One year ago I blogged about how Gaia Resources created time for the women (and truly all staff) of the company to come together and speak on sensitive matters in a safe space. We raised issues of sexism in previous employment and how we feel supported by not only leadership but by the whole team, men and women alike.  

As a follow on from last year, those who were interested were encouraged to continue the discussions. The group met a handful of times to discuss topics such as what it means to have a family and be a working woman, what it means to be childless in today’s society, and sexism in finance. Conversations were rich and it was warming to encounter such a diverse range of experiences and opinions.   

This year, rather than taking you along on our discussions, I’d like to highlight a couple of our outstanding female staff from across the company. Gaia Resources is a company with a gender ratio of almost a cool 50:50. Personally, I find it rewarding to work in a company where women are in every role, from leadership to DevOps to support. Furthermore, as a Developer, I take pride that I am not the sole female Developer. However, for today, in their own words, Tracey Cousens and Tanya Aquino describe their experiences being female and working in various roles.

Tracey Cousens: 

I’ve had a very varied working life, from labouring to STEM to tech support. I’ve found my time as a Business Developer for Gaia to be refreshing in that I have rarely found my gender to be an issue. I’m aware that a big part of this is the nature of the role – I am predominantly listening to clients and working with them to find solutions. The issues tend to arise whenever you have to push back on a client. 

In any role, in any company, when you have to say no to a client, the attitude towards you can be vastly different to that of your male colleagues, even when delivering the exact same message. I’ve experienced this from both men and women – if you are not telling them what they want to hear, they go over your head, only to be completely accepting of the same information from a male, regardless of job title or authority. 

I’ve pondered the reasoning for this – is it a man’s appearance? Their deeper voice? Their confidence? When these attitudes come from other women it can be especially disheartening and confusing, and I don’t even think they realise they are doing it. 

Digital communication such as emails can create a certain disconnect between people, which makes building relationships trickier in many ways. But they can also be advantageous in that they help to remove preconceived notions based on a person’s age and appearance. The increasing need for video calls has been somewhat of an advantage for me –  everyone on video calls appears about the same height. As a person who is barely tall enough to reach the accelerator pedal in my car, I have to say I have definitely felt people take me more seriously as a professional when they only see me from the torso up! 

I think attitudes are steadily improving as time goes by, and I believe all people can play a part in improving things by examining their own unconscious biases. Personally, I have been working on appearing more confident through my tone of voice and delivery, and not pathologically apologising for things that aren’t my fault. But I’m also looking forward to the day I don’t have to try to act more like a man to get a point across.

Tanya Aquino:

At parties, when people ask me what I do, my stock response has been “I manage teams in IT”.  (Purists will note this isn’t very precise – but it’s good enough for parties!)  I’ve been saying that for 25-ish years now.  The response was often … curious surprise.  “Wow .. wouldn’t have picked that!”.  Or, “My, that sounds like a big job – do you have kids?”.  That is; the response was often not about the thing I had just told them I did, it was a reaction to something about me, the person who was telling them.   

I’m not entirely sure what part of my answer inspired this kind of response.  Was it the “IT” part?  Or was it the “manage” part?  Or the fact that at some points they would have been looking for a young (early 20’s) IT professional.  Who knows?  But it would seem that at some level I’d disrupted some assumptions about who does management, who does IT, how old they are, what kind of a person they should be, whether they had kids or how they should look …   

It’s fair to say that I get less curious surprise about me .. and more interest in the thing I do (“Cool, what kind of IT and where”?) these days.  I’d like to believe that my experience of this happening less in more recent times is a shared one.  But I know I’ve been lucky.  I’ve been able to always choose to work in organisations that value inclusivity, diversity and equality, places that ‘walk the talk’, with policies to ‘define and enshrine’ these values, supported by tangible practices – such as selection activities and targeted career opportunities.  I also recognise that my experience comes from a place of privilege – and others will have many different stories. 

But my experience is what formed my strongly held belief that one of the most important obligations I have as a (now older!) woman who ‘manages teams in IT’ is to make sure that at the foundations of everything we do – how we manage our teams, recruit our people, how we train them and treat them –  must continue to have at its heart the ‘breaking of bias’.  

I truly believe it’s our difference that makes us better.

This year’s International Women’s Day theme is #BreakTheBias. Both Tracey and Tanya spoke to the biases they have faced head-on. Through conversations and stories like theirs, we take the steps forward to breaking down stereotypes. We all have bias but recognising and working to overcome it is what will make this world a better place. Thanks to both for sharing their story. 

If you’d like to know more, if you would like to work with a team that supports and encourages diversity, or if you simply want to tell your story, feel free to email me or start a chat with us via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Sarah

The post International Women’s Day 2022 appeared first on Gaia Resources.

So far this year we have welcomed six newcomers, and will continue the search for more to jump on the exciting projects we have on the horizon.

Brad Power – Senior Software Engineer Hi, my name’s Brad Power – I’m a software engineer and researcher from Perth. I’ve worked across a number of different industries including embedded/mobile, video game development, scientific data visualisation, and academic research. I’m interested in technology in general but am also fascinated by maths, music, and history – really I think I’m just a sucker for a good story and learning new things! Having spent a fair chunk of time in academia I’m also passionate about getting people involved in knowledge sharing, and contributing information back into the community.

Casey Murrihy – Support Coordinator Hello, I’m Casey, Gaia’s newest Support Coordinator. I followed Jordan into the Gaia office one day and they decided to keep me. I’m very excited to work for Gaia as it was my childhood ambition to help preserve the environment for future generations. I studied environmental Science; however, I discovered I was much better at turning computers off and on again and found myself working in IT Support when I got older, rather than saving the world. Gaia Resources doesn’t just talk the talk; they try very hard to walk the walk too. The sincerity and the integrity of the company and all the fabulous people who work for it is an inspiration, and I am honoured to be a part of it (although walking is hard so I’ll just drive my EV). In my downtime, I like to pretend I can bake and enjoy creating dietary-specific spins on classic baking favourites (some more successful than others). I am thrilled to have a new batch of victims… I mean subjects… no wait,  colleagues to feed. I accept requests, so let me know if you come up with a combination!

Hayden Richards – Software Engineer Hello! I’m Hayden. I recently started at Gaia as a Software Engineer. I was born in Perth, the best city in the world, and I’ve lived here my whole life. I have a Bachelor of Actuarial & Applied Statistics, so my background is actually in mathematics, statistics and data analysis. I’ve had a passion for programming since I was young, and through my previous technical roles, personal projects and active interest in the open-source community I’ve become a software engineer. I love Python. I spend a lot of my free time working on personal projects and contributing to open-source projects online. In my spare time I’m also expanding my horizons by learning Rust and Ruby. My other loves are cricket and football. I’m actually a St Kilda Saints fanatic. You don’t have to remind me they’re bad, or ask me why I support them – I’ve already suffered enough. I have two best friends, Frank (the dachshund) and Marley (the golden retriever). It’s always funny to see heads turn at the park – no one can believe the fat little sausage dog can keep up. I joined Gaia Resources for many reasons. First and foremost are the company’s values and ethics. I think it’s rare in today’s world to find somewhere that so strongly cares about our future. Another reason is the culture – even early on it’s clear how much Gaia cares about its employees – we have so many opportunities to develop ourselves. Finally, Gaia has allowed me to take an important step in my career by becoming a recognized software engineer. This is something of a dream come true for me.  I’ve been at Gaia for almost one month and I couldn’t be happier. I’ve been particularly impressed by how welcoming the whole team has been, the workplace culture and the work-life balance. I’m very proud to be at Gaia, and can’t wait to see where my journey here takes me.

Khaled Faour – Project Manager Around 25 years ago, I came to the land of Oz straight from what was left of Beirut. In my previous life I was an agricultural research economist and bioeconomic modeller and worked at the American University of Beirut, where I completed my Masters in AgEc, then at NSW Agriculture at the Wagga Wagga and Yanco research centres where I got to travel around most of NSW and VIC, and even parts of WA. I moved to Brisbane around 20 years ago and completed a Bachelors of Commerce. Then around 15 years ago I found myself jumping in the world of project management, mostly with QLD Health. I enjoy music of all sorts, languages and places, including anything made my by DJ Khaled of course – no bias at all. I also love ‘tasteful’ action and comedy movies. I’m definitely enjoying my new Gaia family, and loving and living the dream!

Natasha Madondo – Junior Software Engineer Hello there, I’m Natasha! I’m currently interning as a Junior Software Engineer at Gaia. I have a Bachelor’s degree with honours in Environmental Management, a diploma in Japanese and I am about to finish my studies as a Software Engineer. I’m from Zimbabwe but I’ve lived in the UK, Australia and Japan. I’m really interested in travelling, architecture, the environment and languages . I currently speak four languages and aim to get to seven one day!  I’ve travelled to about 12 counties and counting, my favourites being Belgium, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. My hobbies include reading, changing my hair every 2 seconds,  hectic rounds of karaoke, and trying to find the platypi that live in the river near us and cooking. I love sweets but can’t bake to save my life so baked goods are always welcome. Prior to Gaia I worked in Japan as a translator and administrative assistant to improve my Japanese. During my time there I also learnt that as much as I hate snow, skiing is acceptable. I also gained my interest in programming and IT by talking to co-workers and gaining some insight. I love a challenge and just like my 7 languages goal I hope to become a better software engineer and create solutions for a more sustainable world. I’m very happy to be at Gaia as the values here closely align with my own. Being able to work for a company that values their employees and considers their impact on the environment by making a conscious choice to do better makes me extremely proud to be here. ガイアの皆様、これからどうぞよろしくお願い致します。(translation)

Natalie van der Walt – Software Tester Natalie is camera shy and doesn’t like to talk about herself, so until we do some further sleuthing, and potentially even get our hands on an actual photo, here’s some text from her LinkedIn profile: “I am a curious and pragmatic Software Testing and IT professional who is extremely customer focussed.The last 12 years in IT included roles as an Agile Test Analyst, Test Manager, Senior Business Analyst and Senior QA in various domains including Health, Travel, Real Estate, Retail, Finance and the Automotive Industry.” We’re very excited to have Natalie on board to bring her vast experience and skills to our ever-growing need for software testing and automation, and to aid us in implementing new internal software going forward. We’ll be sure to give Natalie the introduction she deserves next time!

If you would like to work with us or want to talk to one of our staff about their experience, please get in touch! Reach out via email at info@gaiaresouces.com.au or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn

Tracey

The post Welcome to (yet more) new staff! appeared first on Gaia Resources.

As the company grows, it gives me pause to reflect on my start just a year and a half ago. It was around the beginning of the pandemic. Gaia Resources was operating fully remote, and onboarding was a week of video meetings introducing me to the staff and the Gaia way. Tania Ryan detailed the experience in her blog ‘Starting a new job during a Pandemic’. She highlighted the lengths the company went to provide a welcoming albeit virtual environment. 

Since then, we have embraced a flexible work environment where we balance work from home and office days (detailed in Mieke’s blog ‘Remote Flexible Work Pitfalls for Parents’). Onboarding directly reflects this with a mix of in-person and video meetings, allowing recruits to meet our whole team, now spread across five states/territories, as well as get in-person support. Flexible work arrangements are valued by all staff at Gaia Resources. However, there is nothing like tapping a coworker on the shoulder to ask a simple question when you’re new. 

Regardless of how we introduce new staff to our team, we always emphasise our company culture and espouse the values that we highlighted in our recent strategy week: Do the right thing, Be open, Be involved, Do what you said you would do, and Be there for each other. (See https://archive.gaiaresources.com.au/gaia-resources-annual-stratgey-week/). We are a company that doesn’t just pay lip service to what we think are good values. Instead, we put a large amount of effort into making them a reality. As such, Gaia Resources truly invests in their people and builds a culture of which we are all proud. And I think this is one reason why we continue to attract great talent. 

I wrote the above words before reaching out to our new team members to see why they chose to work at Gaia Resources, but it sounds like all of the above rings true. 

Meet Gordon Campbell and Sally Mitchell!

Hello, my name is Gordon Campbell a.k.a Minty Jones.

I hail from the shores of South West Scotland but have resided in Australia for 20 years. My love of programming started at nine years old and I started freelancing around 2001. Since then, I have earned qualifications in Graphic Design, Interactive Multimedia, and most recently, IT (Software Programming).

Aside from this, I have two children, am a keen musician, and have been a signwriter on the side for the last six years. Within Gaia Resources, I fill a Junior Software Engineer role working primarily within the behemoth that is known as ArchivesSpace. Having a family, especially a recent newborn, work/life balance is very important to me and Gaia offers a great degree of flexibility within their structure.

I decided to take this opportunity with Gaia as I believe that they provide a service that is concerned about the future of the planet, and I find this extremely refreshing. I’m proud that I can work with like-minded people trying to make this world a better place.

Hi, I’m Sally. I have been brought onboard to Gaia Resources as a Support Coordinator.

The thing that first interested me in Gaia Resources was the values and ethics. Gaia Resources works with companies to develop technological solutions to make the world a better place. This includes choosing projects and clients whose own work and values contribute positively to the world. It was this strong principle that made me look further into Gaia Resources.

Gaia Resources believes strongly in its culture and its employees and places a higher value on the relationships with their people than the money they bring into the company. It’s been such a welcoming and inclusive environment. I am only in my first month, but so far this is shaping up to be the best company that I have worked for. 

If you want to work with us or talk to a staff member about their experience, please get in touch! Reach out via email at info@gaiaresouces.com.au or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn

Sarah

The post Welcome to the team! appeared first on Gaia Resources.

Having a job that offers flexibility in working hours for mums and dads can be just the solution for working around the chaos and pressure. I am one of those lucky ones who can work just about any time from remote locations to get my hours done. There are client meetings that need to be met, but the majority of my work can really be done at any time. This means I can spread the work out, and still be available to my colleagues when they need my insights.

As long as the communications are good and the job gets done, then all is well. Right? Not exactly. 

Working remotely and unusual hours means co-workers can assume you are available anytime. There’s no point saying flexible and remote is perfect, because it is not. No working arrangement is. You may find yourself being communicated to at unexpected times, or times when your kids really need you, but you still feel pressure to respond immediately. Having your hours spread-out and not always at consistent times, means it’s difficult for colleagues to know when you are available, even if you have a digital on/off signal system running like we use in our internal Chat system. This compounds when working on multiple projects as the respective teams have two layers of abstraction (e.g. Is she on? And if so, is she on my project?).

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels

But if you are like me and really like your job, there’s a two-way sense of responsibility and you make it work. I am no expert at juggling – in fact I cannot type an email and talk to someone else at the same time like some can, but here are some things I am trying out to make it work:

• • Try to not feel guilty for not being there 9.00 – 5.00 everyday: I actually feel guilty all the time, but I shouldn’t… Actually, at Gaia Resources we are not just accommodating the occasional child screen bombing an online meeting; we support flexibility for all, where making a doctor’s appointment or having to run some errands then making up the time later is not an issue. 
  • Let my digital signatures do the talking: I may have missed that conversation at 9.00am, but I laid the groundwork for what we’re doing earlier that morning at 5.00am. It’s easy to feel anxious when you can’t join the big conversations first thing in the morning, or at lunch, or start thinking that people might be judging you for not being part of these conversations. But I let my work do the talking, and know that I’ll always contribute when I’m needed, and there’s a timestamp to show.
  • Lay down some boundaries: there may be some mystery about whether I’m on but I have set some specific times and that I will not be on. Tuesday morning and Fridays are out, and that is the same every week. These times are for my fitness class that I teach and special times with my son.
  • Congratulate myself on the wins: if I get to have some quality time with my son or some positive engagements with clients or colleagues, I celebrate that what I am doing is worthwhile.

I do my best to make this work, but there’s always room for improvement. It doesn’t help that I do have some workaholic tendencies (working as a business analyst AND fitness instructor AND a dedicated mum and wife AND wanting to start a personal development project to automate museum specimen label digitisation etc.). But, I love data and I love the chance to work with institutes like universities, museums, and archives to make sense of their complex data problems and inter-related system requirements.

What I am talking about is not new, and I am glad to say that Gaia Resources continues to evaluate our procedures to help our employees where we can. It is nice to see there is even a push from government for employers to be more supportive of flexible working arrangements https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/not-taboo-to-ask-anymore-employers-sign-up-to-family-friendly-push-20210517-p57soi .

So, what are some of your tips and tricks to make flexible, remote work, WORK? Please share in the comments,  email me or start a conversation with us on one of our social media platforms –  Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.

Mieke

The post Remote Flexible Work Pitfalls for Parents appeared first on Gaia Resources.

We were lucky enough in Brisbane, that for the recent Harmony Week celebration, we could do an in-person event with the whole team. Since we primarily do a combination of working-from-home and in-office days, it is rare to get the whole Brisbane team together in one place. It can be challenging given ever changing restrictions, but the importance of these in-person events has become even more clear. The benefit is the reminder of all the connections we share. And Harmony week underlines that explicitly.

In this instance, the Brisbane team got together for a ‘crafternoon’. As a prompt to help us draw out the stories we all bring to the table, we traced hand cut-outs and decorated them with stories from our background or childhood that we could share with the team. While a few people were uncertain if they were crafty enough, or what sort of images to use, everyone had a chance to share something about themselves. It allowed team members to choose what they were comfortable sharing, and to learn more about each other in a relaxed way. The ‘crafternoon’ worked as a conversation starter. We found that as we shared our stories, we asked questions and we learned more about our team.

It is not always simple to connect within a group, but the open minds and hearts that Gaia Resources seeks in its people, ensure we all come to the table knowing that our diversity and our stories are celebrated and heard. Some of the stories resounded with me because they came from a perspective familiar to me. Some because they provided a look into something new. All of them were important because they are part of what has made each of the people around the table who they are. And in sum, it is an amazing team, of which I am proud to be a part.

While Brisbane had their crafternoon, the Perth office held a Harmony Day lunch where it was decided that we would bring a plate of food, sweet or savoury, that represented our background. While some people chose a dish that represented their heritage others brought in a dish that was special to their family.

We had a delicious variety of food from many different countries, such as German pretzels and Obatzda dip, South African Bobotie which is a dish made with mince and egg, a pandan chiffon cake popular in South East Asia and French Quiche Lorraine to name just a few. We can’t forget to mention the classic Australian dishes of party pies, sausage rolls or Chiko rolls either or the delicious Australian/New Zealand (depending on who you ask) pavlova.

There were many food related discussions had on the day such as why people made their particular dish, what the meaning behind the dish was or even what goes on scones first, the jam or the cream.

They say food brings people together and it was certainly true on this occasion. It was a great way to get the team together and to catch up face to face when, due to Covid restrictions, you would normally only see a handful of people in the office at any one time.

If  you’d like to know more, feel free to email me, or start a chat with us via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Sophie

The post Harmony Week 2021 appeared first on Gaia Resources.

To mark International Women’s Day, the women of Gaia Resources held a virtual meetup for all women in the company* to discuss our experiences as women in the workplace and how we can create positive change.

Before the event, individuals provided prompts to get our thoughts and discussion flowing. To test your own experiences and awareness, consider:

• Which women inspire you?
• Have you experienced workplace discrimination or abuse based on your gender?
• In what ways can we work towards a more equitable workplace. 
• The role of ‘sisterhoods’ and gender-specific support groups, and how we can use these safe spaces to create social change (e.g. Men’s Sheds, women-only social groups).

The virtual discussion was illuminating – nearly everyone had experienced blatant sexism and discrimination, witnessed other women stand down in the face of sexism, and had their ideas ignored only to have the same idea stated by a male colleague taken seriously. Some of the experiences were downright heartbreaking. 

However, these experiences had predominantly been at other companies (across a range of industries); thus an immediate takeaway was that we are very fortunate to work at Gaia Resources, where all staff are supported, regardless of sex, race, or creed. 

So what makes Gaia Resources so different? We have to credit leadership for emphasising a positive company culture and hiring people who embrace a similar ethos – a persons skill set is not the only consideration when we hire new staff. This culture has been a primary focus of CEO Piers Higgs as he built the company over the years.

Even in this time of remote work, Gaia Resources has striven to provide cohesion, not just between colleagues in the same city, but across the country, including our smaller offices. While no workplaces are perfect, it was evident from our discussion that employees feel comfortable speaking up when they have an issue, understand that they have a support network, and know that their voices are heard.  Both men and women take it upon themselves to create a welcoming work environment. It’s been noted that when you’re the only woman in a room full of Gaia men, you often don’t notice because it’s never made apparent. This is an incredibly rare thing and a refreshing change from many of our previous experiences.

A prime example of the positive culture at Gaia Resources is that we were encouraged to have this event on company time, in a format of our choosing. A big thank you to our executive team, Piers and Andrew, for making this possible and encouraging employees to have meaningful, challenging conversations about the big topics.

If  you’d like to know more, feel free to email me, or start a chat with us via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

The writing of this blog post was a collaboration by many Gaia Resources employees

*Note: Whilst we considered extending the invitation to all staff, we opted for an initial safe space to explore thoughts and experiences. 

The post International Women’s Day 2021 appeared first on Gaia Resources.

Looking back

To say that 2020 was not the year that anybody expected is probably an understatement.

The COVID-19 pandemic was certainly the focus of the last year, and we spent a lot of time within Gaia Resources making sure of two things – that we looked after our team (physically and mentally), and we still kept the business operating on an even keel.

Starting from way back in March, we kicked in our Coronavirus response, which was to keep our staff physically safe, and when the lockdowns began, we trialled and then implemented our Business Continuity Plan and had the whole team working from home. While this “physical health” arrangement went into practice across all three of our offices in Perth, Brisbane and Darwin, and then we doubled down on the “mental health” aspects, increasing the frequency of our planned online interactions .

We then started to work towards the way forward, keeping up our connectivity, changing up our office space (and in Brisbane’s case, moving completely), and making sure we kept to the health guidelines for each State we operated in. All this was also based on as much evidence as we could get from the team from our internal monitoring.

In looking back at the six months since then, even with our best efforts, we had staff that became isolated and run down during the virus. It feels very much like we staggered over the line to the Christmas/New Year break period, but we did make it, and we learned a lot that we are implementing into the new year (more on that later). Our internal monitoring has been fantastic to learn from as we went, and we now know what we should monitor into the future, too – but hopefully, we won’t need to do that.

Speaking of staff, we also hired a bunch of people during the year – including Billy, Rory, Sara, Gus, Tania, Tawanda, Sarah, Shushma, Marion and Jeff. We have a bit of updating to do on our “Staff” page as an early task this year!

With all these new team members, it’s no surprise that in the last year we saw some amazing milestones delivered in the very difficult circumstances we described earlier. Along with passing our annual ISO certification with flying colours, the project highlights included:

• Transforming the Queensland State Archives by implementing a new Archival Management System ecosystem
• Improving the way in which data comes into the Western Australian environmental impact assessment process through a new portal for the Index of Biodiversity Surveys for Assessment
• Updating the Essential Services Volunteer app to help support our volunteer firefighters
• Delivering the Q-Album project for Queensland State Archives
• Releasing a new fire mapping plugin for QGIS, which will assist a wide variety of organisations managing the land across the north of Australia
• Releasing Retromaps – a way to view our historical maps and to better understand the history of Perth

There are a number of other projects that we’re still working on or are yet to formally launch or announce – so there will be plenty of things to announce as we proceed with this new year.

Looking forward

Our forward plan for the new year revolves around five key points, which we are implementing through a program that stretches across the first six months of the year. This focuses on:

• Revising our corporate structures to cope with our growth,
• Focusing on improving our communication with each other,
• Continuing to improve our processes,
• Upgrading a range of our various operational technology stacks, and
• Ensuring we remain environmentally sustainable.

Gaia Resources 2019-20 carbon emissions, by type

To enlarge on the last one, a month or so ago we provided an update on our efforts to become even more environmentally sustainable and this included becoming an accredited Carbon Neutral company as well as becoming a partner with the ClimateClever team to support our team to become more environmentally sustainable at home. This is a big part of our rollout for the new year, where we will also be looking at keeping our carbon footprint as low as possible, and including some new initiatives that will include our clients as well.

2020 wasn’t the year we thought it would be, but we’ve made the best of it wherever we can, learned from it, and are ready to come back even stronger in 2021. It’s certainly going to be another “interesting” year ahead – but I for one can’t wait to see the efforts we’re putting in bear fruit.

In the meantime, stay safe, happy and healthy and get in touch if you’d like to chat about any of these initiatives via connect with us on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.

Piers

The post Welcome back! appeared first on Gaia Resources.

Screenshots from the ESV app

You may have read about Gaia Resources involvement in the development of the Essential Services Volunteers app previously this year. There have been significant recent developments we wanted to highlight.

Firstly, Bushfire Volunteers WA Executive Officer Darren Brown talked about the new app supporting bushfire volunteers in a great interview with Triple R’s Byte Into IT – a weekly broadcast on computer news, tech talk and opinionated chat with regular guests, presented by Vanessa Toholka.

You can listen to the 15-minute segment with Darren discussing the ESV app, its genesis and value here. It’s a great insight into the necessity for better documentation of volunteers’ efforts on the job, and the ways the community can validly contribute to support their work.

The Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, recently recognised the significant contribution of Bushfire Volunteers WA’s work in this letter:

PM’s letter to Bushfire Volunteers WA

Gaia Resources is proud to have partnered with Bushfire Volunteers WA to develop and support this app. We truly hope the use of this app expands to assist even more essential service volunteers across Australia to document and validate their valuable time in service of the Australian community.

If you’re interested in how volunteer mobile data collection apps could help your organisation, feel free to comment below, or contact angus.mackay@gaiaresources.com.au, or start a chat via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Alex

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I can now – very proudly – announce that we caught them!

The process of getting to this point has been a pretty intense one, especially for those of us that are on our Quality Team – Shay and Drew as our Security Officers, Gill and Barb as our Quality Managers, and Andrew and myself as the ‘Risk Owners’. Other staff also played a role in getting us here and in the last few months we’ve been steadily rolling out a whole range of improvements to our procedures and working practices.

We realised this morning that, with new appointments coming on board recently (and introductions are coming shortly), that we almost number 30 staff – the biggest that Gaia Resources has ever been. And this is one of the reasons that the Quality and Information Security Management Systems are so important. As I mentioned in that previous blog, it’s important that we enshrine our standards in procedures and processes that enable us to continue to deliver high quality solutions to our clients.

One of my favourite parts of the ISO Quality System is the ‘Opportunity for Improvement’ (OFI) component, that empowers anyone within our organisation – or even our clients – to suggest ways in which we can improve our procedures and systems. This was an initiative we’d already taken at our strategy workshop earlier in the year, but formalising the procedure really does add some more weight to it. We have a lot of OFIs already being implemented as a result of our audits and certification process, with more to come.

And so, to reiterate what I said in the previous blog, if there’s some way that you think we can improve what we’re doing (i.e. an OFI!), we’d love to hear from you. Please drop me a line directly at piers@gaiaresources.com.au, or start a conversation with us on social media via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Piers

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Study after study has shown the immediate benefits of animals in the workplace. That’s where Gaia’s latest employee, Kiri the boxer puppy, comes in. Kiri is training to be a service dog, which requires exposing her to as many sights, smells and sounds as possible during the age of 8-12 weeks.

Introducing Kiri, the service dog in training.

Piers and the Flux team have very kindly allowed me to bring her into the Perth office a couple of days a week to facilitate this training, which in turn has had a very positive impact on not only the Gaia staff, but the many other workers that share the floors at Flux.

Some things I’ve noticed since bringing Kiri in to work:

• I have gotten to know more people in two weeks than in the entire 18 months we’ve been at Flux, because they all come over for a chat and a cuddle.
• People smile just looking at her. And they turn to mush when you let them have a pat or a cuddle.
• In meetings, the overall vibe is a lot more relaxed when Kiri is present.
• Productivity tends to increase on the days I bring Kiri in. Although she may be a (very cute) distraction, when staff return to their work they are in a better frame of mind.

Productivity has been shown to increase when a dog is brought to the workplace. It is, however, occasionally compromised!

For me personally, I feel a bit distracted and overwhelmed at times because I am constantly being pulled from my work to tend to Kiri’s needs, but I know things will become significantly easier once she is out of the puppy phase, toilet trained, and less inclined to munch on computer cables.

And when she curls up in my arms, all stress melts away.

If you’d like to talk about the benefits of service dogs in the workplace (or just come in to meet Kiri!) then leave a comment below, start a chat with me via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, or email me directly via tracey.cousens@gaiaresources.com.au.

Tracey

Resources

• Assistance Dogs Australia
• Mind Dogs Australia
• Stephen M. Colarelli, Amanda M. McDonald, Matthew S. Christensen & Christopher Honts (2017). A Companion Dog Increases Prosocial Behavior in Work Groups. Anthrozoös 30(1): 77-89. https://doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2017.1270595
• Foreman AM, Glenn MK, Meade BJ, Wirth O (2017). Dogs in the Workplace: A Review of the Benefits and Potential Challenges. Int J Environ Res Public Health 14(5): 498. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14050498

The post Introducing Kiri the service dog (in training) appeared first on Gaia Resources.

In his opening keynote address, Dr Alan Finkel outlined “three criteria that we look for in any great citizen science endeavour today: quality science, linked with the community, and with a broader goal of making the world a better place.”

1. Citizen science has to be good science;
2. Citizen science has to be a door to the world of science for the community;
3. Citizen science has to make the world a better place.

Finkel then provided an extended example of a nineteenth-century Australian ‘citizen science’ project conducted by botanist Ferdinand Mueller that exemplified his three points.  As the next speaker, and also a taxonomic botanist like Mueller, this was an unexpected opportunity for me to highlight the continuing decline in taxonomic positions across Australia – a critical science fundamentally underpinning species-based citizen science projects.

In full flow during my ACSA talk ‘Citizen Science Project Design and Continuous Engagement Strategies‘

The range and variety of the talks and workshops over the three days were, frankly, astounding. Of the many, one address highlighted for me the development of citizen science in its application to a widening range of scientific and social issues.  Dr Caren Cooper’s Citizen Science: Designing for Action outlined the utility of citizen science programs to support environmental and social justice.  I would recommend reading her recent book Citizen Science: How Ordinary People are Changing the Face of Discovery as a useful resource for managers of citizen science projects particularly, or just for inspiration!

Dr Caren Cooper – Citizen Science: Designing for Action

During the ACSA AGM three state-based branches were ratified – Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria, with more to follow. Of the three, WA seemed the most organised currently – they even have an active Facebook page!

Dr Agi Gideon delivers a short introduction to ACSA-WA, with committee members Marnie Giroud and Barbara Sing

The poster session was well-attended but too short! During the conference, a number of projects we’ve been involved in were represented, including ClimateWatch, Discovery Circle, CAUL Beneficial Insects, MicroBlitz, Dolphin Watch and Birds in Backyards; and the ACSA committee kindly thanked Gaia Resources for designing and building their new web presence.

Congratulations to the ACSA committee – this was truly an inspiring conference illustrating the strength of citizen science in Australia and around the world.

The ACSA Committee – Erin Rodger, Ellie Downing, Paul Flemons, Stephanie von Gavel, Jessie Oliver, Amy Slocombe, Alexis Tindall, Michelle Neil, Kylie Andrews and Jenn Loder

I hope some of you followed my reporting of #CitSciOz18 on our Facebook or Twitter feeds.  If you’d like to know more about how we can help you with developing a citizen science program, or how a smartphone app could improve your community engagement and scientific data capture, then please leave a comment below – or email me directly via alex.chapman@gaiaresources.com.au.

Alex

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Several innovations have been made in this major release of the app.

1. It is now possible to make observations of FIVE dolphin species within the app. They are:
   • Sousa sahulensis — Australian Humpback Dolphin,
   • Pseudorca crassidens — False Killer Whale,
   • Stenella longirostris —Spinner Dolphin,
   • Tursiops aduncus — Indo-pacific Bottlenose Dolphin and
   • Orcaella heinsohni – Australian Snubfin Dolphin.
2. Dolphin observations can now be recorded and contributed for any area of Western Australia.

Trained Dolphin Watchers will continue to be able to undertake surveys of the Indo-pacific Bottlenose Dolphin in the Swan-Canning River Park. Further work in the new year will see a further release of the app with additional survey zones for Mandurah, the Kimberley coast and extending to other parts of Australia!

This app release is built using our new ‘Hydra mobile’ technology that provides a faster and more flexible development environment for delivering mobile apps for citizen science users paired with an administrator dashboard for accessing and managing contributed data and user details. You will read more about other new apps for Urban Wildlife and MicroBlitz in coming months built on this platform, with more to come.

You can download the Dolphin Watch 3.0 Android app now from the Android Google Play Store and shortly the iOS version from the Apple iTunes App Store.

If you’d like to know more about how we can help you with developing a citizen science program, or how a smartphone app could improve your community engagement and scientific data capture, then please leave a comment below – or email me directly via alex.chapman@gaiaresources.com.au. Or, feel free to start a conversation with us via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Alex

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