Dear CRANA Members,

Recently the Board, Staff and some stakeholders met for 3 days in Alice Springs. A wonderful opportunity to discuss the big issues for CRANA and make some of the tough decisions that have been needed following the constitutional change and to make the organisation competitive in todayís ìcut throatî environment!

Rest assured there was robust discussion and intense investigation; the outcomes are made in the best interest of CRANA, not any one person or program.

The outcomes of the Board Meeting following the Alice Springs gathering are:

The term ìCRANAî is iconic, yet ìThe Council of Remote Area Nursesî is not inclusive of the entire membership. As such the name is to be changed to ìCRANAplusî or ìCRANA+î.

We will no longer spell out what historically CRANA stands for (similar to QANTAS). The slogan for CRANAplus is ìRemote Health Countsî. There will still be times when we need to describe who we are, therefore: ìThe professional body for remote and isolated health professionalsî can also be used.

The decision was made to also change the logo to something contemporary. The logo and colour theme are currently with graphic designers, so unsure of what the final decisions on that will be as yet.

Along with that it was decided that all CRANAplus program will only use the CRANAplus logo. A planned removal of all existing program logos (REC, MEC, BCL etc) will be undertaken and replaced with the CRANAplus logo. Its essential for such a small organisation to be seen as one entity, and these fantastic programs seen as what they are, CRANAplus programs.

The Bush Crisis Line is undertaking a review of its management structure, and the name is to be changed to ìBush Care Servicesî.

CRANAplus will seize an opportunity to open an office/outlet in Adelaide, and investigate cost neutral spaces in other States.

John Ryan a Medical Lawyer in NSW has been appointed as a co-opted member of the Board to add specific expertise. The Board is also in negotiations with another possible co-opted member. Weíll ask John to provide some details to the CRANA membership about himself in a future email.

A Finance subcommittee of the board was developed to advise the Board on the increasing complexity of this growing dynamic organisation. Likewise the development of the Education subcommittee is progressing, with Dr Trudy Yuginovich agreeing to chair the subcommittee.

We are hoping to officially launch the new CRANAplus at the conference, but a slow roll out will commence prior to then. As your elected directors to run this organisation, weíd all welcome any comments or feedback you may have. Until next time, keep safe.

Christopher
CRANAplus President