CBAA president Deb Welch is stepping down from the role before her term is over due to pressure of work at Radio Adelaide, where she is manager. The role of president will now be up for election at the CBAA Conference in Hobart on 23 October.

Following three years as president she has told CBAA members in the association’s  monthly newsletter: “I need to prioritise the people who are close to me and my own staff and volunteers at Radio Adelaide.  All these people have provided huge support and understanding over this period, but the president’s role has required around 20 hours work in an average week on top of my equally demanding job. It’s time for them to come first.”

Welch made her decision in May and informed the CBAA Board at that time. 

The CBAA has been working through, and has resolved, the financial issues that arose in the 2009/10 financial year and has recently appointed another new General Manager, Kath Leitch, after Michelle Bawden’s term of office finished.

This financial year the CBAA has “made a small surplus” which it considers a “great achievement given the downturn in income identified by the organization in December” which resulted in cost cutting to curtail expenses. 

The CBAA has also succeeded in reducing a “major and long-term debtor problem” which was the result of a number of member stations being unable or unwilling to pay their membership fees.

Welch told CBAA members in the newsletter that the CBAA “is financially healthier than it was three years ago, with clear and transparent reporting, and all necessary policies and procedures in place to enable this to be sustained.”

Although she is “disappointed that we weren’t successful in getting a policy and funding commitment from the major parties” in the recent election, the CBAA did succeed in getting commitments from the Greens, a significant factor considering they will hold the balance of power from July.