A NOTE FROM THE CEO, Jo Kowalczyk

When I started in this role in March, I knew two key things - I was walking in the footsteps of some incredible women, and I wanted to be part of facilitating opportunities for women to continue to play a leading role and make a difference in the industry.

In the short time I have been CEO I have had the pleasure of meeting dozens of our volunteer Board and Committee members who are the heart of Women in Super. These are the women who promote the importance of our work in their organisations, who encourage attendance at our events, and who show up for Board and Committee meetings to be part of strategising the campaigns ahead.

But, for two weeks in September, in addition to these women, I also got to meet hundreds of our members and our supporters as I travelled around the country as part of our National Road Show. I have been completely overwhelmed by the passion of our members, the support for Women in Super, and the focused dedication to achieving our outcomes.

I also had the privilege of spending two weeks with our guest speaker, Bri Lee, as we travelled from capital city to capital city. I can honestly say that every day on the road provided me with a multitude of opportunities to learn from our members and from Bri and I could not be more grateful.

As someone who has spent their entire life as an advocate and activist it was humbling to be reminded that if you are open to it, you will always learn from those who come after you, not just those who came before. Bri, in sharing her story, reminded me of two very important lessons – if you fight for something important, something that matters, you can never come out the other side with everyone liking you; and, no matter where you are, no matter who you are talking to, when you are talking about a change you are trying to achieve – you never know who is listening to you.

We have serious hurdles ahead of us to realise our policy priorities, but we have the key ingredients – robust and defensible arguments, a solid and supportive membership base, strategically important alliances and relationships, and, as Bri said – a willingness to be really bloody annoying!