Mentees and Mentors involved in the 2011 YIPAA Peer Plus Mentoring Program gathered on 28 November to celebrate the end of their mentoring experience and reflect on what they had learned.

A quick update about the IPAA 2012 Congress, which will be one of the biggest gatherings of public administrators ever held in Australia. Plus did someone say "Register now and win an iPad"? [Yes we did!] Register by  26 January 2012.

The long term work of thirteen high performing public administrators has been recognised in the list of new Fellows of Victoria’s Institute for Public Administration Australia. Fellowship is awarded to individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to public administration, the achievement of IPAA’s objectives and exemplary service to the Victorian community.

IPAA presented a series of workshops in October 2011 centred around the topic of Governance in the public sector.

YIPAA Victoria now has almost 450 members and continues to grow and develop. This expansion was highlighted by two recent major events: the 2011 YIPAA Annual Address, featuring former Victorian Deputy Premier John Thwaites, and a YIPAA Twilight Talk, which took YIPAA members on a guided tour of Melbourne’s western growth area and local heritage sites.

IPAA Victoria’s recent Internal Communications Summit on 18 October 2011 brought together more than 60 Internal Comms practitioners from across three levels of government in Victoria. Under the theme of Innovate, Engage and Inspire, a diverse range of speakers looked at the challenges, successes and failures of communicating “inside the tent”.

The YIPAA Peer Plus Mentoring Program is now in its fifth year, and is designed to provide young professionals in the VPS with an additional layer of career and professional development support during their foundation stages of service with the public sector, while building a pool of experienced mentors to strengthen the mentoring culture within YIPAA. Registrations for the 2012 program are now open.

The IPAA 2012 International Congress on public administration is now less than a year away. Running from 18-20 September 2012, the Congress will bring together more than 1000 administrators from around Australia and the South Asia-Pacific region, in one of the biggest gatherings of public administrators ever held in Australia.

All IPAA members, including Fellows, Corporate Member Heads and Personal Members are invited to attend the IPAA Annual General Meeting on 23 November 2011.

IPAA Victoria members will soon receive their new look Public Administration Today (Today) magazine in the post and for the first time ever can access the full publication online. This issue has a special focus on Indigenous employment and workforce issues.