Annual Report 2000

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S REPORT 2000

Professor John Coghlan, AO

Despite the general financial constraints the broad aims of the Foundation are being reinforced and the Menzies Foundation is recognised as a memorial to Sir Robert on an increasingly broader base. I reported last year that diminishing income from our investments prompted the Board as its first remedial action to call for tenders from the most successful fund managers. The details of the outcome are set out in the Chairman's report. The first call on income is always to protect the corpus of the funds against inflation. Our changes in fund management have paid off in the short term and our yearly average income for 2000 was 10% after fees; 1999 was only 6%. Accumulated funds sat at $14.5 million on 31 December, 2000. The investment market is full of uncertainties and the outcomes are not clear enough for us to make a major innovation, for example a "new centre" with a longer commitment of three years, but modest changes continue. Our upgraded organisational chart is in the centre pages of this report.

The major support for the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies in London - now in its new home at Kings - expired in October 2000. The joint Fellowship program was developed between Professor Carl Bridge and myself during his visit in 1999 and my visit to the Centre in mid-2000. The program has had an auspicious start with the appointment of Dr Mark McKenna from the Australian National University. Further details are included in Professor Bridge's report for the Centre.

Joint meetings and joint public lectures are now a major feature of our program, often encompassing health, scholarship and education. The first public, plenary Menzies Lecture with ScienceNOW! was given by Ms Laurie Garrett in 1999 entitled "The Coming Plague". World plagues are a feature of every day news reports with the worsening AIDS situation in Africa, BSE and foot and mouth disease in Europe. As Ms Garrett predicted, TB is emerging as a serious public health problem in rich as well as poor nations and especially in the collapsing health care systems of Russia.

The joint public lecture program in 2000 also added to the stature and reputation of the Foundation in the public health area. This year's ScienceNOW! Menzies Foundation Lecturer, Professor Susan Greenfield, spoke to an Australia-wide audience when the lecture was televised by the ABC. Recently she presented her very popular series on the brain on the Compass program for the ABC. A second Menzies Lecture entitled "World Blindness and the Global Initiative" was given by the most eminent American scientist, Professor Al Sommer. A commentary on these lectures appears later in this report.

The Menzies Foundation's general web site is continually updated and used mainly by scholarship applicants who are seeking information on how to apply. The majority of candidates now download the application forms from our web site and this represents a considerable saving in time and postage for the Secretariat. In this scholarships/grants field the Menzies Foundation has been on the ‘web' since 1995 - long before government agencies and other philanthropic trusts. The site is maintained at a high level utilising the newest technologies in order to maintain our leading edge position. The Secretariat also maintains the site for the Menzies Memorial Scholars Association which allows prospective candidates to find information on the previous scholars.

The major educational web site based on the "Life and Times of Sir Robert Menzies" is in progress. In 2000 the Foundation entered into an agreement with Museum Victoria to support their Outreach Program. As a corollary to this project, several "hot buttons" to the Foundation's web site will be inserted into the Museum Victoria web site, including the home page which has on average 1,300 visits each day. It will make the Foundation a partner in a formal educational program accessible not only to Victorian schools but internationally. Progress was slow during 2000 because of the opening of the new Melbourne Museum and the availability of key staff. This time has been spent wisely in planning and design.

The staff of the Secretariat are computer literate and the General Manager, Ms Sandra Mackenzie, is to be congratulated for her orchestration of a seamless transition to fully computerised accounts in readiness for the introduction of the GST and the new tax system. There is a further advantage in that the accounting software is also utilised by the auditors thus making the annual audit a faster and easier process. Our small Secretariat also employed its computer skills when it undertook the administration for the Third Menzies Scholars Symposium including the registration of delegates. The symposium coincided with the processing of the law scholarship applications and again the high level and standard of work would not have been possible without state-of-the-art computer equipment and skilled personnel. Our repertoire for seminars and workshops now includes the early production, within a month, of a CD-ROM of the whole proceedings of the meeting; an invaluable record.

Our headquarters building, Clarendon Terrace in East Melbourne, continues to serve us well. Not only does it provide office accommodation for our Secretariat but the function rooms on the first floor provide excellent space for the Foundation's meetings and symposiums. It was, for example, a splendid setting for a welcoming dinner for speakers at the Third Menzies Scholars Symposium. Income from the tenancy in the northern terrace helps to maintain this beautiful National Trust building. I am also pleased to report that the building is now hired on a regular basis by the East Melbourne Group, the East Melbourne Historical Society and the East Melbourne Community Bank Steering Committee for their meetings. This local use has made the building much more accessible to the community and has enhanced the profile of the Foundation.

Professor John Coghlan, AO
Executive Director