Attendees of our conference at Takapuna may remember the cheerful lady looking after registrations on the door. But Helen was much more than a conference registrar to NZACE ( as we were then). Many institution admin people spoke with Helen on the phone as she supported their negotiation of new processes for registration and payment for conference. For three years she not only looked after all the administration relating to conference registration, but presented our newsletters.
Helen herself had recently retired as a Programme Administrator at AUT and worked on a casual basis for us doing all manner of things. Of her own initiative she went to Senior Net to learn Mailchimp – and then helped us set up our Mailchimp system – a skill which she also used for other not-for-profit organisations. We greatly appreciated her dedication and support of NZACE and our activities.
When she moved on, she said that during her time with us, she had experienced a different type of WIL – putting the theory and plans for retirement into practice and also transitioning out of employment.
It is sad that her retirement was short. She had been very active in retirement and still had many plans. However she passed away on 10 July after a short illness.