27th Annual Report for the Year Ending 31st December 2008
President's Annual Report 2009 as at 7 February 2009

Greetings to all our members,

The executive committee has enjoyed our time serving the members of SAC. We are glad to note that we now have 120 registered counselors, after completed two rounds of renewing registration.

For each member that has been removed from the register, please note that once the Executive Committee has received the full documentation of clinical and continual professional education hours required your name will be placed back on the register.

Please remember you are only required to renew register every two years. If you successfully renewed registration in 2008, then you will only need to renew again in 2010. Those that completed the renewal of registration process in 2007 are required to again complete the process by this coming AGM. The form can be found on our website, under the download tab. Please note that you need documentation of each requirement. Where a signature is needed it should be a supervisor, employer, or other professional that can confirm the hours you have completed. If you are uncertain about whether you are required to renew your registration this year, please contact our secretariat.

Please note that the membership fee and registration fee are due each year.

We remain deeply grateful for the role the Singapore Professional Centre (SPC) has fulfilled as our secretariat. We especially want to give our thanks to Theresa Yeoh, Andrea Wang, Noranisah binte Sazali, and Narinder Kaur (who is the newest staff at SPC, and is now doing our secretariat duties) who have been the providers of this work. We would also like to take this time to give a special thanks to both Andrea and Nora as they have left SPC for work in new areas.

The Executive Committee is raising the constitutional amendment for the creation of a new membership category, Intern Membership. At our previous AGM, there was agreement in regards to adopting the constitutional changes. However, we did not meet quorum and so could not make the official changes. Please find attached our official proposal for the changing of the constitution. We hope that we can successfully make the changes during this coming AGM, it is an important change that if not made will continue to cause difficulties for our new members.

We have continued to develop the Course Recognition Committee, for the recognition of counselor training programmes. We are happy to announce that at this moment there are nine recognized programmes. We are now in the process of four of these programmes going through the process of renewal of recognition.

We have continued our working relationship with SPC by providing career talks. I would like to give our thanks to Robin Png, Benjamin Ho, Dr. Chia Kwok Ying, and Jim Bek for having combined to give ten different talks. These talks were at Anderson Junior College, Hwa Chong Institute, St. Andrews Junior College , Raffles Junior College , Chung Cheng High School , Naval Base Secondary School , Northview Secondary School , Northland Secondary School , Northbrooks Secondary School , and Yishun Town Secondary School . These talks have helped spread knowledge of what it is like to be a counselor. We also thank Lydia Lim for the two talks she provided at SPC's Career 2008 & Education 2008. I look forward to even more volunteers in this coming year.

This year began a new chapter for SAC, as we have begun our Fellowship and Learning gatherings. The intent is to provide a platform for our members to better get to know each other, network, and learn from each other. It is our hope that these meetings continue twice each year. During our first fellowship meeting on 8 June 2008 we enjoyed food and a presentation from Lydia Lim. We also attempted the constitutional changes but lacked quorum. We found difficulty arranging for the second fellowship meeting due to the heavy commitments each committee member handled. It is our hope that the active participation of our members will make 2009's fellowship meetings a success.

In this coming year we look forward to a few important goals. The first important goal is the establishment of a detailed proposal for an ethics committee. We will present a one page outline of how this ethics committee is being designed. The second is to develop our relationship with and effective support of school counsellors. The third is a greater participation in leadership of our profession.

We look forward to meeting each of you at the coming AGM.

Sincerely,

David Blakely

President SAC