Nancy’s Blog: Welcome to the SMRT Family

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Hi, I am Sarah Green and I am the Acting President of the newly formed SMRT New Zealand National Chapter (NZNC). I am very lucky to have the support of our Secretary – Anna Lyndon, Treasurer – Sandra Winsor, Executive Member – Kirsty Campbell, Safety Leed – James Whittaker and our Division Representatives, Lexie Nelson (North Island) and Jacob Cameron (South Island).

For many years New Zealand has been part of the very successful ANZ Chapter and will continue to work with the Australian Chapter (ANC). The relationship between Australia and New Zealand has been and still is very strong. The differences in educational, professional accreditation and registration requirements between the two countries mean that both countries would benefit from an autonomous National Chapter working with the support of an international society.

Both countries will continue to support each other to provide high quality education to their MRI Technologists and will continue to do so. The joint ANZ meeting usually held in November will continue to be a joint venture between the Australia and New Zealand Chapters. Together we feel that the establishment of the New Zealand National Chapter demonstrates the strength of the SMRT community in ANZ. To continue this support, both the ANC and NZNC presidents will serve on each other’s National Chapter boards.

For the last two years, the North Island and South Island Divisions have worked together to run two very successful Joint Division meetings. The inaugural joint Division meeting was held in Auckland in 2019 with over 100 attendees. The second meeting planned to be held in Christchurch in July 2020, proved to be a little challenging with the constraints that COVID-19 placed on us. The committee very quickly changed the format of this meeting to a virtual meeting, held over 3 sessions. This format allowed us to host international speakers who are leaders in their fields.

A conversation with our South Carolina friends at the Montreal SMRT meeting led us to organising a joint international division virtual meeting in October 2019. In March, we also provided education not only to the NZ MRI community but also our Veterinary associates by running a global virtual meeting on Veterinary MRI.

Currently, the NZNC programme committee are busy preparing for the 1st Annual NZNC meeting to be held in Queenstown on Saturday 20th March 2021.

On behalf of the New Zealand National Chapter (NZNC) Committee, it is a pleasure to deliver education to our MRI Community and associates.

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