Issue 04 | November 2012 Vol. 05 | Quarterly Magazine IN THIS ISSUE 02 Year of the Farmer 04 Triple Seven 06 Bullying - The Sad Conclusion 18 ABSA Annual Conference Gold Coast 2012 19 ABSA Awards 2012 28 Chairman’s Annual Report 35 The Positives of Social Media CONTENTS 02 Year of the Farmer Year of the Farmer 04 Triple Seven 06 Bullying - The Sad Conclusion 07 Boys & Books 08 Attending Boarding School 11 Dear School Leaders AUTHOR Many of our boarders come from rural areas 12 Risk Management Dr T F Hawkes, Chairman of Australia and many of these live on farms. 13 Lost at 12 Australian Boarding Schools Association Inspired by this fact, and by this being the 14 The Way Forward Year of the Farmer, I felt it appropriate to pen a few lines on the importance of the farming 17 What is Sustainability? sector not only for our boarding schools, but 18 ABSA Annual Conference Gold also for our nation in general. Coast 2012 When I leave Sydney and visit a working 19 ABSA Awards 2012 farm, a curious ease settles over me. I enjoy 20 Indigenous Students Develop the integrity of it all. I have no idea what the pin stripe in the city is doing but the bloke Skills to become Future Leaders over there’s ploughing a field. Clear as day. 22 What Heads Want and Why... Even the dead carcass has authenticity. 26 8 Ways to Better Use Your Don’t think you can cheat death. One day, it’ll get you. Brutal. Real. Schools’ Twitter Account 28 Chairman’s Annual Report 2012 On a recent run across to Tamworth, I also 30 John Wooden’s Leadership witnessed the ru-urban war. ‘No mines.’ ‘You can’t eat coal and you can’t breathe Lessons that work On and Off the gas.’ ‘Keep your fracking gas.’ Fair Court enough. Or is it? We live in a commercial world – a world where there is a demand 32 LAPG Education and Scolarest at for power. And it must be met. But at what National Conference cost? This is good land. It is not the sun- 35 The Positives of Social Media scorched rock of the Pilbara. Last year, Australia had 134,000 farms. On ON THE COVER average, these farms fed 150 people in Aus- Worawa Aboriginal College, tralia and 450 people overseas. Although Healsville,Victoria produce leaving the farm gate may only con- tribute 3% to our gross domestic product, CONTACT US farming, in some form other, takes place on Australian Boarding Schools 61% of our land. Association Ltd. Postal: PO Box 5569, Brendale DC, Now is a good time to visit a farm. Many Qld 4500 parts of the country are looking pretty Office: Unit 6, 3 Hinkler Court, lush. But, it is not always thus. Our land is Brendale, Qld 4500 not a magic pudding. It must be nurtured P + 61 7 3205 4940 through drought, plague and fire. It must be nourished through periods of high dollar M + 61 4 2555 7672 and low demand. It must be nursed through F + 61 7 3205 6567 soil-loss and salinity. E [email protected] www.boarding.org.au In this Year of the Farmer, we must realise the value of land. In a world of burgeoning EDITOR population, food and water will become vital Richard Stokes, Executive Director, commodities. By 2030, we will need 50% Australian Boarding Schools Association more food and 30% more water. Some countries have woken up to this and are GRAPHIC DESIGN buying vast tracts of land around the world. Infusion Promotions They call this land-banking. Others call it www.infusionpromotions.com.au food-banking. Even small countries like Qatar own 730,000 PRINTING ha of Australian land. They plan to meet Cynergy Printing 35% of their food supply from farms in Aus- www.cynergyprinting.com.au tralia. Korea’s Ho Myoung Farm alone owns 500,000 ha of Australian land. Government 2 scrutiny of agricultural land purchase by for- Most of us would benefit from a few more eign countries only occurs if the value of the days in the country. We might connect purchase is north of $244 million. With most rather more with what is real and realise Australian farms worth less than $10 million, rather better what is false. We might also this doesn’t give much control. get reminded that: The Federal Government, via its Australian - Vegies come from the ground, not a can. Bureau of Agricultural Research (ABARE), - Something needs to die in order to have a refutes the National Farmer’s Federation barbie. claim that 11% of Australia’s agricultural land - More value can be added by a man in is foreign owned, and says it’s nearer 1%. jeans than in a suit. The truth is difficult to verify given the use of - Even when life is messy and smelly it can Australian front companies by many over- still be beautiful. seas interests. We must be careful. Some - If we want to harvest next year, we must foreign ownership is appropriate, but we plant this year. must not sell too much of our nation’s soil, minerals or intellectual property offshore. Many of our boarders know this. Do we? Australia, like its farmers, must think long- term. I was reminded of this when chatting to someone whose family had farmed his property for 150 years. In this fast-paced world, this sort of time-frame can be difficult for a person to grasp – particularly our politi- cians. Many can only think in terms of four year electoral cycles. Scan the QR code below to view the photos from the ABSA Gold Coast Conference 2012. 3 Triple Seven AUTHOR Dave Scott Director of Boarding Scotch College, Adelaide An Experiment in Social Intelligence and forms. The personal challenge for me started Compassionate Action in Perth (at Scotch College – Perth), on Monday 13 August, I ran the full marathon “Self-absorption in all its forms kills empa- distance of 42.2 kilometres, The same after- thy, let alone compassion. When we focus noon, I flew to Darwin, where the next morn- on ourselves, our world contracts as our ing I ran the same distance and so on visiting problems and preoccupations loom large. Gold Coast, Sydney, Canberra, Geelong and But when we focus on others, our world finally Adelaide. expands. Our own problems drift to the pe- riphery of the mind and so seem smaller, and My schedule was as follows: we increase our capacity for connection - or compassionate action.” Mon 13 August Perth 42.2 km Tues 14 August Darwin 42.2 km This quote from Daniel Goleman sums up Wed 15 August Brisbane 42.2 km quite neatly what I was hoping that the Triple Thurs 16 August Sydney 42.2 km Seven challenge would help to initiate in the Fri 17 August Canberra 42.2 km Scotch College Adelaide boarding commu- Sat 18 August Melbourne 42.2 km nity. By focusing on others our community Sun 19 August Adelaide 42.2 km expanded and for a term at least some amazing things happened. Having now (Total Distance 295.4 km) successfully completed the Triple Seven challenge with the full support of the board- Although I undertook this running challenge ing and indeed the whole Scotch community on my own I was supported by Sam Pea- I can safely say that compassionate action is cock, Director of Sport at Scotch College, alive and kicking at Scotch College! who rode alongside me measuring distance, carrying drinks, food and filming/taking The Triple Seven was a community service photos etc. challenge that took place in August 2012. It involved the challenge of running 7 mara- One of my key motivations for undertaking thons on 7 consecutive days in the 7 main this challenge was to raise funds for Yalari cities of Australia (“The Triple Seven”). Along (www.yalari.org), an indigenous educational side this personal challenge the boarding trust, whose mission is to educate and students and parent community at Scotch empower indigenous children from regional, also took on the challenge of fundraising rural and remote communities to bring and running in various ways, shapes and about generational change. Each marathon 4 distance I ran started and finished at a Yalari a group of students in a day of car washing partnership school and these included: raising over $400. Scotch College - Perth, The Southport School, St. Ignatius, Riverview in Sydney The Triple Seven definitely increased social and Canberra Grammar. I am indebted connection, not just among our boarders to Peter and Marilynn Freitag at Scotch but also among many more groups. Parents Perth, Karel Bos at The Southport School, and friends, day students, other schools Chris Farnsworth at St. Ignatius, Riverview, and even people with no connection to the Sydney, David Smart at Canberra Grammar College became involved in the challenge and Justin Robinson at Geelong Grammar and wanted to help and be involved. Dur- School. All of these wonderful people were ing the week of the Triple Seven challenge so generous in their time and support of my the community initiatives and welcomes at challenge and I really cannot thank them schools like The Southport School on the enough, without them it simply would not Gold Coast, St. Ignatius College in Sydney have been possible. and Geelong Grammar School were very humbling. Students from all of these schools The Scotch College Boarding Community through their combined activities and fund- were also heavily involved in the Triple Seven raising added over $2000 to our total.