b'FEANTUERWESD ARTICLEReflecting on the last decade of developmentAs my tenure with Educate Plus draws to a close, I have reflected on what has occurred during this decade and those people who have contributed to this. W on the organisation as we became even more strategically hile working in Education in the late 90s, I found myself regularly assisting Peter Crook, the thenfocussed in our thinking. Director of Development at Scotch CollegeOne of my first observations of the organisation was Melbourne. Little was I to know that Peter was one of thearound the acronym founding fathers of the organisation I was to end up servingADAPE (Association of years later.Development and Alumni Professionals in Education). I took over the CEO role of ADAPE, as it was called then, inVery few people actually January 2012. When I began my tenure, I was appreciativeknew what it stood for of the unitarian structure that Alan Watkinson and his boardand there was a myriad of had established a few years earlier. This unified modelpronunciations, or should say mispronunciations of the word. presented a board without parochialism and with a sharedThe organisation had also evolved since its inception and purpose. was now far more than a Fundraising group, so at the 2012 International Conference we rebranded to Educate Plus.Di Lawrence took over the role of Chair from Tony Hume inBy this time, we had growing numbers of Admissions, the same year and so our journey began. As part of our initialMarketing & Communications and Alumni staff joining us to strategic planning exercise, we engaged Stephen Shepherdseek professional development and support. Membership at as the facilitator. Stephen led the board on a journey of self- this point was around 600. As the new CEO, I analysed what reflection and blue sky thinking. As a result, and with theexactly the value proposition was, that we were offering, and masterful input from David Day, each Chapter relinquishedwhat schools and tertiary institutions might be looking for one of their two Directorships which allowed for skill-basedfrom us. appointments to be made. This had a significant impact Group photo of the 2015 Gold Coast Training8 FACE 2 FACE MAGAZINE'