Letter from the President

Dear Resident,

My name is Michael and I have the honour of being President of the National Association of Australian University Colleges for 2009, our 41st year.

NAAUC can trace its beginnings to a small group of College Club Presidents that met in 1968, launching its inaugural National Conference the following year at the University of Sydney. Since then, NAAUC has grown from the initial small group to a membership which fluctuates at over 90 member colleges.

With this growth in numbers, the Association has expanded its operation to provide greater contact between college residents outside the Annual Conference. Every year we expand our state-level professional development programs, and in this year in particular we are building the content of our website to give members 24 hour access to 40 years of accumulated knowledge regarding student leadership living on campus. This constant evolution is how NAAUC has developed into the peak representative body for tertiary students living on-campus.

So back to 1968... these Presidents met in Sydney without “NAAUC Inc”, without a constitution and without any money – all they had was a cool idea. 41 years later, NAAUC returns to the University of Sydney with the same good idea it had back then: bringing college people together. Fittingly, our theme for the 2009 Annual Conference is ‘Uniting Today, Empowering Tomorrow’.

This theme reflects what NAAUC is all about: seeking collegiality or more broadly, community spirit. Very importantly, I don’t see the Conference as the ends to this goal – we’ll give you, the delegate, the skills, the ideas and the inspiration to go home and unite your community, whether that be a college, an inter-college body, a hall, a village, a house, or whatever else you might call it.

It has been 21 years since NAAUC was held at the University of Sydney, and we are very, very lucky to have St Andrew’s College as our host for 2009. “Drews” was founded over 140 years ago – the place is an absolute castle. The only thing more impressive than their buildings is the strength of their community – they are an army. Not only will it be bloody awesome to stay there, but it is the perfect backdrop to our underlying theme – Unite!!!!

I look forward to meeting many of you in July!

Sincerely,

Michael Douglas