Glenn Stevens: "The Conduct of Monetary Policy"
The Anika Foundation held its first annual public fund raiser on July 13, at 2 Park Street Sydney, with Citigroup kindly donating the venue and lunch. The Australian Business Economists (ABE) sponsored the event, and played a key role in helping to organise it. Glenn Stevens, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia (and board member of the Anika Foundation), spoke on behalf of the Foundation to the Australian financial community on the topic of: “The Conduct of Monetary Policy”.
While the main focus of many participants was the outlook for interest rates, we had a dear friend Dr Geoff Gallop the former Premier of WA, introduce Glenn Stevens. He was able to remind the audience that, while money makes the world go around, depression is a devastating and huge social issue. Geoff thanked participants for their support of the adolescent depression and suicide issue.
A number of banks and brokers sponsored tables, and some individuals also paid for themselves to attend. The Board is happy to say almost $50,000 will be raised from the function.
The event also led to our Chairman, Dr Adrian Blundell-Wignall, being invited to speak about the Foundation on the ABC Radio National Breakfast Show, with Fran Kelly. Adrian spoke about the aims of the Foundation, the problem of secrecy with adolescents, the idea of tapping resources of the financial community, and the goal of bringing research into the schools about the issues through possible travelling scholarships for teachers and counsellors. The popularity of Fran Kelly’s program is such that it led to a large response from the general public that we had not anticipated. Visits to our website exploded, offers of help came, interested and supportive teachers contacted the Foundation, and new donations arrived.
The function and the unexpected donations have boosted the speed of accumulating our endowment fund. The original target set for the commencement of scholarships was $500,000. The Board thought it could take all of 2007 to achieve that figure, however with the recent momentum the Foundation is experiencing, 2006 appears to be taking us through to the $400,000 mark. It seems as though we will be able to begin supporting research in 2007, well ahead of schedule.
In terms of another main goal of the Foundation, raising awareness about the issue of adolescent depression and suicide, the Breakfast show program also resulted in The School Nurses Association inviting The Anika Foundation to provide a speaker at its conference in late January 2007. Danae, Anika’s sister, and a board member, has agreed to speak. The Association will make a donation to The Anika Foundation.