, participants were prepared for what was in store. Through team building, friendship, getting to know you and orienteering activities, each presented by different YSA chapters, there was never a dull moment. Through activities with egg-drop with a twist, a talent quest and non-verbal, com-munication activities, each member of a group was tried and tested, and their skills in all areas nurtured and im-proved. As the sun set, the beautiful bush back drop and biting mosquitoes were witnessed, and the very tired camper went to bed, collecting sleep for the huge days ahead of them. With the second and final night being that of the formal night, much preparation was required, for what turned out to be an amazing night full of success. Beautifully home cooked food, with dancing and singing afterward, meant the final night one for everyone who attended to remember.

Natcamp 2011

The amazing race started off with a bang, with 51 participants, gained through lots of promotion and advertise-ment, and participation of the exec in the actual race. With the help of exec member in organisation, planning, and financial support, it was possible for the race to be run with fewer supervisors and more racers! As part of the challenge, racers were required to do an assortment of challenges, ranging from the consumption of some of the less-common foods, a balloon popping challenge, giant Sudoku in federation square, in conjunction with tricky science question in between. Meanwhile, organisers were also caught in a race, one to get shopping bags for of delicious lunch foods to Alexandra gardens before the, no doubt, hungry teams arrived. All contestants were given National Science Week t-shirts just for taking part, as a result of the Amazing Race being a regis-tered National Science Week event.

The Amazing Race


The Science Experience

The Science Experience is a program run by the Science Schools Foundation and Uni-versities for students in Year 9 and 10. The idea of the 3 day program at universities is to help students who are interested in science gain an understanding of what is out there and what it is like to study or work in a variety of fields. YSA provides volunteer staff at these programs who look after groups of around 10 stu-dents for the program and help them not only understand the content but bond and get excited about science. YSA Melbourne has traditionally been involved in 2 programs, Melbourne and Monash Clayton, but this year we have expanded our involvement into Swinburne and Monash Gippsland.

New Frontiers

TSE Fact Box: 4 Huge TSEs. New programs in

Gippsland and Swinburne

Reworked program

at Melbourne Uni-versi ty was wel l re-ceived.

New team at

Monash did a fan-tast ic job.

Great numbers

across the state.

Monash University ran another great program this year at Clayton Campus. It was a year that was quite wet, and wild due to La Nina downpours, but that didn‟t dampen the spirits of this program. With Dr. Bob Wong and Professor Ross Thompson from Microbi-ology taking the reins of the program, YSA was excited to once more be working with them. With Egg drops, Relay quizzes, Physics and Microbiology workshops and more. There were bubbles and chemical creations. The students marvelled at everything from ankle bones to zebrafish with visits to the Marine Biology and Anatomy Museums. It cul-minated with brand new Science Show featuring dancing flames, super strong vacuums and oversized nappies.

Monash Clayton 2011

This is the second year in recent times YSA Melbourne has been involved in Swinburne Universities TSE program. There were 100 students from across Melbourne, including several large school groups. This was a substantial increase on previous years. To cope with this large increase, we invited a wide range of staff with varying experience. We had 16 volunteer “staffies” on the ground helping out. They looked after the large groups of 25s, with small subdivisions to make things easier. Through the program the wiffens learned about the universe with a 3D astro-tour. They conducted investigations in a CSI style even with an explosion or two. CSIRO performed a science show and a there was trip to the Synchrotron. YSA ran a bridge building challenge and our Relay Quiz. It was a great year and the program was a huge success.

Swinburne 2010


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The Numbers: Percentage of Victorian TSEs staffed: 44% Number of wiffens: 325 Number of interstate exchange staff: 6 Cumulative Number of hours not slept: 2,137 Number of relay quizzes run: 7 Number of Eggs surviving the first drop: 5

Melbourne University‟s TSE program underwent a huge overhaul. With all these changes, the YSA was there to help. There were with groups named after great scientist alumni from Melbourne University and a weeklong competition for the best scientist group. There were sessions on DNA and genetics, Powerful computer algorith-mics, Chemistry Murder Mysteries and engineering challenges. The wiffen‟s cognitive capacities were stretched to the limits as they were taken on a journey into the 4th, 5th and 6th dimensions of space in a lecture by Marty Ross. The YSA Relay quiz and Egg drop were once again huge hits, as were the lively presentations each group gave on their favourite part of the program at the closing ceremony. The program received much acclaim from the parents who got to see a bit of what their students were up to at the closing ceremony and met with our student mentors at the reception afterwards. It ran smoothly and the feedback was very positive from all in-volved.

Melbourne University 2011

Monash University‟s campus in Churchill with assistance from the government was expanding science programs for regional students. YSA Melbourne was approached to help with the planning and implementation of the pro-gram. Given our experience and involvement in previous programs, they staff at Gippsland were thrilled to have us there as support. It was a small program with only 12 students, and Justin Sorbello was interviewed on ABC Local Radio to promote the program. There was a great response and they gave away spots on the program. YSA Melbourne sent a small team of some our most experience staff along to the program and they helped run what was a small but great school. They covered the skills required to be a doctor with mock patient interviews and diagnosis, along with an Engineering day and great site visits to industry. It was the first year of hopefully a great new addition to the calendar for years to come.

Monash Gippsland 2011


Publications

Printed newsletters are an out-dated form of communication between the YSA and its members, are expensive and not eco-friendly to produce. As a digital publication, Plasma can be seen in full colour, with no restrictions on overall length like those imposed by printing. Additionally, we can link direct-ly to outside sources, which gives the information presented in the articles more credibility and accuracy. Altogeth-er, digital Plasma can be bigger, more colourful, and can house a greater variety of material than a printed one. In the past, we have presented articles from a static group of writers, which puts a lot of pressure on the same peo-ple every time Plasma is published, and

leaves a lot of interesting news and passionate voices unheard. To address this, we made a strong push to get eve-ry member of the executive committee contributing an article to each edition of Plasma, which has had fantastic re-sults. In addition to the staples of the President‟s Report, Editorial and Social Report, we have gone from including two or three science-related articles to ten in the Autumn 2011 edition. We are going to seek to maintain or improve this number in the future, as well as widen our authors to the general mem-bers in addition to regular contributions from the executive.

A colourful new Plasma for a new Era.

The past year has been very busy for the develop-ment and publishing of Plasma, YSA Melbourne‟s seasonal publication. I have been working to im-prove the amount of science content available in Plasma, make it easier to submit articles to the pub-lication, and to transfer it from being printed and mailed to being digitally distributed, which allows it room to expand while being more eco-friendly. In addition to working on Plasma, I have contributed to the development of YSA Melbourne‟s Elemental Ball, designing and printing the flyers, invites and the tickets for the event. It has been a challenging but rewarding year, and I am looking forward to contributing to a bright future for the YSA.

New directions

Publications Fact box: 5 Plasmas this

year. Moved to colourful

digi tal dist ribut ion. 3 Online Plasmas

produced. Plasma creat ion

t ime sped up with onl ine forms.

More member sub-

mitted contr ibu-t ions than before.

Cutt ing edge sci -

ence content at an approachable level


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Plasma Statistics: Plasmas completed (including TSE editions): 9 Unique Authors: 16 Words: over 30,000! Articles: 37 Total height of Paper saved: 1.44m Trees saved by going digital so far: 0.06

We have sought to improve the depth, range, and net amount of scientific content in Plasma. This has been done by seeking a wider range of reports on recent scientific developments from Australia and the rest of the world, the successes of local scien-tists and engineers, and explanations of key ideas and theories from across all fields of science. The idea is to both have more science content, but also to present it in a form that makes it accessible to all of our members, regardless of their current level of education. The most recent two Plasmas are the most indicative of the success of this push for more science content, as they have a large range of arti-cles from biology to pure maths, all written by mem-bers, for the members.

Great new content!

Enabling more authors to contribute to Plas-ma is the new method for submitting articles. The online submission form is designed to make it easier for anyone to submit material for Plasma. It allows the article to be submit-ted with any sources or relevant pictures at-tached, which then allows the Editor to easily add it into Plasma. This form has just been opened to the general members, and we‟re hoping that it will make submitting interesting news or other information to Plasma both eas-ier and less intimidating for our members to use than directly contacting the Editor, while streamlining the process between submission and integration for the Editor.

Online Involvement


The Elemental Ball

By far the largest social event of the year 2011 will be YSA Melbourne‟s Elemental Ball. A sub-committee was formed in July 2010 as a body to be responsible for the planning, budgeting, promoting, developing, and executing the Ball, to be held on July 14th 2011. This committee was eventually headed by the Social Co-ordinator, Ricardo Cannizzaro, to manage the sub-committee members and regularly report back progress to the main executive body. Extensive research was conducted into finding the most suitable ven-ue, the criteria of which included: total price not exceeding $80, exceptional quality of food and presentation to justify such great member expenditure, and non-alcoholic packages. During planning, we created a baseline budget for all of our costs including promotional fliers, invites, and tickets, and project planning tools such as GANTT charts were utilised to communicate plans both internally and to the executive.

In the beginning...

The Ball Fact box: An Elemental

theme with deco-rations and invi-tations to match.

Large scale pro-

motion strategy with flyers, invita-tions and tickets.

Hand-crafted

thematic table decorations

84 Guests and a

whole night of elegance and fun.

YSA dance re-

hearsal ses-sions.

Ball related trivia

questions

We also formulated our marketing strategy, which included fliers to be distributed at TSE and Socials, Hard Copy invites to be sent out to all of our members, a Facebook page to generate an online presence, several video factoids on Youtube promoting the Ball, so-cial events/components such as the dancing lesson as part of Mind, Body, Science Part Deux and bonus round of trivia night, the winner of which is to receive a song dedicated to them at the Ball. The magnitude of our marketing strategy was reflected in the need of a Marketing Manager, who was taken up by our Editor, Amelia Wales, who played a key role in the design and development of several initiatives. Additionally, working with the Treasurer we were able to develop a deposit system, whereby members could re-serve their place at the Ball by placing a $30 deposit, for two months starting from the week of TSE. The purpose of which was to make it easier for people to commit to the Ball during TSE, as it would be rare for staffies to have sufficient money to purchase a full ticket during that week.

Marketing Strategy

The Elemental Theme challenged the sub-committee, as each table would be decorated according to its own element. For example the Uranium table would depict scientists Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman, who played key roles in the development of the atomic bomb, and for Aluminium, decorations would include Aluminium Foil Origami and other art. A design and budgeting process was undertaken for all 12 tables, and also for the table cen-trepieces which acted as a unification device, adding a comment aspect to each table. The Elemental Theme also was communicated via promotional materials sent out, and also the science factoids published to YouTube.

The Theme


Table Decorations

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The Numbers: Number of guests: 84 Number of elements: 12 Number of Facebook Likes: 89 Number of Invitation letters sent: 244 Number of days since the last YSA Melbourne Ball: 7,300

The Ball is scheduled for the 14th of July, and at the time of writing (12th June), the number of tickets ordered is in excess 80, thus we are confident that we will achieve our target of 80 participants. As the first Ball ever to be held by YSA Melbourne there has been much anticipation by the executive committee, the members, non-members alike. There has also been much work done by the committee on this front, and I recommend that for a Ball to be organised successfully, a team of dedicated committee members is required, as well as a skilled lead-er who has the time and energy to commit to both their committee members and a very demanding project.

Looking forward

Since the Beginning of February this year, the Ball Subcommittee have been busily organising, planning and constructing decorations for the 2011 YSA Melbourne Elemental Ball. Over the course of these short months, each member of the subcommittee was assigned tables and elements to work with. Each table required decora-tions which related to am assigned periodical element. The first step in the decoration process was to carefully select elements, which could be displayed in an informative, visually appealing and enjoyable way, through piec-es brainstormed and researched by each member. Each member researched the required materials for their pieces, collated, priced and presented them using excel spread sheets. This enabled the rest of the subcommit-tee to review and give feedback on each table‟s decorations and the costs associated. Whilst other aspects of the ball were organised, like promotion, ticket sales and design, Each table was condensed, and finalised, and the unison of centrepieces and what materials were required to make them were also finalised, and this budget was presented to the rest of the Exec Committee. After approval, construction began, and prototypes were formed, bumps were smoothed and final construction began.


YSA and the Community

YSA Melbourne has been awarded a grant from The University of Melbourne to develop a science show to do work in the community. With guidance and support from Roger Rassool of the University of Melbourne‟s Physics department, a new science show has been created that also utilises new equipment. The show demonstrates everything from crushing pressures, chemical changes and the terrible absorption powers of some solids. The show also makes flames dance using the power of sound waves, and will make your hair stand on end. It‟s funny, informative and accessible for people of all ages. The show has been practiced and performed and is looking to expand outside of TSE to Open Days and National Science Week. Matt De Bono, Ricardo Cannizzaro and Aaron Bagnato have been working extensively and have been trained in the use of various equipment such as Magdeburg Spheres, Ruben‟s Tubes, Van Der Graph generators and more. Of course safety is a key focus of this as well and Amelia Wales, Matt De Bono and Ricardo Cannizzaro received First Aid training as part of the show in order to be able to safely deal with any incidents.

Science Show

YSA and the Community Fact Box: Brand new sci-

ence show with new equipment and expert help.

Science mentor-

ing programs in schools.

Whole chapter

coming to Mel-bourne for NATCON.

Many partner or-

ganisations who we work with in-cluding ANZAAS, CSIRO and the SSF.

Many people have come through the YSA over the years, and they all have had skills and experience or taken careers that have led them to great places. YSA Melbourne is looking to map and track it‟s alumni by creating an expanded membership database. The idea would enable us to record and make use of connections between our mem-bers, and also would keep information on things like people‟s areas of interest and jobs, and use this database for everything from helping younger members to organise tutoring to networking in more professional, “promoting science” contexts. This project is cur-rently in development and we look forward to expanding on this in the future.

Alumni Connections


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The Numbers: Number of Partner Organizations: 11 Number of Alumni: 2250 Number of adult diapers used in science shows: 3 Number of NATCON Guests: 13

YSA Melbourne is currently in development and initial pilot programs are underway to work get science commu-nicators and demonstrators working with teachers in school. We are involved in working in a partnership with schools to help deliver this boost of science and fun to a range of audiences and has a team of experienced people working with these groups.

Science Mentoring

YSA Melbourne doesn‟t exist in a vacuum. It is only able to do it‟s great through partnerships with various organi-zations. The primary partners of YSA Melbourne are the Science Schools Foundation (SSF) and the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS). YSA Melbourne represents YSA in general on the Board of the SSF and the National Council of ANZAAS. Working with the SSF enables YSA Melbourne to have a voice in the organization of The Science Experience. With partnering with ANZAAS, YSA Melbourne assists in other programs such as Youth ANZAAS whilst gaining access to a wealth of knowledge and experience. YSA Melbourne also works closely with the science communication groups in CSIRO, and Universities such as Melbourne, Monash and Swinburne. Through these partnerships we run events and assist where possible with the larger scientific community.

Partnerships

One of the major parts of the YSA scene in Australia is the National Conference, NATCON, which is held every year and rotated through the various member chapters. It is YSA Melbourne‟s turn to host once more and we will be welcoming the other chapters in mid July to Melbourne for a weekend of science, collaboration and fun. It is a way for each of the chapters to meet, bond and share experiences and knowledge for the year ahead.

NATCON


Promoting YSA with New Media Heliopause

YSA and New Media Fact box: Many new ave-

nues of reaching audiences, mem-bers and non members alike.

Radio show Heli-

opause now has podcasts.

Science Snap-

shot videos to promote events and YSA.

Facebook page

with science facts, hu-mour and infor-mation.

Social promotion

online with Google RSVPs.

YSA Melbourne has continued its successful science themed radio show, Helio-pause, running on Sundays on the Student Youth Network (SYN 90.7). This weekly show covered a different theme and topic each week, including Dinosaurs, Space, Biology and Meteorology. Each show includes various segments including weekly breaking science news and Not Even Rocket Surgery (a pseudoscience discussion section). The show was staffed by various members, mostly from the committee. The show is currently running in its second season, at the end of which it will have run for approximately one semester. Due to SYN‟s policy on rotating shows, it will be placed on Hiatus at the end of this season. Feedback from SYN sources and listen-ers has been positive, as has feedback from members has been great. Whilst on Hiatus, the show was edited down and podcasts were produced of the show and uploaded to streaming accounts. These podcasts have been made live and freely accessible and a staggered release is being conducted of them. There are plans to continue doing this and looking at returning to SYN shortly with another season.

Website YSA Melbourne runs a website hosted off the YSA Server Icarus which is based on Sydney. The website contains information of the committee, the organisation and the events. However it does need further updating. There has also been issues with the server in Sydney going down which has made it difficult for our emails, and our infor-mation getting out to our members. YSA Melbourne communications and correspondence this year has at times been limited by the increasing number of downtimes on the YSA server, Icarus. Notably one downtime was quite extensive and during which the server had to be completely overhauled and a migration occurred from Icarus 1 to it‟s backup, a newer machine, Icarus 2. Whilst this in the short time has fixed the issue, YSA Melbourne believes it is time to move to cloud hosting for our servers which would reduce the reliance on an aging and isolated system. To store and share files between our members, YSA Melbourne now extensively us-es Dropbox. All important YSA documents are stored on Dropbox. Due to the way Dropbox works, files are synched between computers and also stored locally which means even if it goes down we have access to our files. We have letterheads, guides, resources and minutes all stored there. It provides a single useful source of information for the committee.


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The Numbers: Number of Facebook Friends: 100 Number of Elemental Ball “Likes”: 89 Number of YSA Status Updates: 26 p/month Number of Specific Gmail accounts: 3 Number of Test Tubes from RMIT: 150 Number of Jelly Beans inside Test tubes: 3300

In terms of social promotions, we have explored several new avenues to reach further into the wider community and also streamline RSVP‟s. MWOP‟s have played a key role in the development of social posters which have been distributed electronically and physically to promote the 2nd Amazing Race, the November Invite a Scientist to Dinner Social and The Ball. Whilst these have aided promotion, they essentially acted as secondary methods to support our online promotions through Facebook, the YSA Announce emails, and Google Docs, which were much more successful due to their utilisation of online social networking. For low risk socials such as rock climb-ing where deviations from RSVP‟s had little effect on total cost and/or booking details, Facebook was used to create an event page and take RSVP‟s. However due to the ad hoc nature of Facebook RSVP‟s, a more formal system was required for socials such as Trivia Night and The Ball, where it was crucial to have an accurate idea of participation numbers for booking purposes. The usual solution was to use a Google Docs page to get formal RSVP‟s, however The Ball required a system which involved participants emailing a special GMAIL address to provide both RSVP and payment details.

Social Promotion online and RSVPs

YSA Melbourne have constructed a Facebook page to allow members to interact directly with the exec, getting information about social events and scientific happenings, as well as having a central place in which to share YSA Melbourne-generated content without having to resort to an “announce” email. As well as this, YSA Mel-bourne has its own profile in which to post statuses and pictures and answer questions or address issues any members may be having. The greatest example of this was the 2011 YSA Elemental Ball page, which was used in conjunction with the YSA Melbourne account to share interesting science facts, videos and songs to keep members aware of what was going on in the scientific and YSA communities. As well as this, it allows promotional techniques like riddles and slow release of images to build hype and excitement for the greatest events of the year.

This means that interaction between committee and general membership can be a lot more personal and multi-directional- members can comment on YSA Melbourne material, share their own thoughts and share it with their friends. This is especially useful for events like the YSA Elemental Ball where non-members need to be able to access all of the information. As well as this, YSA Melbourne have been pursuing new avenues of science communication through the use of vodcasts, small 30 second clips that allow members to have new science content brought to them in a different format, as well as having the added benefit of seeing an actual person putting their time and effort into repre-senting YSA Melbourne. Though the program is just beginning, the introduction of greater production values, more members being involved in creation and more user interaction are going to make this an extremely in-formative tool that helps to build engagement with members, provides a promotional and publicity tool as well as having a physical demonstration of our communication abilities for future opportunities.

Science Snapshot Videos and Facebook


Committee Fact box: Average age of 18. 9 Males and

5 Females. 7 af f i l iated with

Monash Universi ty 3 af f i l iated with

Melbourne Univer-si ty

President Justin Sorbello

Your Committee

As President, my duties including formulating an idea, then planning, ex-plaining, creating and following through with it. Whether this is Natcamp, TSE, the Ball or projects like Heliopause and science communication. I also liaise with other partner organizations like ANZAAS and the SSF. I also work on training up the committee and ensuring everyone is working well together as a good team.

As vice-president, I've taken on an advisory role in the YSA committee. I have made myself approachable and available to talk to about anything, YSA related or not. Many people on the committee have asked me for advice on an ongoing basis, drawing on my years of experience in YSA, and the executive. I have also been involved with the ball, TSE. I've also applied my editorial skills to proof and format important YSA documents.

Vice President Dean Mollica

Whilst I‟ve been secretary I‟ve managed the membership database, the Announce system and the various communications to all of our members including mail outs. I‟ve also managed committee meetings, typed minutes and helped run the business of the committee including reviews.

Secretary Matthew De Bono

Being Treasurer is a complex task involving modelling, balancing and au-diting. I have conducted analysis on YSA‟s expenses and create sheets to model our incoming and outgoing expenses for the year. I have also sought quotes and led the purchase and sale of new merchandise such as hoodies and t-shirts. With these I‟ve worked hard to deliver a sound and secure YSA that is able to fun things like the Ball.

Treasurer James Cavallo

Immediate Past President Dom Guinane

In my role as Immediate Past President I helped transition knowledge and skills and add an extra voice of experience to the committee. I assisted with this in the preparation of and during TSE, along with providing exten-sive consultation and work on special areas of my expertise such as Con-stitutional change.

This year as Science Liaison I have been working on communications with members and relations with Science institutions such as the Museum and The Zoo's, as well as in conjunction with the FCC the science experi-ence, and YSA's representation and relationship with rotary. I‟ve also been publicizing to our members upcoming lectures and events.

Science Liaison Katherine Charlton

During my second term in the portfolio of social officer, I have worked to-wards maintaining aspects of YSA Melbourne's Social Calendar including facilitating member interaction, promotion of education, and transferal of skill sets. We‟ve worked to realign the socials with more science content, but keeping the charm of golden oldies in the calendar. We‟ve also worked closely with organisations like CSIRO for some of our events.

Social Coordinator Ricardo Cannizzaro


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The past year has been very busy for the development and publishing of Plasma, YSA Mel-bourne‟s seasonal publication. I have been working to improve the amount of science content available in Plasma, make it easier to submit articles to the publication, and to transfer it from be-ing printed and mailed to being digitally distributed, which allows it room to expand while being more eco-friendly. I have also contributed to the development of YSA Melbourne‟s Elemental Ball, designing and printing the flyers, invites and the tickets for the event.

Editor Amelia Wales

I‟m the webmaster, which means this year I‟ve handled things like changing over our emails, updating our forums and tending to our website. I‟ve also worked on uploading and shar-ing our YSA Radio Show Heliopause as a Podcast that‟s freely available on the net.

Webmaster Stephen Beagley

This year as an MWOP I‟ve built on some of the work I started in my previous term. I continued as the producer for the YSA Radio Show, Heliopause and produced Podcasts of the show. I also helped conduct financial modelling for TSE and served as deputy TSE Treasurer. Using the Alumni connections and past members I am helping create a an Alumni database.

MWOP - Lucy Caine

Being an MWOP has shown me the inner workings of YSA, and has been extremely fascinating and very enjoyable. I never realised before just how much effort goes into maintaining an organisation. Helping the Social Co ordinator was challenging but rewarding, and probably my favourite rota-tion. I have also been working on the Ball and am currently organising and building decorations, and have helped to promote the ball at socials, which has involved writing ball-related trivia ques-tions and helping with the table clue cards.

MWOP– Tessa Marshall

As an MWOP I have been exposed to many aspects of leadership within the executive committee, and I have found it both rewarding and challenging. I‟ve enjoyed working with the Social Coordinator, Editor and the Top 4 roles. I‟ve also been responsible for the YSA Facebook page and promotions for the Elemental Ball as part of my work on the Ball Subcommittee. I‟ve also been involved in con-tacting organizations such as RMIT as part of the Ball promotion.

MWOP - Loughlin Turpin

Whilst holding the MWOP position, the rotation system has enabled me to understand what is re-quired in each position, and the responsibility and expectations also associated with them at a great-er depth. Through my work with the editor, I was given the opportunity of producing a Plasma while on Swinbourne TSE. I also now understand to the degree which treasurer works on YSA funds, and how much time it occupies, as well as other work not related to Money specifically, like merchandise. As well as the rotations, being on the Ball Subcommittee, I was able to contribute lots, seeing the results of contribution to discussions and providing feedback.

MWOP– Emily Beagley

As an MWOP, I have had a taste of the different positions the executive committee has to offer. Working with the Top 4 helped me to understand the inner workings of the organisation, those that keep it running smoothly. When working under the social coordinator, I helped organise venue book-ings and transportation to the venue, and under the editor I contributed with articles and proof-reading. I‟ve also helped with the Ball, with the planning of decorations, assisted in publicising the ball to members and non-members alike, and organised the entertainment for the evening.

MWOP - Daniel McLucas


Financial Report

After promptly ensuring that all legal requirements and bank details had been changed over, YSA Melbourne began a detailed examination of it‟s financial health and stability. At the start of the term, YSA Melbourne had $1300 in it‟s bank account, and approxi-mately $600 worth of assets in the form of t-shirts, hoodies and merchandise bags. Upon taking office with the new committee, a thorough investigation of the Bank balance was done to attempt to reconcile each of the items and gain a clear understand-ing of the financial position of the organisation. Using this information, a model was built up of the YSA expenses and position going forward. This enabled the Treasurer and assistant MWOPs to forecast upcoming expenses and compare determine the nature of past expenses. In particular this modelling and past examination led to decision that TSE expenses posed a serious risk at current spending levels, and the decision made to tighten spending and increase the fees for TSE for the first time in 4 years to cover in-flating costs but maintain the same level of quality and fun.

Auditing

At the start of the term, the YSA Treasury had lapsed in its record keeping, not updated required financial infor-mation and had unaccounted for items of expenditure in it‟s chequebook and Bank Balance. From this uneasy position, YSA Melbourne is now in a very secure state with a sound outlook for the future and with many worth-while investments.

Humble beginnings

Financial Fact Box: Sound f inancial

model ing and forecast ing along with budgeting done.

YSA invested in

new merchan-dise, new types of socials and science show equipment.

Raised $199.50

for the Prem-ier‟s Flood Ap-peal .

Sound f inancial

out look for the future.

YSA Melbourne‟s Treasurer is responsible for managing our YSA bank account and ensuring that all income and expenses are documented and managed in a way ap-proved by the State Government of Victoria. YSA Mel-bourne authorizes money to be spent, during a commit-tee meeting and members are reimbursed upon return-ing receipts to the Treasurer. YSA Melbourne maintains a bank account and either uses a Chequebook to reim-burse but a transition to using netbanking has been made where possible. The “Top 4” serve as signatories for the chequebook and bank account.

Roles and Responsibilities


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Financial Statistics: Opening Ba lance $1335.10 + $600 Assets. Closing Ba lance $7976.10 + $2071.10 in

assets. $3300 Payment fo r ba l l due in ear ly Ju ly . Net Posi t ion post Ba l l : $4676.10 +

$2071.10 in assets $199.50 Donated to Premiers F lood Appea l $3392.70 spent on Socia ls

Merchandise, science show equipment, and tools are all assets that make YSA more fun for it‟s members. The money that was taken in from membership fees and socials has been used to invest in purchasing new merchandise. This has include YSA t-shirts and most recently the re-emergence of YSA hoodies. As merchan-dise continues to sell, it reaches a point where the in-come has covered the costs and thus providing YSA with a surplus to help absorb any losses throughout the year and to use in the purchase of new merchandise in the future.

New Investments

YSA Melbourne has funded it‟s first YSA Ball which re-quired a major financial investment that could have put the organisation at risk. Thankfully by a collective effort, YSA Melbourne will only make a small loss of less than 3% for the event. By learning from this, YSA will be able to fund future annual alls and be able to minimise loss-es. YSA Melbourne will continue to maintain it‟s current finances by funding future TSEs and promoting mer-chandise to it‟s members. In the upcoming year, YSA will aim to reach a comfortable and stable financial posi-tion such that we will be able to subsidise members who represent YSA Melbourne to businesses, and for inter-state events such as TSE exchange, Natcamp and Natcon. Given the current finances, this looks like it will occur by the end of the year such that YSA Melbourne will be able to assist their members in any financial diffi-culties when representing the association.

Financial Outlook Details Income Expenditure

Credit Interest 46.7

Consumer Affairs/Bank Fees 136

Publications 185.49

Memberships 2730

Merchandise 1610 2464

FCC Donation 1000

Natcamp 2410 2669.37

TSE 3169 3252.54

Mailbox Renewal 86

Donation to Premier's Flood Re-lief

199.5

Ball 6441.5 3313.3

Socials 3392.7 1852.82

Total 20800 14159.02

Net Gain 6640.9

Opening Balance 1335.1

Closing Balance 7976.1

Bank Balance After Closing Ball repayment

4676.1

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Bank Balance


A few words from the Secretary

80% of our members live within Greater Melbourne, while the other 20% live in country Victoria or interstate. Members actively engage with each other at so-cials, and are friendly and open to new comers, evident at socials including Rock Climbing and Mind, Body, Science, encouraging new applications every month. Our members also keep in regu-lar communication with each other through the YSA Melbourne internet fo-rum. All of our country members, along with suburban members, participate in TSE and regularly socialize within their own communities, and when they move to Melbourne it is quite common for them to move in with or near current YSA members, and in the process gain an informal mentorship.

Location

The main source of members for YSA Melbourne is the Science Experience schools (TSE) and this year brought a membership influx of approximately 130 members, both new and renewing from staff and students. Victoria has 8 universities running the Science Experience, and 4 of these include YSA in their program. Members also learn of YSA through friends of other members, internet inquiries and our YSA Radio Show. We have also ac-quainted ourselves with other youth and science organi-zations such as ANZAAS, IAus and others.

Sources

Membership Fact Box: 142 Financial

members, 5 Fel lows.

Varied sources

but predomi-nant ly TSE.

80% Metropol i -

tan Melbourne 81% under 18. Increase to

72% female. Strong coordi -

nat ion with Treasurer for easy member-ship manage-ment.

In the past 12 months as Secretary I have mostly been responsible for calling and minuting executive meetings and the maintenance of the database, ensuring it is kept up to date and improving it when the need arises. As of June 24th 2011, YSA Melbourne has 142 financial members and 4 fellows.

81% of our member base is under the age of 18 (as at June 2011) and are on average around 17 years of age. The most common drop off point for our members is 17 as this is when school and extracurricular activities take prefer-ence. The average age of our committee members is 18. In the last AGM the ex-ecutive committee was elected such that 29% (4/14) is at High school, whereas the remaining 71% are at University or Full time work. This allows for the older members to provide mentorship to the younger members, and still have a wide range of young perspectives.

Age


72% of the YSA Melbourne member base is Female, which reflects the gender bias of the TSE schools that we staff. The change in gender percentage has begun to increase again, up from 67% last year. Our executive committee is 35% female, down from pre-vious years. Our male staff have been great positive role models to both members and students. This means that those males who do TSE and think that “science is nerdy” have realized that it is a lot of fun and have hence joined YSA Melbourne. Although we have a gender bias it has never been a problem in YSA Melbourne.

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2010-2011 Statistics: Average age of approximately 17. 81% of members under 18. 72% Female Committee only 35% female. 142 Members, 5 Fellows. 80% from Metropolitan Melbourne

2009-2010 Statistics Average age of approximately 17. 75% of members under 18. 67% Female. Committee only 35% female. 159 Members, 4 Fellows. 83% from Metropolitan Melbourne

Once a membership application is received it is entered into the database by the Secretary. The money is then given to the Treasurer to bank, at which point the Treas-urer will write a receipt. Once a member is added to the database they receive a personalized email through the announce system to welcome the member to YSA Mel-bourne. Since gaining the ability to use online banking, we have recently implemented an online application process. A person who wishes to apply via this method will submit their application via email and deposit their membership payment in the YSA Melbourne account, and when the payment has been received the Treasurer will notify the Secretary, and the application will be entered in the da-tabase. A record of all applications done in this manner is also kept. Membership renewal forms are attached to our newslet-ter, and a renewal email is sent out to all members as well as “renew” being written next to the address when the newsletter is sent out. Once these have been sent out the member receives one more newsletter, after which time they are removed from the database (approximately April each year). Currently the policy of YSA Melbourne is that member-ships be renewed in January of each year, which corre-sponds to the time of TSE, with the exception of those members who join following our September TSE, who are asked to renew at that time in the next year. The date of application and renewal is kept on record in the database, which allows upcoming renewals to be easily gathered and collated. At present the membership details are handled by the Secretary only, but can be viewed upon request by any member of YSA Melbourne.

Membership Management Gender

In periods of server downtimes, to use the “Announce” functionality of the server (the mass mailing tool used to email members) the Secretary has sent BCC emails to our members. This solution requires a lot of manual effort and is undesirable. Furthermore in such downtimes, all communications to YSA email addresses like [email protected]. org.au go down. Due to the critical nature of events like TSE, the Ball or Social RSVPS, we have moved progressively to using a variety of event or purpose specific Gmail accounts. Such accounts were creat-ed such as [email protected] to handle all applications for the TSE staffing applications. This email address was made accessible to the subcom-mittee and enabled all communications to come from a single central point. Whilst ideally, using YSA emails addresses are preferred, this short term solu-tion did work effectively. This year, more than ever, YSA Melbourne has uti-lized the announce email list. We have had a very positive response from it, and the secretary‟s duty is to keep it up to date. The passwords have been changed recently and the moderator list updated to include Secretary, President and Vice President as the only moderators.

Email Communication


Organizational Structuring

This was a major change to enable more people to be involved in YSA Melbourne. If a member of the organization is strongly interested and has a set of skills or experience that is needed by the committee, then the committee can “Co-opt” this member onto the Executive Committee. What this means is that the “Co-opted” person becomes for all intents and purposes a member of the committee, and such is added to the email list, and counts for meetings. However as they are not elected by the general membership they are unable to vote. This enables people who may be involved in leading a subcommittee, or serving in an advisory role on the committee to be in the loop and involved. It also provide a way for younger members who are keen to get involved a chance to get onto the committee in a simple way before the election season of the AGM.

Co-Option

YSA Melbourne as an incorporated body has several requirements and rules governing how it operates. This is enshrined in our Constitution or Rules of Organization which we‟ve submitted to Consumer Affairs as part of the Incorporation process. Unfortunately there were several things in our submitted constitution which did not make much sense, such as numbering or typographical errors or parts of the model rules which do not work for organizations of our small size. Therefore after drafting and seeking committee ap-proval, a General Meeting was held on the 16th of June at 6.15pm to ratify a series of changes to the Constitution. The changes covered four main areas: 1) Numbering and typographical areas. There were simple and logical fixes that should have been corrected earlier. It also includes areas where due to the scale of the organi-zation the standard rules do not make sense for example meeting quorum. These are designed to increase transparency and fairness. 2) Operational changes to bring the Constitution into line with CA guidelines or enable the interface with CA to be easier. For instance Public officer or membership details requests. 3) The allowing of Co-Option of ordinary members to the Executive Committee. This enables the executive to draft members to fill gaps or requirements. Co- opted members become full members of the committee but are unable to vote as they are not elected. It lets more people be more involved. 4) Stating that YSA should have Policy and Guideline documents. These documents help YSA understand what it should and should not do and serve as a guide for the committee and the members on how YSA works.

Constitutional Change

Organization: Constitutional

change to in-crease transper-ancy and open-ness.

New Co-Opted

positions to allow those who are eager to become committee mem-bers.

New policy docu-

ments and guidelines to help provide re-sources and guidance.

Peer review pro-

cess of evalua-tion of the com-mittee helped them improve and grow, devel-oping new skills and learning more about themselves.


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Performance Statistics:

Performance statistical Averages for the Committee Year long Average Communication Score: 71.4% Year long Average Approachability Score: 76.6% Year long Average Overall Score: 75.7% Year long Average of Average Scores: 74.6% Number of assessments forms filled out: 31

The Constitution is a big and complex document, but it doesn‟t say explicitly how specific things should be done. The purpose of Policy documents and Guidelines is to tell the committee how certain things should operate. For instance, how a subcommittee should operate and report, and how frequently or the steps required upon the changing of a committee during handover. These guidelines are important to ensuring the committee runs smoothly. Initial Policy and Guidelines have been drafted for the following areas, and are under review and will be adopted or refined by the next committee. YSA Melbourne has drafted Policy relating to TSE, to Subcommittees and a set of Standing Orders for Executive meetings. These are mostly common sense and current practice, but by writing these down we preserve the knowledge and ensure that others in the future have a place to go to for help

Policy Documents and Guidelines

Whilst the Executive committee always strives to do the best it can, we understand that from time to time all of us make mistakes or have areas we could improve on. With that in mind we developed a way to track our performance over the year and to see if we were able to improve. It was decided to focus on three criteria initially, Communications, Approachability and Overall performance. There was also a constructive comments are for additional personalized feedback. We are pre-senting this data here for you the members to see how we evaluated the performance of the committee. Initially this was trailed on the Secretariat to see if the system worked effectively. Questionnaire forms were distributed on paper and anonymously filled out at the committee meeting by members for each of the mem-bers of the “Top 4” (President, Vice President, Treasur-er and Secretary). These were then analysed and the resulted compiled for each member by a returning of-ficer. The comments and results helped the Secretariat have an understanding of their strengths and weak-nesses and areas to improve on. Given the success of the initial trial, using a series of Google document forms emailed out to the members, the committee also adopted a similar anonymous re-

Peer Performance Review view process for giving feedback to each member. The initial results were quite high, and taken around TSE time, following this the second feedback and review ses-sion was conducted in April. A final set of feedback was collected in late June. Whilst the results start from a high point and then sharp-ly trend down on average, this can be attributed to an adjustment to using the ranking system (giving more ac-curate numbers) rather than a lack of performance. The series of data suggest that whilst people may be ap-proachable, often communication between the commit-tee and others can be lacking. The constructive com-ments allowed a great opportunity for people to under-stand other areas they could improve on. The committee took these on board with a positive response and worked hard to try and improve themselves. The Peer Review process worked very well for the com-mittee to learn more about itself and try and improve its work. The process has been automated to work quickly and efficiently. Whilst the results show areas for im-provement, the committee is happy in the knowledge of its own weaknesses and has tried to improve itself.

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