After a little over two years, about 100 weeks (even less when you take out holidays) the term of the current National Council and my time as AILA National President is about to come to an end. At this weeks AILA AGM the new National Council will formally be appointed and on Saturday morning a new National President introduced to the members.

On behalf of all members I would like to thank my fellow National Councillors for the significant contribution they have made to AILA. It has been a very busy period (especially the first 6 months) with extensive reform taking place over our term. We have been fortunate to share some memorable times together including terrific experiences as we travelled to different parts of Australia for meetings. The changes to AILA would not have been possible without the fantastic contribution of the members who volunteer their time along with the terrific work of Shahana and the rest of the AILA team. Thanks for all your hard work and I hope you take great pride in what has been achieved as well as the direction AILA is heading.

Congratulations to the incoming National Council who will bring fresh knowledge and insight to AILA. The coming Council term is bound to be one to remember as it will feature the AILA 50 year celebrations in 2016, the new AILA awards program, the My Park Rules campaign and the 2016 Green Infrastructure Summit. This weeks Festival of Landscape Architecture will be a great place to celebrate the past, discuss current issues and look to the future.

On a more personal level, thank you for the opportunity to be part of National Council and to serve as National President. It would not have been possible without the support of the team at FFLA (especially Tim Fitzgerald) and the support of my family for allowing my “AILA time” to increase (sometimes a little too much). I look back with a great sense of satisfaction on what has been achieved as well as being excited about where the profession and AILA is heading. We are fortunate to be a profession with an outlook full of opportunities and if we continue to work together we will create a bright future for ourselves.

Mark Frisby FAILA

National President

Australian Institute of Landscape Architects