by Diana Temple
The success of our application for a 6-month grant from the Office of the Status of women greatly improved WISENET's operations and administration in 1995. From February to July we have had the benefit of a part-time Administration/Publication Officer and a part-time Administrative Assistant. WISENET was fortunate in obtaining the expert skills of Judy Mackinolty, an academic historian with experience in writing and publishing, for the first of these positions. She was ably assisted by Jane Phillips (housebound with a new baby), whose skills in publication and administration were useful for our records and journal items. Plans to expand WISENET's activities, including a proposed workshop for state coordinators, and extended circulation of the Journal, hinge on the continuation of this grant.
WISENET is affiliated with CAPOW! (Coalition of Australian Participating Organisations of Women), which keeps us informed on many national issues, and with Women into Politics, (WIP), whose aim is to increase the representation of women in government at all levels and on boards and committees.
An advisory committee to report on women in science and technology, WISET, was established late in 1993 by the then Minister for Science. WISENET was represented on WISET by Diana Temple, who summarised the outcome of the committee's deliberations in the April issue (37) of the WISENET Journal. The WISET Discussion Paper has been submitted to the Minister for Science, Peter Cook.
WISENET commented to the Office of the Status of Women on its Interim Report (September 1994) to the UN 4th World Conference on Women, Beijing, that the report contained no reference to Australian women in science and technology. WISENET will be unofficially represented at the Beijing Conference by Adrianne Kinnear from Perth and Jasmine Payget from Adelaide.
Round Table Meetings with the federal Minister for the Status of Women have been attended on WISENET's behalf by Margaret Hartley (September 1994) and Doreen Clark (May 1995).
The National Museum of Australia in Canberra has initiated a project on women scientists. Ruth Lane of the Museum has approached WISENET about possible collaboration.
The Central Link Team, at present based in Sydney, comprises Sarah Miller (Treasurer), Diana Temple (convener), Anne Skates, Carrie Bengston, Jean Weber (past and present honorary editors), Rosemary Sutton and Jenny Wyndham. Nancy Mills, a former active member, left Sydney; Colleen Drew and Frances Edwards were coopted. For reasons such as work pressure many of these members have been unable to contribute to WISENET organisation. A new energised Link Team is greatly needed.
Sydney. The group has met a number of times and the topics of discussion of these meetings have been diverse. An excellent seminar on women and the information highway, initiated by Anne Skates and led by speakers Rosemary Irrgang of CSIRO and Linda Rouse of Unilink, followed the adjourned AGM on August 23 1994. The end of year meeting in December was fortunate in hearing Rosemary Stanton talk on 'What's new in nutrition'. Two meetings in 1995 both welcomed overseas visitors. The first of these was sponsored by the Australian International Development Assistance Bureau and comprised a meeting with twenty visiting Philippine women scientists, who described their work and interests to a group of WISENET members. WISENET Sydney also arranged a meeting to welcome Professor Elsa Garmire from University of California, whose talk on how to reach the top in science has been summarised in issue 38 of the WISENET Journal.
In September 1994, Sydney WISENET volunteers staffed the WISENET poster exhibition of women in science for five days at the Great Australian Science Show at the Powerhouse Museum.
Canberra. Margaret Hartley, WISENET-ACT convener, in addition to being WISENET 'Public Officer' for the Registrar-General Department has attended a number of Canberra meetings and functions as WISENET representative. Significant among these are the Round Table Meetings with the Minister for the Status of Women (now Carmel Lawrence), her reports on which appeared in WISENET Journal 36 and 37.
A Canberra WISENET group has been actively working, together with representatives of the Science Teachers Association of ACT, on a teaching resource to promote women in science. Headed by Kate Shaw, this group is seeking government funding to assist the trialling of a pilot resource. This role model project has been a significant objective for WISENET for a number of years. Several parliamentary events have involved ACT members, recently a Coalition Women's Forum attended for WISENET by Janis Shaw.
Brisbane and NSW Northern Region. The northern region produced a second issue (number 35) of the WISENET Journal in 1994, thanks to the energy of Margarita Bowen, her colleagues at Southern Cross University Lismore, Alison Specht and Kierrynn Davis, together with Sarah Ashmore of Griffith University and Alison Turner of the University of Central Queensland. Brisbane WISENET members met twice later in 1994. From these meetings, some useful advice was transmitted to the Central Link Team, and arrangements were made to hold the WISENET exhibition at the Great Australian Science Show in Brisbane in November 1994.
Queensland. Alison Turner has been active with WISENET affairs in Rockhampton and outposts. She attended the Mount Isa Science Expo in May 1995, where she showed the WISENET posters. She has plans for further use of the exhibition at the University of Central Queensland Gladstone campus in July, and at the Queensland Rural Women's Network Conference in Longreach in September. Alison hopes to develop more information on Aboriginal women and their technical achievements.
There are no reported WISENET activities from Victoria (where the McClintock Collective serves many of our aims), South Australia, Western Australia or Tasmania.
This has been displayed many times, thanks to the early 1994 subsidy from the Science and Technology Awareness Unit of DIST which enabled us to make duplicate posters. As indicated above, in the past year the posters have been displayed as follows: July 1994, 1st International Women in Agriculture Conference, Melbourne (Caroline Polak Scowcroft); September 1994, ANZAAS Congress Geelong, Victoria (Diana Temple), also NFAW Conference, Surfers Paradise (Sarah Ashmore and Margarita Bowen) and Great Australian Science Show, Sydney (Diana Temple plus volunteers) also a 'Technology Shop' in Canberra; November 1994, GASS Brisbane (Sarah Ashmore plus volunteers), May 1995, Mount Isa, Queensland (Alison Turner). Three additional posters showing current eminent Australian women scientists were made by Diana Temple for the ANZAAS Congress 1994, with a subsidy from Deakin University Women's Studies, and copies of a set of additional posters lent by Laurel Heath and Rhonda Christian of University of Canberra School of Education were also displayed.
In 1995 the exhibition will again be shown in September at the Great ANZAAS Science Show, Newcastle NSW (Diana Temple) and also in Longreach and Gladstone, Queensland (Alison Turner).
Depending on funding, there are plans for additional posters.
Thanks are due to a number of WISENET members for their volunteer work, particularly the Editorial Group and contributors to the Journal. Thanks also to our part-time officers for their first-class input.
Judy Mackinolty
Since the last Annual General Meeting in August 1994 three issues of WISENET Journal have been produced. The December 1994 issue, produced by Carrie Bengston and Anne Skates, included the report of that meeting along with a variety of articles, reports and short news items illustrated and enlivened by Kerri Slaven's cartoons. This was to be the final journal produced by Anne and Carrie, who had taken on WISENET's editorial tasks when the organisation's central link team moved headquarters from Canberra to Sydney. Their valuable contribution to WISENET is greatly appreciated and we wish them well.
Former journal team members were recruited to carry on the work so ably performed in the past. Jean Hollis Weber took on the major editorial role, assisted by Heather Rossiter and Diana Temple and newcomer Shona Levingston from LAB NEWS. Administrative Officer Judy Mackinolty and Administrative Assistant Jane Phillips provided backup.
The April issue, produced by this team, focused on women and power in the world of politics, commerce, academe and on decision-making boards but also included a range of other articles and reports. It included the valuable author and subject indexes to volumes 30 to 36, compiled by Jane Phillips, and articles reaching outside Australia into Vietnam and India. Perhaps it was the latter which tempted Shona Levingston to leave WISENET and Australia to teach English to children in Asia. Her contribution, though limited to this one issue, was a great help. Perhaps it also persuaded Heather Rossiter to take leave of absence to travel to the arctic on a research project, though not before she had worked with the team on the July issue. Russell Weakley did the lay-out under great difficulty due to the incompatibility of various computer disks, and again a Kerri Slaven cartoon was used.
The July issue has just been delivered to the printer and should be posted to members by the middle of July at the latest. The main theme for this issue was science and ethics, touching on communication, medical research ethics, and, indirectly, the concept of in loco parentis through a review of Helen Garner's book, The First Stone. Other topics of general interest included women in academic chemistry and in non-traditional courses at universities. A special feature was an edited version of a talk given by Elsa Garmire at a meeting organised by WISENET during her recent visit to Sydney. Jean Weber solved our layout problems by doing the job herself. Image Desktop Publishing continues as printer.
The role of the journal is crucial in an organisation such as WISENET. While the journal cannot aim at providing discipline specific academic articles which are the province of specialist organisations and publishing, it should try to reach out to women scientists at all levels and act as a link between the various subject groups. The News and Crosslinks section attempts to do this in a brief fashion as does the listing of coming events. It is also hoped that a new section on 'work in progress' can act as a sort of bulletin board across the network. Often, too, an article dealing with problems faced by a specific group will call up nods of recognition from people in other disciplines or in a variety of workplaces. A 'good news' item noting success for a group or individual may be encouraging to other readers or even provide ammunition in another campaign.
A major aim of the editorial team is to have a geographical as well as a subject area spread of articles and news. It is hoped that as many members as possible will report on events or raise points of general concern or interest. Comments on published articles are always welcome, as are suggestions about future items.
Sarah Miller
WISENET is maintaining its financial position, with $6,700 being carried over from 1994. The main income for WISENET remains its membership subscriptions ($7300) but a DITARD grant of $1500 last year allowed the exhibition to be displayed at the Australian Science Festival.
At the end of 1994 WISENET had 334 financial members, slightly more than the 323 at the end of 1993. Of these 117 had not yet paid their 1995 subscriptions. We have had 21 new members so far in 1995.
This report is accompanied by the balance sheet, and income and expenditure reports for both the general WISENET account and the DITARD grant account.
The general account shows a surplus of $362 and all the DITARD grant money was spent. Expenses for the co-ordination of Central Link Team rose again. Two reasons for this rise were (1) application for the 1995 grant and (2) liaison with the Lismore group about the journals they produced. The Lismore group did also raise some money by attracting advertising. They have become a more active group and have an account with slightly more than $500 in it.
Due to our strong financial position, we have bought a commercial software package (DBase IV $205) to keep our membership database.
We are fortunate to have a grant to pay for some administrative and journalistic assistance for the first half of 1995. We have applied for funding for the remainder of 1995.
Auditor's Report for WISENET as at 31 December 1994
I have examined the Financial Records and statements of the Women in Science Enquiry Network (WISENET) for the period 1 January 1994 to 31 December 1994, and I am of the opinion that they represent a true and fair view of the operations for the period.
(signed)
Trevor J Chipperfield, MNIA
27 April 1994
WISENET 1994 Financial Statement