Business View Oceania | April/May 2022

85 86 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 4, ISSUE 4 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 4, ISSUE 4 The AVA facilitates member connections through over 20 special interest groups: Acupuncture, Animal Welfare & Ethics, Behaviour, Business, Cattle, Conservation Biology, Dental, Education, Research & Academia, Equine, Greyhound, Industry, Integrative, Pig, Poultry, Public Health, Reproduction, Sheep, Camelid & Goat, Small Animal, Student, and Unusual Pet & Avian. Dr. Vale shares, “Our special interest groups bring together industry experts in a variety of fields to further things like research and development, vet education, and public awareness on related issues. They also help us as an association form our policies and initiate our advocacy agendas across the industry. We have a pretty collegial membership base, so it’s a great opportunity to put our heads together. These groups all have their own committees and electoral processes, as do our state divisions, so it’s our job as the peak body to bring them all together, provide administrative support and professional development opportunities, and make all the resources they may need available to them. Probably our biggest role, however, is enabling dialogue between our members and our government, policymakers, etcetera, to help bring attention to and solve various industry issues.” The AVA communicates with their members via the Australian Veterinary Journal, published quarterly in digital and print. Members also enjoy access to exclusive internal forums and social media groups. As an Australian leader in organising CPD events, the AVA was required to shift their perspective during the pandemic to focus more on online learning and development. Dr. Vale explains, “We usually hold major conferences, workshops, and seminars at face-to- face gatherings each year, but we were obviously unable to do so during COVID, so that was a unique challenge for us. We have run online CPD in the past, but on a much smaller basis. Now we have member forums via zoom that have seen over a thousand registrants, so we are really happy with the uptake from our members. With that being said, we would like to see more of our profession join us as members overall- we have a little over half of the approximately 14,000 vets in Australia as part of our organisation. The last two years have given us the opportunity to look at our values, see where we can improve, and what we can offer to attract those remaining vets.” There are a number of challenges currently facing the industry that require the associations attention, Dr. Vale says, the most serious of which being major workforce shortages in clinics across the country. “ Our membership is primarily involved in delivering companion animal medicine. Thanks to COVID, demand has increased for those services by up to 30%, and we simply don’t have a workforce that can cope with that. Another effect of COVID is our inability to effectively bring in international vets to supplement our local workforce- the combination of those two factors has meant we are at a critical point where our vets don’t feel supported, they can’t find staff, and in some cases, they are even having to close their emergency centres as a result.” The AVA’s 2021 Veterinary Wellness Strategy Report noted growing evidence from research and industry bodies that the veterinary professional in currently in a state of mental AUSTRAL I AN VETER INARY ASSOC I AT ION