By Greyhounds Australasia CEO CHERIE NICHOLL

The New Year has arrived, and I sincerely hope that you and your friends and family have had a lovely Festive Season. A new year brings a feeling of optimism and an opportunity to think about how to tackle the year ahead and what can be achieved.

Despite the significant challenges that 2020 presented for us all, the GA team were able to make some good headway on the GA strategic plan. Laying the groundwork for delivery of a myriad of projects in 2021.

In March 2021 the GA Board, the jurisdiction CEOs, and the Chairs of the GA Sub Committees (Vets and Analysts, Welfare, Integrity and Racing) will be meeting to ensure we remain on track to achieve our core objectives as an industry.

1. Build Community Confidence
2. Drive National Uniformity
3. Lead Sustainable Growth
4. Facilitate Innovation and Best Practice

One project that we will be launching next month is the Greyhounds Australasia website upgrade.  As step one in a two-phase project, we have refreshed the website and digitized the participant services. That means you will no longer need to print the forms out and post or fax them in. From February you will simply complete the online form and submit it via the GA website. An additional improvement is the ability to pay online. You will no longer need to send cheques, money orders or handwritten credit card details, you can simply quicky and importantly, safely make payments online.

The controlling bodies will remind you when we are launching the new website and we will ensure there are clear instructions for all participants. We think this is a great step forward in making our services easier and quicker for participants to navigate.

Phase 2 of the website will be about the information and content that industry, participants, and the public will be able to find on the GA website. Our aim is to make our website an asset for the industry. We would also like it to be a source of factual and credible information so the public can learn about greyhound racing, our love and passion for the dogs and our process of continual improvement to ensure industry sustainability.

Early in the new year we will be seeking to learn more about you and what you want to see from GA and the industry. I will share more about that in the coming months. But in the meantime, if you would like to let us know what you would like to see on our website please feel free to email us at feedback@galtd.org.au. I cannot guarantee we will be able to deliver all your ideas, but we will do our best to get the most suggested ideas up and running.

It will be great to be able to travel again in the New Year and I look forward to meeting many of you on my travels. In the meantime, on behalf of the GA team I would like to wish you all the best for a safe and prosperous 2021.