Christmas is fast approaching, and I guess you, like all of us at Avisure, are looking forward to some downtime after what has been a rollercoaster of a year. No doubt you will have varied family traditions for celebrating the festive season, and at Avisure, we also end the year with a tradition. Sadly, although this will be the second year that we are unable to catch up in person, it won’t stop us from our tradition of celebrating our team.
One of the ways we do this is by calling for nominations from the team for someone (or two or three) they feel has risen to the challenge, gone above and beyond, making a significant contribution to their team, to Avisure or to the industry. This year has been more challenging than usual, so recognising and celebrating that effort with our ‘Employee of the Year’ award is especially important.
And what a year we have had! Some highlights of our chaotic, challenging COVID-year include:
- We delivered 103 projects across Australia, in New Zealand, and even remotely, in Belgrade, for example.
- Despite everything, this year we have grown slightly and will be looking to expand more in 2022. We welcomed Jessica Radford and Charlotte Kok to the southern Australian team, Laura Kokshoorn and Joel Curtis to the northern Australian team, and Emily XXX to our corporate services team.
- Avisure principal consultant, Kylie Patrick, moved to Western Australia. Avisure now has a Perth office, so our WA clients can now benefit from Avisure expertise on site.
- We maintained all our long-term clients and gained a few more, so we are looking forward to working with you all in 2022 and the years to come.
- Our team represents many cumulative years of wildlife hazard management expertise. During 2021, wildlife biologist, Alexandra Stone celebrated five years with Avisure, and operations coordinator, Sharon Worthing, who keeps us all organised, 10 years.
- During the year, regional manager (SA), and principal environmental scientist, Ronel Jit, celebrated over 10 years developing and implementing successful wildlife hazard management projects for Defence bases, including little corella management.
- We collaborated with various industry bodies to drive more effective wildlife hazard management: serving on the Australian Aviation Wildlife Hazard Group (AAWHG) executive committee; working with the AAA to produce WHM Airport Practice notes; and contributing our WHM expertise to international webinars, such as ICAO, the Flight Safety Foundation, AAWHG and the World Birdstrike Committee.
- We have also focused on different ways to promote wildlife hazard management awareness, and to connect with industry. Through social media such as LinkedIn and Facebook, we highlight contemporary WHM issues, and in February, also released our new podcast series—Avicast. There are now 12 episodes online, with new episodes released monthly. Episode 13 is due out in January 2022.
I want to use this opportunity to thank each member of our team for their significant contribution, for hanging in when the going got tough (both on the work front and personally) and for making our team a wonderful one to be part of.
All the very best for the festive season, and may 2022 be a very different and successful one for you all,
Jill
