The annual Volunteer Congress, held on International Volunteer Day (5 December) at the famous Adelaide Oval once again saw the South Australian Government and the Volunteer Sector demonstrate their shared commitment to developing volunteerism.

About 250 people attended the Congress and heard keynote speakers, Dr Judy Esmond, Jeff Tryens, Maurice Henderson and Dr Julia de Roeper (pictured at left). Premier, and former Minister for Volunteers, Mike Rann announced the permanent shift of South Australia’s Volunteer Day to the Queen’s Birthday and launched the ' Joy Noble Medal' with a special presentation to Joy herself.

The ‘Joy Noble Medal’ will now be an annual award, given on South Australia’s Volunteer Day (12 June 2006), to a Government employee or group who has made an outstanding contribution to volunteering within a Government program.

Later in proceedings, now Minister for Volunteers, Jennifer Rankine presented TAFE scholarships for Volunteer Management courses to Kaye Mahomet (Volunteering SA); Helen English (Uniting Care); Anna Martin (City of Playford); Jan Bittner (Limestone Coast Resource Centre); Justin Canty (Lower North Volunteer Resource Centre); Helen Halse (Service to Youth Council) and Susan Mitchell (ACH Milpara).

The following presentations from the Congress are available here:

• Advancing the Community Together Partnership Review— (270 kb PDF)
• Marketing Volunteering - Dr Julia de Roeper— (155 kb PDF)
• Young People and Volunteering— (64 kb PDF)

Images of the 2005 Volunteer Congress may be found here.