Member Benefits

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Australian Computer Society SEARCC EXCO
Richard G Hogg Immediate Past President Vice
President SEARCC
Advancing IT Professionals
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Australian Computer Society

• 1 Membership Information
• The Australian Computer Society (ACS) is
  suffering from a declining level in professional
  membership.
• This started in 2001 and has continued up to
  today. Current financial membership is 11346 as
  at 30th June 2005 compared with 12867 in October
  2001.

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Australian Computer Society
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Australian Computer Society

• In 2004 the ACS introduced 2 new member grades,
  Companion and Senior Member,
• Companion membership is available to those
  professionals who are in senior management roles
  in another discipline but do not qualify for
  professional membership.

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Australian Computer Society

• Senior membership is available to those existing
  professional members who have been full members
  for 10 or more years
• have been in a position of major responsibility
  for at least 5 years
• and are employed in the ICT industry at the time
  of the application.

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Australian Computer Society

• The main reasons for the declining membership
  are-
• The lack of recognition by employers of the
  benefits of employing ICT professionals.
• Lack of support from governments and employers to
  ensure mission critical systems are developed,
  implemented by recognised ICT professionals

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Australian Computer Society

• The non-acceptance by ICT professionals of the
  potential benefits to their career of being a
  member of the appropriate professional
  association.
• The latter has an impact on the student to
  graduate member group, despite the subscription
  increasing incrementally for the first 3 years
  after graduation.
• These are key issues facing ACS despite the
  number of member benefits offered.

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Australian Computer Society

• The most promising avenue for increasing
  professional membership is the forthcoming
  Professional Standards Legislation.

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Australian Computer Society

• Increased litigation has consequences
• The consequences can be social, economic and
  legal and lead to decreased public access to
  professional services by
• Lower numbers of professionals in fields such as
  medicine (eg obstetricians)

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Australian Computer Society

• Increased premiums and decreased insurance taken
  out
• Service delays/ less reliable service
• Client screening and other defensive practices

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Australian Computer Society

• The Scheme specifies the classes of persons
  within the association to whom the Scheme will
  apply.
• All members of the ACS who are Certified
  Computer Professionals
• This is the closest we will ever get to a licence
  to operate as an ICT professional

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Australian Computer Society

• 2. Major issues for ICT in Australia
• 1.Skills and training/education.
• Higher Education Falling enrolment and
  completion numbers now includes a fall in the
  number of International students

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Australian Computer Society

• TAFE Falling enrolments
• In Victoria diversion of funds to other courses
  where the government considers jobs to be in
  demand
• ICT Trade Deficit. Still increasing now 19bn up
  from 14bn in 2003.

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Australian Computer Society

• 3 ICT Best Practices
• Health networks.
• The South West Alliance Of Rural Health (SWARH)
  is an Alliance of public health agencies in the
  South West of Victoria
• SWARH was formed to focus on the development of
  ICT for the Acute Public Hospitals in this region.

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Australian Computer Society

• Covering an area of approximately 60,000 sq.
  kilometres connecting all public acute hospitals
  and associated health services in a region
  extending from west of Melbourne to the South
  Australian Border.

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Australian Computer Society

• With financial incentive provided by the
  Department of Human Services, the SWARH Alliance
  provides individual agencies with the capacity to
  invest in technology to improve service delivery
  and gain returns on their investment that would
  not be possible on their own.

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Advancing IT Professionals
Australian Computer Society (Victorian Branch) 28
Clarendon Street South Melbourne Vic 3205 Tel
[phone] Fax [phone] Email
acsvic_at_acsvic.com www.acs.org.au