Industry talking — positive thinking for 2022

Welcome to the next edition from your ARCIA president. To begin with I went back and reviewed what we discussed 12 months ago. It seemed that the COVID situation was improving and we were looking forward to having a Comms Connect in October 2021, and yet here we are in 2022 — just like Groundhog Day we are hoping that October 2022 will be the first annual gala dinner for two years.

We hope that all of our industry members are surviving these very stressful times and that you are finding new ways to succeed in business. As I write this supply chain issues are really affecting the industry with across-the-board price rises and shortages of common equipment required for projects around the country. Surely by the end of 2022 we will have seen the worst of COVID over and we can begin to return to normal life.

ARCIA now has a learning management system online with the beginnings of material and courses being posted for the benefit of our membership and the industry in general. Members will be kept up to date and encouraged to interact with the learning management system as we feel it is ready for operations. The initial courses will be simple professional development and industry overview material suitable for a wide audience, including those less technical than others. ARCIA will continue to invest in more technical courses with a deeper technical skills base required as we add value to the system. The intention of the learning management system is to enable a wide range of people within the industry to access micro learning skills that they can use every day out in the field. With the help of ARCIA partners, mentors and associates, the intent is to have a range of material online to add value for all of our members and hopefully to grow our membership over time.

In addition to the learning management system, ARCIA is looking to invest in a membership database system to help better organise and manage the membership system while minimising the amount of time that people need to spend manually. The aim here is to allow our members to interact with the membership system directly including payment of fees and access to other benefits as we expand the capabilities of the system.

Although we put the Lunchtime Learning program on hold earlier in the year, we are keen to continue to offer the simple form of education and knowledge to our members. We had great feedback from many people, and it was pleasing to hear that many industry personnel appreciate the opportunity to learn more. If you have a topic you would like us to cover, please let us know.

Now that we have locked in the annual gala dinner for October, planning can begin on making this the biggest and best event we have ever done. We know that people really enjoy the night, the industry networking and the peer recognition through awards.

One of the items that the committee has been considering is the scope of the awards that we present each year. Currently they are all focused on recognising people within our industry. One of the things that we constantly come across is the amazing level of local innovation and manufacturing that often goes unrecognised.

ARCIA has been considering whether we should add a new category to recognise companies manufacturing wireless-related products in Australia. Given the current turmoil in the supply chain and the discussions around local manufacturing, it seems timely that we should do everything we can to promote our industry. The committee would be happy to hear from any members on their thoughts about the awards and their relevance to our industry overall.

By the time you read this article, the committee will have had the virtual planning day sessions to map out the way ahead for the association. We are always looking at new and different ways to meet our primary aims of protecting our spectrum, lifting the skills and image of our industry and providing networking opportunities to foster the sharing of knowledge between peers. If you have any suggestions on how we might be able to meet some of those goals, please contact us and let us know.