The AAPPA Regional Meeting was held in Canberra, October 7-10, and again, as is our practice, was combined with the annual conference for the Association of Tertiary Education Administrators (ATEM). The theme for the conference was "Federations of Learning, Research and Technology in the 21st Century." The conference theme was developed within the context of the following setting.

     As funds for education have progressively been cut, tertiary institutions have been forced to seek alternative funding sources. In doing so, a variety of partnerships have emerged. Universities are collaborating with colleges of technical and further education with industry and government, and with a variety of private education providers-both on- and off-shore.

     While these federations may have made education more accessible to larger and more diverse groups, will the result be a reinforcement of identity for individual institutions? Will the quality of courses be affected by partnership demands? What benefit, if any, will new federations bring to local communities and regions?

     The model for these collaborative conferences is that we have common plenary sessions, which cover issues affecting the higher education sector as a whole, interspersed with individual special interest streams. This year, AAPPA ran three concurrent streams, with a fourth at a number of times. The papers presented by our members were again of a very high quality, and can be accessed through the AAPPA Web page (www.aappa.com).

     We were delighted to have Phil Cox (and Marsha) join us for the conference as part of their tour "Downunder." Phil presented one of the keynote plenary sessions, and outlined how Cornell University had undertaken its "transformational leadership" program to create a better workplace where everybody strives to achieve their full potential. The story of the journey at Cornell was very relevant to our AAPPA members, as well as our ATEM colleagues, as many of us are struggling with ways to provide even better service to our customers.

     Canberra is Australia's national capital, and as such offers many attractions to take up the free time of our conference delegates. Some of the highlights were a tour through the back of our Parliament House, and the AAPPA Conference Dinner at our recently opened National Museum. This allowed our members to have a private viewing of the Museum exhibits, which covered much of our recent history.

     Our annual meeting built upon a very successful year for AAPPA. Our Middle Management for Facilities Managers course continues to be well attended and receives great reviews from our members. This year we again conducted two-day workshops, one in Sydney and one in Auckland, on the theme of Strategic Asset Management. Building on the input from our workshops, AAPPA published a Strategic Asset Management guideline, containing a user guide to conducting a condition audit.

     Another major achievement for AAPPA was the publishing of our new strategic plan, called "Navigating the Future," which builds on the three C's of APPA's strategic plan, and sets our regional direction for the next five years.

     AAPPA continues to thrive through the commitment and dedication of its Board and co-opted members. Again this year, we were fortunate to have a high quality group of members nominated to the Board, and dedicate themselves to furthering the practice of quality facilities management in Australasian institutions.