Have you looked at our preferred partners page recently? We often have VA members asking about insurance for their businesses and also merchant facilities. Well, we have two such businesses who have recently become partners of AVAA. Why not check them out now?
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Will you get involved?
AVAA is having its next AGM in August – date yet to be set. Our committee would love to have you consider joining us to work together on this wonderful industry of ours. Help us shape the future direction of our industry body, plan future events, find more business partners, and so on. More details will be out in the next couple of months.
AVAC 2016 another success!
Those in attendance and who are members of AVAA would have received the follow up newsletter from our Secretariat, Sandra outlining what took place at AVAC. If you missed out, why not contact her to find out?
AVAC 2016 is just around the corner!
Have you booked yet? It’s not too late you know. We have a great speaker line up in a fantastic location, in Manly, NSW. And we look forward to seeing you there. Dates are 18-19 March, 2016.
Make sure you take a look at our Conference site today!
$2 an hour VAs, says Sydney Morning Herald
If you are a VA in Australia, have you seen the article in the Sydney Morning Herald “Outsourcing Puts a Price on Spare Time”? This was brought to light at a VA forum on Facebook and has had a fair bit of discussion. Rightfully so too. When are journalists going to do the research and show things on an equal basis? Let us share with you an email of complaint our President sent to them.
I wish to complain about the article “Outsourcing Puts a Price on Spare Time”
In it, people are given the idea that they can get a VA for $2 an hour. This is terrible. It doesn’t even state where those VAs are or what currency.
“Virtual assistants can be found for as little as $2 a day. VAs can be hired to do personal and professional tasks – anything from making dinner reservations to surveying customers.”
For your information the VA industry has been here in Australia since 1996 and is alive and strong. There is no way any VA here would work for that rate. Would you work for that rate? It wouldn’t even pay for our internet connection to run a business here in Australia. VAs’ rates range from around $30-$70AUD an hour here in Australia, depending on the service being provided. We have an industry association, run annual conferences, have training courses, etc.
Even mentioning Airtasker and Freelancer – why not mention actual VA directories or networks that outsource VAs? And yet you go on to mention Concierge and Lifestyle Managers which is here in Australia at obviously a higher rate than the $2 VAs mentioned.
This is very disappointing. Did the author actually research our industry in this country? Or did they just take the word of those other ill-informed people who write about these ‘cheap offshore VAs’ without actually finding out for themselves? Would be nice to see our industry accurately represented in articles.
Clearly it was not in their interests to research our industry here in Australia and this is something we often see in the media. What are your thoughts? And would you like to share your concerns about this article too? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
AVAA Updates
We’ve just had our latest AGM and welcome new committee members to the lineup. This will be updated on the website very soon. We appreciate those who have previously been involved in the committee and thank them for their efforts.
We have a new Secretariat position which is being filled by Sandra O’Connor who has many years’ NFP experience behind her and has been a VA since mid 2012. We look forward to regular updates and newsletters being sent out, and membership management being more timely now that Sandra is coming on board.
The new AVAC sub-committee is being formed and they will begin work next week on getting preparations in place for AVAC 2016. Don’t forget it is being held 18-19 March in Manly, NSW. Start looking out for low cost airfares now. We’ll let you know about accommodation choices later on.
Thank you once again for being involved with AVAA and we are delighted with our new updated committee and Secretariat – I’m sure there will be much more to report very soon! Kathie, President AVAA.
