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Our parent organisation, the National Rural Women’s Coalition recently launched their latest project empowering rural, regional and remote Australian women, the E-Learning and Leadership Program, which is being hosted and conducted through the National Rural Women’s Network. The Program is now well underway with a number of live webinars already held through our cutting-edge interactive website and the collaborative work software, Blackboard /Elluminate.

About the Program

Both mentors and mentees will participate in a series of live webinars and online forum sessions throughout the course of the Program, as well as work on a range of tasks together to further the skills and knowledge of all parties.

The Program aims to build the leadership and representative capacity of women in primary industries, to strengthen the productivity of their businesses and workplaces. The core of the Program is to further develop the resilience of rural, regional and remote Australian communities in a rapidly changing climate.

Download the Program Fact Sheet which was used in our initial promotion of the Program to find out more:

NRWC-E-Learning-Fact-Sheet

The Applicants

We had an overwhelming number of applicants eager to participate in the Program  and the selection process was not an easy one. The calibre of applicants was simply outstanding, and demonstrated that there is an enormous number of talented and passionate rural women out there wanting to improve their skills and give back to their communities.

The final twenty Program participants are an impressive group of women from a wide range of backgrounds, and have taken to the new technology used in the Program with relative ease. It’s clear to all that they will enthusiastically pass on the skills gained throughout the Program to others in their community and help to further develop both the offline and online skills of rural Australia – no easy feat, by anyone’s standards!

We have also selected a further twenty highly skilled rural, regional and remote, Australian women to take part in the Program as mentors to the participants. The talent and passion of the mentor applicants was beyond impressive, and again, not an easy selection process, however the best mentors were selected and matched to the Program participants.

Program Outline

The Program has a number of industry-leading presenters covering a range of topics throughout their webinars and forum sessions including:

Building Leaders

Improving leadership skills. Participants will start their leadership journey by setting clearly defined visions and goals. They will learn to be more resilient and adaptive to change, as well as develop strategies to get organised and stay organised.

Presenter - Barb Madden

Barb Madden is the co-owner and chief finance officer of Smithfield Feedlot in Proston, Queensland. Smithfield Feedlot is a 20 000 head intensive beef operation with an annual turnover of $55m and 40 staff. Barb was awarded the Queensland RIRDC Rural Women’s Award in 2009 and the 2009 Runner Up Award for her work with indigenous beef producers and the broader beef industry. The project highlighted the importance of communication in opening up new working relationships, identifying new opportunities for pooling employment and training at a regional level.

Barb is a qualified accountant and is a fellow of the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Barb has also worked in economic involved in the implementation of a Regional Business Capacity Building Program, spanning 14 communities and their farming catchments.

Better Business Skills

Participants will learn how to improve their business skills and discover how to give their enterprise direction that will strengthen productivity.

Presenter - Brent Gregory

Brent Gregory is a lecturer in the Faculty of The Professions, School of Business Economics and Public Policy at the University of New England in Armidale, NSW. Brent’s research interest is forecast accuracy in small firms and he has worked with various business organisations to improve management practices and develop training programs.

Brent’s practical and theoretical experience has seen him serve on many boards and organisations and he has had over 50 articles published in business magazines and journals. He is currently a long serving director of the Armidale and District Business Enterprise

Centre and is passionate about improving the economic viability and sustainability of regional businesses.

Networking and Social Media

Participants will  understand the power of social media and traditional networking, including training on how to use facebook, twitter and other online resources and improve their presentation skills. The group will develop a blog and will work together to solve problems and share information.

Presenter - Kristy De Camps

Kristy De Camps is the founder and CEO of elevation media, a cutting edge marketing and communications consultancy, specialising in social media and web development. Kristy has a passion for writing and began her craft as soon as she could hold a pencil. As a professional writer, Kristy has authored four children’s books, is currently writing two novels, and contributes to numerous blogs.

With an Honors degree in Communications, and over 10 years experience in the publishing industry from books to magazines, newspapers and thre internet, Kristy has worked on titles including Marie Claire, Family Circle, Better Homes & Gardens and Donna Hay. She was the editor of a regional newspaper and magazine and launch editor of two regional magazines in the Riverina area of NSW.

Kristy has been working for the National Rural Women’s Coalition for the last year as their Social Network Developer, redevloping the NRWC website and creating the National Rural Women’s Network.

Community Capacity Building

Participants will discover ways to make a difference to the sustainability of their community. They will examine case studies of others who have successfully undertaken capacity building projects, and will look at strategies to effectively engage with government at all levels – to influence change.

Presenter - Robbie Sefton

Robbie Sefton is a New South Wales farmer and communications expert. Robbie and her husband, Alistair Yencken, own and operate wool, meat and grains properties. She is also the founder and principal of a national public relations, leadership and marketing consultancy, Sefton & Associates, based in Tamworth, NSW. Robbie is an Advisory Group Member of Observant Pty Ltd and an Advisory Member at USQ (University of Southern Queensland – Public Relations Discipline).

In 2002 Robbie was awarded the RIRDC NSW Rural Woman of the Year, is a graduate of the Australian Rural Leadership program and the AICD Company Director’s Course. She currently sits on the Australia Day Council, and is a board member of the National Australia Day Council.

Robbie was a director of the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation Board and was also a former board member of Australian Wool Services Limited (now known as Graziers’ Investment Company Limited) and The Woolmark Company Pty Ltd.

Climate Change Action

Participants will discuss best practice and sustainability in a changing climate and learn how to formulate a response plan that provides a strategic framework for building resilience.

Presenter - Ellen White

Ellen White hails from Glasgow in Scotland and has called Australia home for the last 20 years. She is passionate about community development, environmental sustainability and leading change. Ellen runs a broad acre farm with her husband, in Towaninnie in Northern Victoria, as well as her own consultancy business. The ability to lead, listen and build relationships has seen Ellen apply her skills in varied roles throughout her career – from teaching Biology and Chemistry in a school in Kuwait, to project work for government departments including the Rural Women, Drought and Climate Change Project and the Rural Women Leading Change Project.

Ellen is currently a councillor for the Buloke Shire Council and sits on the board of the Australian Local Government Women’s Association, Wimmera Regional Library Corporation, the Loddon Mallee Regional Council of Adult, Community and Further Education. She is also the president of the Wycheproof and District Landcare Group.

Support from our Patron, the Governor General of Australia

We were very pleased early in the organisation of the E-Learning and Leadership Program to receive formal recognition and support from our Patron, Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce, AC Governor General of Australia. In a detailed letter to the NRWC, she praised the Program and outlines the importance of projects like this one in improving the skills and outcomes for rural, regional and remote Australian women, as well as their businesses and communities. You can download the letter by clicking this link:

Message from the Governor-General

The National Rural Women’s Network

Launched in late 2010, the National Rural Women’s Network is the prime initiative of our parent organisation, the NRWC, to connect rural, regional and remote Australian women in a range of ways – both new and old. The ‘jewel in the crown’ of the Network is our cutting edge membership website, where women from around the country can communicate and network 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The Network site is the perfect setting to run the E-Learning and Leadership Program with its many and varied methods of interacting online housed in the one place. The Program’s participants, mentors and presenters are members of a private group on the site, with their own group wall to comment on, webinar recording section, downloadable materials section, private forum and private messaging functions.

Many of these functions are available to all members who join the Network, and all are welcome to create their own working groups on the site – for free! Join the Network today!

Updates

You can follow the progress of the Program, its participants and mentors through the regular updates we will have on our blog.

Future Programs

If you’d like to be kept informed of the Network and the NRWC’s future programs and projects, please join our email list and we will keep you up-to-date:

For more information contact:

Sandra Stoddart

NRWC Executive Officer

eo@nrwcn.org.au