Making waves – the WaterAble story part 2
By 2023, it had become clear that WaterAble needed to set better foundations for the long term and ensure we could continue well into the future. Over the first few years, we covered the costs of our activities and events through ad hoc sponsorships. Thank you to Veolia, GHD, Greater Western Water, Coliban Water, Goulburn Murray Water and Melbourne Water. Our main costs were things like Auslan interpreters, live captioners and facilitators. Everything else was provided by volunteer work or in-kind support. We had established ourselves as a part of the Victorian water industry landscape. We had a lovely new website and logo thanks to Jai Luke, Cameron Riley and Greater Western Water, and our membership was growing steadily.
In 2023, we expanded our volunteer base with new communications and events management roles, welcoming Alice Millner, Nigel Egan and Tania Beer to the organisation.
Even so, having turned WaterAble into a weekly unpaid job for myself, I knew the organisation needed to be able to thrive without me in the future. The amount of voluntary work was simply unsustainable. With interest from interstate, it was time to develop a national framework and new operating model.
Going national
Over the summer of 2022/23 I came up with the idea of more formally housing WaterAble in VicWater and creating a fee structure for partner organisations. This would give WaterAble an income stream which hopefully would grow over time as more interstate partners joined. It would also increase the WaterAble footprint slowly and in a way we could manage. Some further conversations and approval processes with the WaterAble committee, Jo Lim and within VicWater enabled us to take a rule change to WaterAble members at the August 2023 Annual General Meeting. The meeting unanimously adopted a national structure for WaterAble. Incredible!
Later that year we formally partnered with Sydney Water and Seqwater, with Sunwater partnering in 2024. Veolia also came on board, along with all 18 Victorian water corporations, enabling our membership to grow across New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. Our fees were small. But we needed to start somewhere.
The spectre of partner fees brought some added pressure and a stronger need for a clearer division of labour on the WaterAble committee. People had quite different ideas about who should be doing what, how and why. So, it definitely wasn’t all smooth sailing and WaterAble had some growing pains to work through.
The leadership program
Meanwhile, I launched the WaterAble Leadership Program. I felt strongly that WaterAble needed to provide a better value proposition for our members, particularly our members with disability. I also knew our industry was full of great people with disability and we should try to bring more of them together and help progress their careers in a meaningful way. I designed the WaterAble Leadership Program and delivered it to a small group in 2023. I took on board the feedback from this group, teaming up with Emma Olivier in 2024 and better marketing the program. That year, we doubled our numbers with eight people graduating. A diverse, interesting and talented group of people learned from each other and made deep and unique connections.
In 2024, our event to celebrate the International Day of People with Disability featured Leadership program graduates. This was a very powerful event. Our audience was blown away by the courage and grace of industry employees with disability. For me, this is what WaterAble is really all about – bringing people together, creating a community of employees who are empowered to share their stories and make change in our industry. I am incredibly proud of the leadership program. I loved working with each of our graduates and watching them flourish.
Change is inevitable
In 2024, we had some major changes on the WaterAble committee. Donald Hughan and Matt Iversen stepped back at different points during the year. It was wonderful to be able to present Donald with a lifetime membership of WaterAble at our 2024 AGM in recognition of his major contribution.
Anita McKenzie took on the role of WaterAble Chair. You can read more about Anita in the article below. Anita has led WaterAble from strength to strength, bringing a clear marketing and communications focus. As a result, WaterAble has been able to promote the stories of our members with disability through our online channels. Anita has also worked very closely with VicWater to bed in the new operating model, making WaterAble very much a VicWater program. This was formally approved by our members at a special meeting in March 2025, which replaced the WaterAble rules with simpler and fit-for-purpose terms of reference for this new era of WaterAble.
While it has been very hard for me to step back from WaterAble because I care about it so much, I know it is well set-up for future success. The WaterAble committee now has members from Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, and a supportive home at VicWater. I look forward to seeing how the network evolves and grows in the years ahead.
WaterAble by the numbers
In June 2025 WaterAble has:
22 fee paying partner organisations
over 100 members
around 6 percent of the Victorian water industry identifying as a person with a disability (up from 4.2 percent when WaterAble started)
held five events to celebrate the International Day of People with Disability
held three ‘Day of action’ industry workshops
had members present at many conferences, events and information sessions, including Auswater, and partnership launches with Sydney Water and Seqwater
had 12 talented people with disability graduate from our Leadership Program
run our mentoring Connections Program over two years.
Thank you
I’ve left lots of people out of this history and I would particularly like to mention and thank: Donald Hughan, Anita McKenzie , Jill Sears, Peter Morrison, Jo Lim, Lindsey Brown , Nicole Bovezza, Erin Beel, Kobi Jae Masterson, Jade Shillington, Elaine Dixon, Cameron Riley, Jai Luke, Alice Milner, Tania Beer, Dean Barnett, Nigel Egan, Tara Daniel, Amanda Hazell, Fiona Boucher, Damien Wells, Tallat Mehmood, Kimberlee Pithers, Ange Bruno, Rebecca Costin, Clare Gibson, Emma Olivier, Sylvia Campbell. Sorry if I have left anyone out!
Links
https://insidewater.com.au/meet-the-new-waterable-chair-anita-mckenzie/
www.waterable.com.au