At the recent SLSA Annual General Meeting at SurfHouse in Bondi I took a moment to pass on a few observations. As I was wrapping up proceedings I made some closing remarks to the Board and those in attendance.

I reflected on a recent family birthday celebration. It was a great night. My own children and the grandkids. Plenty of laughs. And I couldn’t help but notice there was plenty of time spent on the iPad too!

Sure, some may see the infiltration of technology into a family gathering as a social interference. At times I do too! But I also saw it as a point of reference for what we are trying to achieve at Surf Life Saving Australia.

My grandchildren are no different to any other young boy and girl out there with access to knowledge and information at their fingertips. Quite often I use them as a point of reference in how I consider the future of Surf Life Saving.

We are an organisation that is 107 years old, but we continue to evolve. I am passionate about Surf Life Saving remaining contemporary and innovative. I have spent some time among the attendees of the Leadership College programs we run each year and I am constantly reminded of the brilliance, expertise and creativity within our ranks.

With that in mind, I am delighted with the refreshed format and look of the Surf Life Saving Australia website. It is our shopfront and we want the public and our members who visit the site to have a pleasant and successful user experience. I’d like to congratulate the SLSA team who have worked on the project.

I certainly look forward to communicating with you through regular blog postings, keeping you up to date with some of the great things we are doing at SLSA to help keep our beaches safe.

And who knows, maybe even my grandkids will be logging in to see what I have to say at the our next family gathering!