The Support Staff Community - Open for Business
At 2.27pm on 14 October 2019, I received an email from NSW Fair Trading confirming that the registration of The Support Staff Community as an Incorporated Association was successful.
It marks the beginning of a new chapter for a community that has slowly been growing from what was initially just an idea in my mind on a slow Sunday afternoon.
Two years and two months prior to our registration, I was bored on a Sunday afternoon. My wandering mind turned to work (as it usually does on a Sunday afternoon) and somehow grasped at an idea to start a networking group for family law support staff. It started, initially, as a Linkedin group. A few months and 250 business cards from Vistaprint later, I hosted our first event - Family Law Support Staff After Dark. It covered numerous topics but, more importantly, effectively launched the start of a community for legal support staff.
I held two events as part of the Family Law Support Staff Networking Group and interest had started growing with family law support staff. One year later, I had a coffee meeting with a former coworker and friend who worked at the Law Society of NSW. We discussed how we might be able to work together to bring the group to more people, and how the Law Society could help out. In August 2017, the NSW Support Staff Committee was formed as a trial committee with the Law Society of NSW.
During our trial year, we continued to grow and grow. We formed a dedicated group of 15 committee members who created resources and events that were open to all legal support staff.
The response to our Committee was phenomenal - support staff simply hadn’t had the opportunities to network and socialise at events or have access to educational seminars and resources like the ones that were being provided by The NSW Support Staff Committee.
In that year, we held many successful events including our Mental Health and Wellbeing event, Admin Professional’s Day Breakfast and Speed Networking events, and our Support Staff Superstars seminar.
Not long ago, at the start of the 2019-2020 financial year, the Law Society of NSW confirmed that unfortunately they would not be proceeding with a Committee for legal support staff. Thanks to the support of the Law Society over the last year, we have managed to create a wonderful network of legal support staff professionals and provided numerous valuable events and resources to support staff.
Our committee was passionate about continuing with the work that we had been doing, as we believe that this community is immensely valuable to legal support staff. And so, the next chapter begins with our incorporation as The Support Staff Community. We are OPEN FOR BUSINESS.
We are excited to continue with the work that we have been doing as we believe that this community is immensely valuable to legal support staff.
We can’t wait to bring you more events and resources!
See you soon!
