COMINGS AND GOINGS
During May there were 23 new or rejoined subscribers to VECO. Of note is a farewell from Ty Emerson, an active VECO member since early days, who is moving to a new area of work, and an introduction from Julie Samuels-Green, new Executive Officer for VETNETwork, Canberra. Best wishes to Ty and a warm welcome to Julie.

INPUT INTO ONLINE EVENT PLANNING
During May, an email game, C3PO, was played to gain a feel for online guests and topics that people would like to see. The game is a simple, effective and fun way to draw on the collective views of people and arrive at a collaborative result. An outline of the process and the actual results are available on the web at
http://www.veco.ash.org.au/guest/

For details of discussion visit the archives at http://rite.ed.qut.edu.au/cgi/lyris.pl?visit=voced-coord

Resources Library - Making Choices (curriculum package)
- Preparing Students for Workplacement

Project Gallery
- Cowell Area School - Aquaculture program (Rural & Remote)
- Work Out Project - Interim report (Disability) Chifley College Youth Enterprise Futures Project (Indigenous)

Link to these from the what's new page

Usage of the VECO website continued to grow during April and May

April: 24 089 pages served to 8612 visitors (Apr 2000: 9976 pages to 4045 visitors)
May: 29 167 pages served to 9982 visitors (May 2000: 14 964 pages to 4824 visitors)

The most popular areas on the website were Event reports, Online Guests, Project Gallery and Resources Library. Use the sitemap to link to these areas http://www.veco.ash.org.au/sitemap

June 21, Sydney: Tourism and Hospitality 2001 national conference

June 26, Perth: NCVER Research Forum: Australian apprenticeships – facts, fiction and future

July 5, Hobart: NCVER Research Forum: Australian apprenticeships – facts, fiction and future

July 8-11, Wagga Wagga: SPERA Conference 2001 – Providing quality education and training for rural Australia

July 10, Geelong: Training Research Conference/Workshop

July 16, Wolverhampton, UK: Vocational Education and Training research 4th International Conference

July 23, Melbourne: ANTA Equity in Practice

July 27, Canberra: NCVER Research Forum: Australian apprenticeships – facts, fiction and future

August 10, Sydney: Unlocking Training Packages – success stories and practical strategies

August 16, Brisbane: National Education & Employment Forum

August 24-25, Adelaide: PCETA SA State Conference 2001 – “Staying On, Moving on – Success for All”

September 24, Adelaide: NCVER Research Forum - Return on Investment in Training
(repeated Sydney October 19, Melbourne November 2)

October 15-17, Brisbane: NET*Working 2001 – From Virtual to Reality

October 19, Sydney: NCVER Forum – Return on investment in training

November 2, Melbourne: NCVER Forum – Return on investment in training

December 2, Perth: 2001 Annual Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) Crossing Borders: New Frontiers for Educational Research

Now that the dust has settled on the hectic aspects of transition to the new ECEF, it is timely to properly review VECO and its role in the context of the new organisation.

This process has begun and the survey results from earlier in the year have confirmed which aspects of VECO in its current form are most valued by its members. See report summary at http://www.veco.ash.org.au/filestore/VECOsurveyresults.doc

Further, the outcomes of the C3PO game will contribute to the shaping of the way ahead in terms of structured online events.

Rest assured that the functionality you enjoy will continue though there will undoubtedly be some changes afoot to make for an even brighter future. We will keep you posted!