Kate Freedman, ALLA President

Dear ALLA Colleagues,

What strange times we live in. Writing my last column celebrating ALLA’s 50th anniversary, I never suspected that the way we work, collaborate and socialise would have changed so much in the intervening months. As I write this, I am in my house, working from home, and the government has instituted a ban on gatherings on more than two people. Australia has reached 4000 cases of COVID-19 and, sadly, 26 deaths. I hope by the time this is being read, that number is not much higher.

Living and working from home comes with its own challenges and I hope everyone is taking advantage of the help that is being offered by either their employers and / or their state and the federal governments, and staying safe and healthy. If you are having to travel to work, please remember to stay safe on public transport and in the office. It is with great sadness that we have to announce that the 2020 Canberra ALLA Conference will not be going ahead this year. After careful consideration we decided to make this decision early in order to give people peace of mind in this uncertain time. We are working out the details of when it will be held in 2021 but it will still be in Canberra. We will let you know of the revised date and other developments as they happen via our ALLA Webpage and the ALLA-ANZ e-list.

This ALLA-ANZ national e-list is our primary tool for communicating widely both to members and other interested parties on the list, so please sign up for it from the website at https:// www.alla.asn.au/communication/email-lists/australia-nz/. Note that this is an open list, so anyone can join, not just ALLA members. All subscribers and readers of this journal can join the list and be kept informed. It is important we all look after each other and support each other during this time. Collaborating via the e-list will be a great tool to help us stay connected. If you have any suggestions about how we can support each other at either a state or national level, please reach out to either myself or your state president.

Stay safe.

Kate

3 April 2020