ALGA Treasurer to Chairman of the Board (2010 – 2015), along with inaugural chair of the VIGGIM Committee.
Jon’s career has spanned such diverse industries as: Education, having taught in secondary schools in Lakes Entrance in Victoria and Fowey in the UK as well as at William Agliss TAFE, Tourism and Hospitality having run a pub in Oxford and been General Manager of hotels/resorts in remote locations at Albury NSW, Ross River Homestead in Central Australia and The Strahan Village on the west coast of Tasmania, as well as a diverse leisure business in the UK; Geodemographic Segmentation and Databased Marketing (it’s a long story) in Melďourne and Nottingham UK; and Environmental Remediation starting with Acqua selling oil/water separation technology before forming The Remediation Group in 2005 with Daniel Egan where he is currently Managing Director, doing a one year secondment to start up a biochar business in Gosford, and most recently adding a directorship of WJ Groundwater (Aust) a UK based company specialising in dewatering.
Steep learning curves have been the norm as he moved from one industry to another supported by formal education that has included a Bachelor of Education (Science), Diploma of Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Diploma from the British Wine and Spirit Education Trust, Graduate Diploma of Business (Tourism), and the Company Directors Course. I put my hand up to be on the board of ALGA in 2009 and subsequently became Treasurer and later took on the role of Chair when John Hunt and Stephan Pawelczyk were President.
He had a particular interest in improving the governance of ALGA and played a significant role in ALGA’s transition to a company limited by guarantee, the establishment of Board sub committees, writing of the Board Charter and other governance documents, establishing the strategic plan, establishing an organisational structure with employees instead of contractors, initiating the Tasmania and Darwin branches, and more recently established the Interest Group called Vapour & Gas.
Quoted from Jon’s speech at EcoForum 2016: “There is a fine tradition at ALGA Annual Dinners not to include speeches where possible and to keep them brief where necessary. This keeps the focus on the important conversations going on around the room and avoids the awkward possibility of needing to tell delegates to quiet down or those giving the speech to get off.
It also relieves those who win awards without prior warning from having to think of something to say in a hurry. Had I been forewarned and been asked to speak I would have liked to have said the following: I am delighted to have been awarded an Honorary Life Membership of ALGA and would like to thank the people who nominated me and the Board for accepting my nomination.
All voluntary contributions to ALGA come at a cost of personal time and corporate financial support in some form or another which explains why employees typically need to gain permission to volunteer their paid time. In my case as a co-owner of The Remediation Group there are two people who need to be acknowledged. The first is my business partner Daniel Egan who has never, in the many years that I have been actively involved in ALGA, questioned the time I have spent. So thanks Dan for your support. The other is my wife Denise, who, unlike Dan, has questioned every hour that I have spent on ALGA matters! But then she has been putting the lion or perhaps lioness’ share of the bread on the Miller household table over this time. I would point her out for acknowledgement but as is fitting, she is not here tonight. Instead she is currently busy working in another part of the world in a different time zone. Nevertheless, for whatever I have done to contribute to the governance and activities of ALGA that qualifies me for this award, the organisation owes her a debt of gratitude, so on ALGA’s behalf I say, “Thanks Denise”.
While contributing to ALGA comes at a cost, it also comes with great reward in the form of a sense of satisfaction. Contributing to something that I feel passionate about has been its own reward. I would therefore encourage anybody here who has a bee in their bonnet about something to find a way to make a contribution be it via a branch committee, conference organising committee, a presentation, the Board, a Special Interest Group, an article in the CRONICLE or a good old rant on the Soap Box.
What makes ALGA so successful is the breadth of opportunities for members to contribute and to have their voice heard. These opportunities would not exist without the extraordinary organising capacity of our CEO in Elisabethe and her team whom she is always quick to acknowledge. It has been and continues to be a joy to discuss ideas and see them translate into action via Elisabethe and her team. So thank you Elisabethe for your achievements.
To my fellow Honorary Life Membership recipient John Hunt, this acknowledgment of your towering technical contribution to ALGA is long overdue, but what I would like to acknowledge is your passion for the welfare of the greater industry, something that I have had the privilege to experience close up. Congratulations to you for the positive impact you have had on the environment you care so much about and the people you continue to guide along their way. And finally, thank you to those still listening and have a great night.