Presidents Message 2024

From Your President

Renewals 2024 | A Message from Matthew Cooper

Hi everyone,

As we move on through another year, it's been great to reflect on what's been happening over the last year.

I took over as president in January 2024, and it's great to reflect on and celebrate our wins since the last renewal period. 

To list some of my favourite highlights:

Member counselling service

The first one is our member assistance program, a counselling service the association provides to our members who may be struggling or may just need a chat. This service has been used frequently and offers members support, something we're really proud of.

Osteopathy Australia research fund

Our Osteopathy Australia research fund has been providing grants to help fund research to enhance our profession and help move it forward. Because of this, these grants are really important.  

Continuing professional development

We continue to provide our members with brilliant eLearning modules and CPD opportunities, including mandatory subjects, which are needed for registration, and other special interest subjects. We provide dozens of these each month and over the year to help you reach your CPD standards year on year.

Postgraduate Certificate in Strength and Conditioning

I'm also excited to see osteopaths attending the Postgraduate Certificate in Strength and Conditioning through Victoria University, and the Western Bulldogs Football Club. Our first cohort of students, which comprises 35% of the entire enrolment, started at the beginning of this year, and it's been brilliant to see those members engaging in their postgraduate studies, which will directly lead to advanced practice recognition through our association. It’s the start and the tip of the iceberg in postgraduate opportunities for osteopaths, as it is a large strategic focus of the organisation.

Universities

Our engagement with the universities is incredibly collaborative and continues weekly. We're engaged with our current universities, Victoria University, RMIT, and Southern Cross University, and we continue to discuss further opportunities for osteopathy with other universities around Australia. We're hopeful to bring you some exciting news in this space in the not-too-distant future.

The board continues to engage with our stakeholders, and we do this on behalf of our members to ensure that osteopathy has a seat at the table to enhance our careers and profession.

To put it simply, we can't do this without your membership. Everything that we do for our membership needs renewals, and attracting new members is essential to continue to support the association.

We look forward to providing you with excellent information and exciting news, such as the Osteopathy conference, which is back for the first time after COVID at the end of this year in October.

So, as we continue through 2024, I'd encourage all members to please renew their membership, and if you have friends who have lapsed over the last year or two, encourage them to rejoin.

It is vital for the sustainability of osteopathy in Australia and the sustainability of our profession moving forward to have a strong united voice, which confirms what we already know, what all of us already know - that osteopathy is an incredibly important part of allied health and health care in Australia.

Thank you for your continued support. Have a great day.

Warm regards,

Matthew Cooper
President, Osteopathy Australia