ARCIA planning for the future

ARCIA's priorities for 2017 and the years ahead will help all industry participants capitalise on technological change.

During the second week of February the ARCIA committee, plus a couple of other supporters and representatives from RFUANZ in New Zealand, met in Melbourne for its annual planning day. The main emphasis of the planning day is to map out the priorities for the year ahead, an exercise that has seen the ARCIA committee set and meet targets for growth over the past four years.

Some 18 people sat around the table at the Airport Parkroyal Hotel and a wide range of issues was discussed. This year the association will review the membership benefits offered and try to put together a strategy document that will show the way ahead for the industry and members. The aim is to show that, with some planning and flexibility, most of the present industry participants have a future looking two, five and 10 years into the future. There is no doubt that the strategy has to include wireless technologies outside of the historical radio market; however, with our knowledge of spectrum, and our client needs, we should be able to move into those areas without too much difficulty.

During the past year our website committee has been working on a major review of the ARCIA site (www.arcia.org.au) and the draft layout was discussed at the meeting. The next stage will be to coordinate the content, which each of the subcommittees has been charged with preparing. Although it is a ‘reach-out’ target we are hoping to have much of the work completed by mid-year, so all committee members will be busy.

In addition, we are still working our way through training issues and it is quite frustrating when we seem to make progress but people in the industry don’t support us with input on future apprentice hirings or training needs.

This year is the 10th anniversary of the formation of ARCIA; our predecessor, the Radio Site Operators & Users Association (RSOUA) operated for some 20 years prior to that. We do feel that the association has become a valuable part of the radio industry over the past 10 years. The committee is looking at some exciting ways to recognise the milestone and they will be announced later on in the year.

There was also some discussion on our events and the committee is asking all of our members and industry personnel to support the events run between ARCIA and Comms Connect, especially the Perth (16 March) and Adelaide events. The numbers at these are small and to keep them going means we need to have a higher level of participation.

The day after the committee planning day we met with our ‘Partners’ or sponsors, with around 16 people at the meeting. It is very comforting to see the level of support shown by the industry suppliers towards ARCIA, and the general consensus is that ARCIA is doing good things for the industry and they are happy to keep supporting us. The Partners supported the initiatives set by the committee the previous day and are keen to see ARCIA develop a strategy document to lead the industry forward for the future. Obviously the suppliers need the industry to be in a healthy state for their benefit as well.

On behalf of the ARCIA executive team, we sincerely thank our Partners for their support, and also give thanks to the volunteer committee members who gave up a day of their lives to sit and talk about the industry’s future. We also thank those employers who allowed their staff to head to Melbourne for the day; it is very sincerely appreciated. If you know a committee member, thank them for their efforts, and then thank their employer for also supporting our industry.