999 smarty pants, and one other

The thousand delegates for Australia 2020 have been announced, and the hubbers weren’t on the list. I knew I should have included my Facebook IQ. Without trying to sound like a sore loser, I am now feeling a bit cynical about this whole thing.

NOMINATIONS VS INVITATIONS

When nominations closed, it was announced that 7,152 applications were received, and this included some multiple entries.  Last week we heard that the thousand were chosen from 8,000 people.  One wonders exactly how many personal invitations were issued on top of the nomination process. 

EAST COAST ACADEMIA

There seems to be a lot of doctors and professors.  There’s also a real east coast bias, especially from little ACT.  Probably the need to pay one’s own way contributed to this skewed representation of our population.  A cursory glance tells me Tasmania and South Australia don’t get much of a look in, but I could be wrong.  Hopefully someone out there is generating some statistics on this group, I would love to know more. How many classroom teachers, I wonder?

JAMES “One Tel” PACKER

Seriously?  Is he really one of the best and brightest in this country? Or could it be he’s there because he is incredibly rich, in an inherited kind of way?  I don’t begrudge people their bank accounts, but I find it hard to believe that someone who is building a worldwide gambling empire really has our society’s best interests at heart.  To give him a say in what our future may be is what I call a serious conflict of interest, to say the least.  Warren Buffet, he ain’t.

ARTS AT THE BOTTOM

Those of you who have watched the Kenneth Robinson clip will be interested to note that the names for “Towards a creative Australia” were listed last. It could be a coincidence though.

Enough of this tangent, back to the library stuff…..

Australia 2020 – will the Oompa Loompas be there?

Sometimes real life intervenes, and this blog has a little snooze. Still, you can always be sure that things continue to tick away behind the scenes.

You may have heard about an upcoming gathering known as the Australia 2020 Summit.  One thousand of our country’s “best and brightest brains” will descend on Canberra in April for two days to create a vision for our future.  Nominations for this event closed on Friday, with 7,251 applications received. This number will drop once duplicate nominations are removed, and whatever number is left, there will be among them the names of four hubbers, myself included. 

So do I have in my head one of Australia’s best and brightest brains? Well, my university lifestyle in the 90’s didn’t help, but it’s not too shabby.  It would have helped my application if there was a box that asked for my Facebook IQ.  I scored 143 on that. 

Great literature holds examples of everything in life, and I liken this process to getting a golden ticket to Mr Wonka’s chocolate factory, except that eating chocolate by the truckload doesn’t improve one’s chances of winning. Just to be on the safe side though, I’m tucking into a giant Kitkat for good luck. Tomorrow I’ll invest in a Cherry Ripe, then move on to a Peppermint Crisp on Tuesday. I’m nothing if not committed to the cause.

Within minutes of the nominations closing, our Hub discussions turned to submissions.  First drafts were flying around within 24 hours.   The enthusiasm and passion displayed is nothing short of remarkable.  If you have never checked out who we all are, then click here to see the names of those who are giving their time to contribute to the campaign for quality school libraries for all Australian students. 

The Hub is not exclusive, and we are not a clique.  We have more ideas than we have time to develop.  If you like what we do and want to be a part of it, then email us.  We would like representatives from all states and territories.  Is your state represented?  Go on, join in!