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by Margaret Maunsell
Happy New Year to all at BDO, and welcome back after hopefully a relaxing and happy time spent with family and friends over the festive period. With batteries recharged we can look forward to a challenging year in difficult economic circumstances when our clients will need our help and support more than ever.
Some of you may not be aware that the Maunsell Team have been providing support and assistance to a local charity, The Far North Queensland Youth Assistance Fund for around 18 years. The fund was established 40 years ago by a group of local Cairns businessmen to raise money to assist disadvantaged youth in far North Queensland achieve their dreams. The majority of these original members are clients of this Firm and they continue to personally contribute both time and money to this worthy cause. Over this 40 year period, the members have raised in excess of $3.5million and the earnings from this capital amount are distributed throughout the year to disadvantaged youth for academic, sporting, cultural and medical costs. On Friday, 27 January, an annual civic reception will be held at Cairns Regional Council to present cheques to young people attending University. Last year in January 2011, a total of $66,600 was presented at the ceremony and it is anticipated a similar amount will be presented this year.
I have been Treasurer of this Fund for eighteen years and the BDO Maunsell team has provided regular unpaid administrative assistance mainly through Fiona Bishop who helps with BAS, tax returns and accounting and bookkeeping advice throughout the year. In addition, two committee meetings each year are hosted in our BDO board rooms. Working in a professional services firm as we all do where we are dealing with clients who in almost all cases are in a comfortable financial position, it is easy to forget that there is another side to our community. Many of these students would not be able to go to University, attend peninsula/state/national sporting competitions or have necessary medical equipment and treatment if it were not for the generosity of the Cairns community including BDO who support this Fund.
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Learning and Development
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At the end of the month we will be launching our new learning management system (LMS) HorizOnline, which will be going live in the Cairns office on Monday 30 January 2012.
Georgia Ford, from the National Learning & Development team, will be conducting two Webex training sessions, to introduce the program, and train how to use the system.
The two sessions will be held in our boardrooms on:
- Monday 30 January 2012 at 11am
- Wednesday 1 February 2012 at 11am
You should have by now received and accepted a calendar invite attend the training. If you are unable to attend either of these sessions, please advise Stacey or Courtney so that alternate arrangements can be made.
From 30 January 2012, all training bookings for local L&D, external L&D courses and national L&D programs will have to be made through HorizOnline. HorizOnline will also house all L&D calendars, upcoming modules and individual staff training registers, therefore attending the training is very important.
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Shared Services
Your Shared Services team is responsible for supporting all of the business units within BDO Nth Qld, BDO Nth Qld Private Wealth Pty Ltd and Outsource Management Pty Ltd.
Our team members are:
- Courtney Smallwood – Human Resources Assistant
- Frank McGoldrick – IT & Building Manager
- Karolina Borowiecka – Marketing Consultant (casual, currently on maternity leave)
- Kylie Laing – Senior Executive Assistant – Marketing & Shared Services (Mon, Tues & Fri)
- Mary Giorgio – Administration Officer (Debtors & Reception)
- Mary-Louise Parenza – Receptionist (Tues, Wed & Fri)
- Michelle Lowe – Administration Officer (Payroll & Creditors)
- Stacey Young – Human Resources, Marketing & Administration Manager
- Andrea Thompson from the Delaney team also assists our team, as back up for Michelle Lowe.
All of these people play an important part in ensuring that all of the day to day functions of our firm run smoothly, in order to ensure that all team members are equipped to focus on providing quality and efficient service to our clients. We meet regularly with the Partners and Directors so that we can stay in touch with the needs of each team, and are always happy to take questions/receive feedback from all team members.
Each month in the Focus newsletter, we submit an article “How we can help you” which focuses on a different function within the Shared Services team and how we can assist. Please feel free to also check out our various links on the intranet, which outline services, policies and processes within each of our areas:
https://intranet.bdo.com.au/shared_services/administration_cairns
https://intranet.bdo.com.au/shared_services/finance_cairns
https://intranet.bdo.com.au/shared_services/human_resources_cairns
https://intranet.bdo.com.au/shared_services/information_technology_cairns
https://intranet.bdo.com.au/shared_services/marketing_-and-_bd_cairns
Please contact any of the Shared Services team if we can be of assistance to you.
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Networking
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Growing business is an essential part of any company and networking plays an important part in this. Networking is about making connections and building up long-lasting relationships, the value of forming and also maintaining a solid circle of contacts is invaluable. There are many opportunities in the community to attend networking events to start building these relationships and attending these events will also help to build your confidence and communication skills.
Networking is not just relevant externally either, internal networking is also important in order to build up relationships with your co-workers and open up the communication channels. It is all about relationships, building them up and keeping them strong. Working together is much easier than going it alone.
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5 things you didn't know about...
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Kylie Laing
- I was born in Adelaide and lived in the Adelaide Hills (Hahndorf) for my first 5 years of life.
- I have 2 sisters – 1 in Townsville and 1 in Sydney who I would love to see more often. One is older and one younger (I am the poor middle child!!)
- I’ve lived in 12 different houses/units in Townsville – had some dodgy and some great flatmates. I am over moving house!!
- I am terrified of spiders and crocodiles.
- I love watching scary movies! Except for ones about spiders and crocodiles…
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Your committees in FOCUS
Another new year and lots more exciting events coming your way from the BSocial Club, BWell Program and RFL Fundraising Committee! Check out what your committees have planned so far for 2012!!
BSOCIAL CLUB
We are kicking things off this year with Australia Day drinks at Paddywhacks from 5.15pm on Wednesday 25 January. The night is free for BSocial Club members and a small fee of $20 is payable for any non-members, including family and friends, that might want to come along. Let's celebrate Australia Day! RSVP to Courtney via Outlook calendar or let her know directly.
The BSocial Club is also inviting suggestions and feedback via an online survey asking staff what events they might like to see featured on our BSocial Club calendar this year. We have a few ideas in mind, however we always welcome your thoughts. Please take the opportunity to have your say, we would love to see attendance at events this year be even bigger and better than last year!!
We are also looking for people to join the commmittee so please see Courtney if you are interested. Come along and help plan the fun!
BWELL PROGRAM
On Wednesday 1 February we will welcome one of the esteemed specialists from Amanda Gale's Clinic to present an information session on healthy lunch alternatives at a time of year when people want be wanting to get back on the health and fitness wagon! There will be testing plates available and a food demo for all those that attend. Watch this space for more details and a calendar invite to be sent through shortly!
And then again...back by popular demand...Health Management will be coming to do another round of health checks for staff! For those who have attended in the past, it's a great chance to get a an update and find out what's changed (hopefully for the better!?!) over the last 6 months. For those who haven't participated before, it's a great opportunity to find out where you are with your health and fitness. Cynthia will be here on Wednesday 29 February, see Stacey to book your time.
The BWell Committee is sponsoring two members of staff to compete in the 20.80.20 team event at Challenge Cairns 2012. Joanne will compete in the 80km cycle leg of the event while Courtney will finish it off with the 20km run. The race is set to run on Sunday 3 June. We wish the ladies best of luck with all of their training and preparation and look forward to getting updates over the next few months leading up to the race!
Anyone else interested in gaining sponsorship to compete in any sporting events should speak to any member of the BWell Committee - Courtney, Stacey, Samantha, Denise, Natalie and Cassandra.
RFL FUNDRAISING
The RFL Committee is working hard as always to plan some exciting events for 2012 fundraising.
Friday 16 March is shaping up to be a big day on our fundraising calendar, with a Trivia Night planned at Brothers Leagues Club. More details will be sent around shortly, but as in previous years, we will be selling tickets for a bargin price and there will be some fantastic prizes up for grabs throughout the evening. Save The Date and start spreading the word!!
Other fundraising events for 2012:
- Bunnings Sausage Sizzle
- Casual dress donations
- Chocolate sales
- Entertainment Books (coming soon!)
To date we have raised $747.60 towards our $5,000 target...5 months of fundraising to go!
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Technical Considerations
You should have recently received an email with instructions on how to update your profile on the BDO Intranet. Please take the time to go in and update the details of your online profile.
If you cannot remember your password, click into the login area then click on “reset my password”.
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