ALLA (WA) News Blog

Please join ALLA (WA) President, David McDowell in congratulating Sky Atkins and Alice Hewitt on being the successful applicants to receive the ALLA (WA) Bursaries for the ALLA Conference 2022 in Hobart (24-26 August 2022).  Sky and Alice will both provide a presentation of their conference experiences to ALLA(WA) members later in the year, as part of the Bursary requirements.  David  would like to thanks ALLA (WA) committee members Jane Beer and Gilien Bevan for being part of the selection committee with me. Congratulations again Sky and Alice!  Early Bird Registrations for the ALLA Conference 2022 close Friday 8 July 2022

Dear ALLA(WA) members, Happy New Year! I hope you all managed to have a relaxing break over the Christmas and New Year holidays.  Before we welcomed 2022, ALLA (WA) held its AGM on the 25th November 2021 at Grand Bar & Bistro. Thank you to everyone that attended and to Jane Beer and Alice Hewitt for organising the venue and food. The lamb shanks were massive!     The Special Resolution brought forward to remove the requirement of having a Vice President position and reducing the minimum general committee member positions to two members was passed unanimously. These changes to our ALLA (WA) Rules have been submitted to and processed by the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety, Western Australia.  Our ALLA Rules received an audit during this process and it was picked up that we do not currently have a section in our Rules that addresses disputes between members and the association. We also need to amend the Rules to include the day in each year ...

It's the ALLA (WA) Blog's 11th Birthday! Our first post back on the 25th of October 2010 was a President's Letter , from our then  President Jacqueline Seligmann.  The ALLA (WA) Committe thanks all of our current and past contributors and readers.  To celebrate this milestone, our current President David McDowell has a fresh new President's Letter. 

ALLA (WA) members are invited to the   ALLA (WA) Annual General Meeting  on WEdnesday  23 October  2019   at   DLA PIPER, Level 31 Central Park 152-158 St Georges Terrace   commencing at  5:15 pm . Please   RSVP   your attendance via email to the  ALLA (WA) Secretary, Natalie McDonald by   5pm Monday 21 October 2019 . If you have any dietary requirements please let Natalie know with your RSVP by email:   natalie.mcdonald@iinet.net.au If you   cannot   attend, please complete the proxy form and email it to 2017/2018 ALLA (WA) Secretary Natalie McDonald, by  5pm Monday 21 October 2018 . Please find linked below the following documents: ·            2019 ALLA (WA) AGM Agenda ·            2019 ALLA (WA) AGM Proxy Form  – to be completed by members who cannot attend the AGM Posted on Behalf ...

ALLA (WA) members are invited to the ALLA (WA) Annual General Meeting on 4th July 2018 at The George commencing at 12.30pm . I would like to take this opportunity to thank Greta Dye and Thomson Reuters for sponsoring our AGM. Unfortunately, we did not receive enough nominations to fill the office bearers positions of Vice President and Secretary.  If additional nominations are not received, in order to ensure that ALLA (WA) can form a committee of management several nominated committee members may volunteer to take on dual positions.  This will be confirmed at the AGM. The AGM will be followed by lunch and a presentation by Lucas Frederick, Senior Product Developer from Thomson Reuters.  Lucas has worked for Thomson Reuters for almost 15 years and has been involved in various aspects of legal publishing.  Lucas will present on Thomson Reuters international Sweet and Maxwell, Carswell and Brookers titles. I look forward to seeing as many as possib...

Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday break. We will see you all in 2018!

Hi ALLA(WA) Members Natalie McDonald, ALLA (WA) President Please see below for an update on the services and events of the ALLA(WA). Upcoming ALLA(WA) PD & Social Events The End of Year Celebration was held on Wednesday, 30 November 2016.  LexisNexis kindly offered their venue for the night where members enjoyed a selection of canapés and wine whilst they toasted the end of year with colleagues. A brown bag CPD session was held on 14th February 2017 where the membership gathered to discuss negotiations with publishers on subscription renewals.  The session stipulated no publishers.  The session was well attended and discussions very informative.  Members who attended received notes from the session. An Employment Law Fundamentals is planned for March. MOU Update On Wednesday 30th November 2016, the same date as the End of Year Celebration, the ALLA(WA) membership held a vote to sign the proposed new MOU with ALLA Ltd.  The vote was carried i...

Hi ALLA(WA) Members Natalie McDonald,  ALLA (WA) President Please see below for an update on the services and events of the ALLA(WA). Upcoming ALLA(WA) PD & Social Events The ALLA(WA) CPD Sub Committee have created a calendar of proposed upcoming events for the 2016/2017 period which have been available on the Calendar of Events page.  One event per month will be arranged (sometimes even two), with nothing scheduled over the December-January holiday period. A brown bag CPD session was held on 13th October where Mawghan Elverd, the recipient of the Wolters Kluwer CCH Conference Bursary, shared some of her highlights of the August 2016 ALLA Conference in Melbourne, Victoria.  All who attended came away with some valuable insights. We thank those who took time to provide feedback after this event. The End of Year Celebration will be held on Wednesday 30th November 2016.   A Save the Date has already been emailed to members and shared on our social medi...

Hi ALLA(WA) Members Natalie McDonald, ALLA (WA) President Each month I’ll be writing a President's Corner post, letting you know about the services and events of the ALLA(WA). ALLA(WA) AGM We held our AGM on 27th July 2016 where the new 2016/2017 Committee were confirmed.  This term we had a few new members join the Committee Catherine Kafentzis from University of WA Law Library and Stephen Griffiths from the Dept of Attorney General’s Library. The details of the new Committee have been updated on the ALLA website , and our blog. The attendance at the AGM and past AGM’s have been poor and one of our focus’ for this year is to look at ways of improving the attendance either by combining the AGM with another event or holding it at different times (i.e. Breakfast).   If you have any ideas or feedback please let me know. Upcoming ALLA(WA) PD & Social Events The ALLA(WA) CPD Sub Committee have been busy creating a schedule of professional development and social e...

ALLA has appointed Richard Vankoningsveld to the position of Membership Co-ordinator. Richard has currently been employed at Legal Aid Queensland, has previously had significant involvement in ALLA Queensland Division, and brings a wealth of knowledge on technical issues to the role.   The role is for a fixed term of 3 years initially.   Welcome to you Richard!

On behalf of ALLA (WA) I would like to congratulate Jim Pitts on his contribution to the legal profession in Western Australia over the past 25 years.   Jim was recently awarded a National Customer Service award in recognition of the outstanding customer service he has provided as Relationship Director, LexisNexis. Jim always goes the extra mile to ensure his clients’ problems are solved and he has the ability to put the customer first in his calm and professional manner.   He has built relationships with many clients in Western Australia and uses his extensive knowledge to provide the best outcomes. Well done Jim on receiving your award and thank you for continuing to ensure that the legal profession and in particular the library profession in Western Australia continues to be well served.  Alice Hewitt ALLA (WA) President 2015-2016

Dear members, The State Solicitors Office released a communication on Monday 18 May 2015 about the future of the Law Library at the Supreme Court of Western Australia, please see the attached notice. Consultation seminars and workshops have been organised to aid in addressing any questions from the profession. These seminars will be held on Monday, 25 May from 1.00-2.00pm, Monday, 25 May from 4.30-5.30pm, and Friday, 29 May from 9.00-10.00am at the Law Society , Level 5, 160 St Georges Terrace, Perth. If you would like to attend one of the sessions please register with Emily Negus at the State Solicitors Office either by telephone (08) 9264 1888 or E.Negus@sso.wa.gov.au . I will be attending one of these sessions, and intend to seek clarification regarding access to the Law Library collection for librarians and library staff; and how inter-library loans and requests will be handled. I would encourage everyone to either attend or provide feedback.  If you are unable...

Dear members, On behalf of the ALLA (WA) Committee, we would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and thank you for the continued support over the past year. Please stay safe this festive season, and we will see you at our Icebreaker event planned for February 2015. Mawghan Elverd ALLA(WA) President 2014/2015 Bibliotheek Kortrijk, "Boekenkerstboom" retrieved from Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bibliotheekkortrijk/ . Image used under CC BY 2.0 ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ )

Dear members, Welcome to the New Year. Last year, 2012, was a year of change. The special resolution vote to dissolve ALLA Inc was passed at the AGM. This was the first step in achieving the National Membership Model. Since then, the Commissioner of Consumer Affairs (WA) has approved the wind-up of the national entity of ALLA Inc and the transfer of assets to ALLA Ltd. We have also introduced new sub-committees such as the Salary Survey Sub-Committee and the Blog Focus Group. Both are working on a number of initiatives and projects. Our CPD program continues to be successful and well attended. The annual Christmas party is more popular than ever. This year we aim to do it bigger and better. We will continue to reach out to our members with the initiatives started off by the various sub-committees and also come up with new ones to better serve our members and create a platform for bonding. The first event of the year is the Icebreaker Breakfast, which will be held on 20 Febr...

Dear Members, We have hit November already - it is unbelievable. We have so many exciting events and projects planned for the rest of the financial year, starting off with Fiona Archibald, our ALLA(WA) Conference Bursary winner, giving members a wrap-up of what happened at the conference in Brisbane - dancing librarians, need we say more? - on 21 November at Herbert Smith Freehills. Our Christmas function on 5 December at The Generous Squire is also fast approaching. If you intend to attend the conference wrap-up and/or the Christmas function, please RSVP to Belinda Eisenhauer . We would love to see you all there! In terms of projects planned, our biennial Employment and Salary Survey will be run in the new year. We encourage all members to participate as the survey provides information relating to the nature of law libraries and the value firms and organisations place on the services we provide. We also have changes planned for the blog, placing a bigger focus on current awa...

Dear Members, And just like that… we are almost half way through the year… Crazy times! Whilst I have been fairly silent in terms of official Presidential posts, I hope you have enjoyed the many updates to the other pages on the Blog! Our crack team of social media assassins are quietly squirreling away until the early hours of the morning to bring you the latest and greatest news for the Association on both a State and National level. Have anything to add? Then please contact one of the Committee members post-haste! (Our details can all be found on the National website… speaking of which... have you checked out the National website lately? http://www.alla.asn.au/sd-wa-main/sd-wa-wa/wacontact ) So – what’s the goss? · We have seen a number of exciting positions posted to the list and blog in the last few weeks – keep an eye on our Movers and Shakers page to stay up-to-date with the shuffle this will no doubt bring. Have you moved recently (or are you about to?) – once again let...

Dear Members, Only 3 sleeps until Christmas – can you believe it?!! The month of December seems to have disappeared into some sort of vortex... surely it hasn’t been 3 weeks since the ALLA Christmas Party?! Like all of you, December has been a busy month for me – starting with a trip to KL for the IALL 2011 Conference: The Dynamics of Malaysian Law in the Global World. Librarians from all over the world attended, with some familiar Aussie faces – Robin Gardner, Natalie Weiland, scholarship winner Debbie Bennett, IALL President Petal Kinder and ex-pat Ruth Bird. The papers were amazing and covered a broad range of topics – including Islamic banking principles, maritime law, human rights, legal education and research in Malaysia, and a fabulous panel presentation on access to free legal resources in Malaysia, Singapore, India, Australia and the Philippines. And just like that... 2011 draws to an end. In a year that has flown by, we have eaten breakfast together, lunched together and dr...

Dear Members, November? Really? And the end of November no less... where has the year gone! Christmas is fast approaching – and we all know what that means – time for the ALLA (WA) Christmas Function! We are celebrating tomorrow night at Rubix Bar – and with well over 30 members attending it is set to be a fantastic event! Drinks and food will be plentiful – with Lexis Nexis sponsoring some fabulous door prizes! RSVP’s closed for the Christmas Party last week – so if you missed out on attending this event never fear – the CPD Committee is busy planning a full calendar of fabulous events for 2012! A big thank you to Mawghan Elverd, Lisa Lester (nee Nichols) and Belinda Eisenhaur for all of their efforts throughout 2011! Another thank you goes out to Jennifer Moore for her wonderful Post-Conference Wrap-Up at the Country Road Cafe Breakfast Brown Bag on November 16th. Jennifer was the recipient of this year’s Conference Bursary and as such represented WA at the ACTioning the Law in ...