At the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Australian Braille Authority, nominations were received for the positions of Chair (Jordie Howell – Vision Australia & SVRC) and Executive Committee members Kathy Riessen (SASVI), Tristan Clare (NextSense), and Melissa Fanshawe (SPEVI & University of Southern Queensland). They were elected without opposition.

At their first meeting, the new executive agreed to co-opt a further two people to fill the remaining empty General Committee Member positions. These were Josie Howse (nominated by SPEVI) and Scott Erichsen (nominated by Tristan Clare).

Congratulations and thanks to our 2021-2023 Executive Committee:

• Jordie Howell returns as Chair for her third and final term. She works as a braille music transcriber at Vision Australia and as a braille music teacher at the Statewide Vision Resource Centre (SVRC).  Jordie is Australia’s representative on the ICEB Executive Committee and Chairs the ICEB Braille Music Committee. She also represents Australia on the Onkyo Braille Essay Contest marking team. Jordie is a touch reader and an accomplished vocalist. She helped to write the  Australian Addendum for Braille Music Transcription and is a leader at the annual National Braille Music Camp.
• Kathy Riessen leads the braille production team at South Australia School for Vision Impaired (SASVI). She is the Chair of the ICEB Unified English Braille Code Maintenance Committee and has made major contributions to Australia’s braille guidelines including the Australian UEB Training Manual, the Australian Guidelines for Foreign Language Materials, the Australian Addendum for Braille Music Transcription, the Australian Braille Formatting Guidelines and the Duxbury Braille Translator Producers Manual.
• Josie Howse is a long-standing member of the ABA Executive, who brings a strong teacher perspective to discussions. She leads the Australian team administering the Trans-Tasman Certificate of Proficiency in Unified English Braille  and she responds daily to queries from braille learners using  UEB Online. Josie has represented Australia in the establishment of Unified English Braille at an international level since the very first meeting of the International Council on English Braille. Like Kathy, she has also made major contributions to Australia’s braille  and accessible format guidelines including  the Australian UEB Training Manual, the Round Table Guidelines for Accessible Assessment, and the Australian Braille Formatting Guidelines.
• Tristan Clare is a braille proofreader with the NextSense production team (formerly RIDBC). She has been a member of the ABA Executive since 2018 and is a member of the Australian Trans-Tasman Certificate of Proficiency in Unified English Braille Committee.
• Melissa Fanshawe joins the ABA Executive team after attending many meetings as Chair of the Queensland Regional Braille Forum. She is a vision specialist teacher, academic at the University of Southern Queensland, and parent of a vision impaired child.
• Scott Erichsen is a lifelong user of braille with skills in braille-related technology and braille music.

Kim Barber will also continue attending the ABA Executive meetings as Chair of the Sydney Regional Braille Forum. Kim is a vision specialist teacher and leads Braille and Large Print Services for the NSW Department of Education and Training.

We thank our outgoing ABA Executive members:

• Sam Taylor is a braille technology expert working for Pacific Vision. He represented Australia on the ICEB Braille Technology Committee and served the ABA Committee as minutes secretary. He also established the new platform for the ozbrl listserv.
• Leona Holloway was a long-standing member of the ABA Executive Committee serving first as minutes secretary and then as correspondence secretary, managing the ABA email account, ABA Facebook page, building the Round Table and ABA websites and maintaining the ABA website. Leona represented Australia on the ICEB Executive from 2016-2021, serving as the Public Relations Officer, and was the Australian representative to the UEB Code Maintenance Committee. She has made major contributions to national and international braille guidelines including the Rules of Unified English Braille, the Australian UEB Training Manual, the Australian Braille Formatting Guidelines and the Duxbury Braille Translator Producers Manual.