BGANZ Membership Benefits
BGANZ is a membership organisation which aims to provide a variety of opportunities for professional networking, development and communication, both formal and informal. The organization is a small one and success is ultimately dependent on member activity and commitment. The Secretariat has a current focus on further developing the website as the most cost effective and accessible medium for most member gardens.
Benefits include:
New in 2012: Members only Web area
Members have access to Member exclusive resources. Members are able to share and review resources across all Professional and Regional Groups. BGANZ has recently developed a Communications Toolkit which is also available to all members.
Newsletter
The Botanic Garden – 3 issues per year
As a BGANZ member you will receive notice of our newsletter The Botanic Garden that is published electronically on our website 3 times a year (March, July, November). Generally there is a main theme for each issue for which we always invite contributions from our readership, but if somebody has some news that they would like to share we can accommodate this also – not all articles have to relate to the theme. Deadlines are generally a month before publication.
Networking, training and development opportunities
The greatest membership benefit for BGANZ members is the networking with other Botanic Gardens (BG), with the opportunity to learn from the experience of others, and have access to a wide variety of shared knowledge and resources.
Biennial Congresses
Attendance grants and reduced registration fees are available, as well as networking opportunities, technical and other information updates and the opportunity to hear about the latest big picture issues relevant to gardens. The next one is due in 2013 and will be held in Dunedin. People comment that they are a source of inspiration and an opportunity to meet like-minded people.
Regional Conferences
Regional Conferences also provide a more regionally focused networking opportunity, technical information as well as the opportunity to hear about local and regional issues relevant to gardens.
BGANZ Members pay a lower registration fee than non-members.
Regional groups
Each of the four regional groups (NSW, VIC, QLD, NZ) now also has a website tab where the Coordinators for the four Regional Groups can directly post their upcoming events and any relevant regional/local information at. This is a recent development of the website which is designed to further assist networking within a region.
Monthly news updates
Approximately once a month (or as required) an informal update of news is also circulated via email to all members, particularly if the next newsletter is still some time away. The news may include information on upcoming job vacancies (Australia/Overseas), conferences, courses and other events, invitations to comment on some draft documents and other relevant material etc. There is also an opportunity for the Executive Officer to send other broadcast emails to Members, to ask a question, seek advice or seek a connection to some expertise.
Professional networks
At the 2009 BGANZ Biennial Congress in Mackay and as part of the 2009 member survey members identified that more formal professional networks would be worthwhile to facilitate technical networking in between Congresses and Conferences. As a result there are several groups that have been set up for the benefit of BGANZ members:
Botanic Gardens Records Officers Network (BRON)
This network was promoted for the first time in the newsletter The Botanic Garden of July 2010. The network aims to increase communication and information and experience sharing between botanic gardens about plant records keeping, assist with the development of standards and best practice and support staff training where appropriate.
Botanic Gardens Education Network Australia and New Zealand (BGEN)
An interim steering committee of Education and Public Programs Managers from around Australia is working towards a professional framework for BG staff working in the areas of education, interpretation, visitor/public programs, adult learning, outreach and community engagement. This will be an online forum where we can ask each other questions, share our experiences, solve problems together and swap resources.
Check the BGANZ website for further details and how to join BRON and/or BGEN.
Professional Training and Development
A third very recently established group is starting to consider training and development programs and opportunities in public gardens horticulture.
April 2012