Honouring a new BIS Lifemember

Every year BIS, as an Incorporated Association, has an AGM. It is always a great opportunity to celebrate our growth and elect Life Members, awarded to people who have gone far beyond the normal “Call of Duty”.  This AGM had both the celebration of electing Chairperson Maelle Farquhar as a life member and the sadness of having her resign as Chairperson of the BIS Board, as she and her family had decided to return to France for a time.

Maelle’s impact on BIS and its future is hard to overstate. When she first took on the Chair role, the school faced some challenges:

  • The board, and therefore the school had becoming somewhat inward looking; and
  • The Board lacked a clear direction and strategy for the school.

Today, thanks to Maelle’s clear thinking, strong leadership and a huge slice of her time, all these issues have been addressed.

Maelle conceived and implemented a plan to change the structure of the BIS board from being entirely made up of parents to being a fifty/fifty mix of parents and board members drawn from the broader community who brought specific skills and experience that she saw were lacking.

This restructured and revitalised board has developed and is implementing clear, short and long term strategic goals that will ensure the school’s continued, healthy growth while remaining fully consistent with the school’s philosophy and core values.

Careful financial analysis and management together with growing our student numbers, has put us into a position to enact our future vision.  Maelle also established a successful succession policy ready for a vibrant change over of Chairperson to continue implementing this new vision.

At the AGM, Anthony Element OAM, the first of the external board members to be elected to the board, in 2012, was elected to replace Maelle as Chairperson. His objective is to – as seamlessly as possible – lead the board in continuing the work that Maelle so ably began.

Exciting times ahead.

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