Members of the Western Australian Adult Literacy Council (WAALC) celebrated a milestone last Saturday.  We marked 25 years as an incorporated body by gathering for a BBQ at the Lower Chittering Volunteer Fire Brigade shed.  One of our lifetime members, Theo Bekkers, is a volunteer fire fighter in his local brigade.  Theo and his colleagues invited us to hold our celebration in their fire shed where they introduced us to the firefighting equipment and shared their experiences of fighting major fires, including the recent one in Margaret River.

The shed provided an ideal spot for eating, socializing and the formalities of the afternoon. WAALC Committee members provided the nibbles and dips, salads and sweets and the fire fighters brought meat for the BBQ.

The event was marked by a general meeting which conferred lifetime membership of WAALC on the following people in recognition of services to WAALC:

• Erica Daymond
• Carmel Jennings
• Margaret McHugh
• Stephanie Mitchell
• Robyn Rennie
• Jo Taylor
• Jim Thompson
• Cheryl Wiltshire

We also launched a video describing what WAALC means to members; this will be available soon on the WAALC website.  Photos of past events combined with video footage of our most recent conference means that literacy workers past and present are included.

The highlight of the afternoon was the chance to learn more about the equipment, language and processes that the volunteer fire fighters use to respond to bushfires. It was impressive to see what the fire fighters are willing to offer on an entirely voluntary basis: large amounts of time committed to training and preparation and instant response in the case of a fire emergency.  The fact that their work is potentially dangerous highlights their contribution. It makes our efforts in organising a national conference once in a while seem a little tame in comparison!

An added bonus for the teachers amongst us were the free resources to use in class this summer.

As an association operated entirely by volunteers WAALC can learn much from other volunteer organisations. The Lower Chittering Fire Brigade offers a great model of how volunteers are recruited and supported (they have 40 active members drawn from a very small community).  What both sets of volunteers shared was an enthusiasm for their different fields of activity: firefighters talk non-stop about ‘putting the wet stuff on the red stuff’ just as literacy folk talk never stop talking about literacy!

The event has made me reflect more deeply on our role as an association. We are often so caught up in the legal requirements of maintaining an incorporated body that we lose focus on our purpose and our achievements. I think our raison d’être is well described in Beverley Campbell’s Reading the Fine Print: A History of the Victorian Adult Literacy and Basic Education Council (VALBEC) 1978-2008 where she offered this description of our Victorian counterpart:

“VALBEC is a forum where teachers learn to read and interrogate the professional texts which shape their subjectivity and where they learn to read themselves and others as adult literacy and basic education practitioners. Through participation in professional activities, teachers are apprenticed into the culture of adult literacy and basic education. Their sense of professional identify is formed.

A professional organisation is where personal professional confidence is nurtured. VALBEC has provided a context where teachers can develop the confidence to articulate what they believe, by writing articles for publication or in running workshops at conferences. Teachers join professional organisations for different reasons: some want only support, others are willing to take on more up-front leadership roles. Those who do take on these challenges find that they learn new skills they were unaware they possessed.” (2009, p262)”

A sincere thankyou to our hosts from the Lower Chittering Fire Brigade for providing us with such an interesting and enjoyable way to celebrate our 25^th year.

Cheryl Wiltshire, WAALC secretary