Friends of PASCAL Association

Following an initial founding meeting held in Melbourne in February this year a Friends of PASCAL Association was formed on 4 July 2015, and is registered in Melbourne, Victoria, in Australia. This will be a valuable supplement to the work of the International Observatory. It sits very well with changes in governance arrangements under way with the Board, especially its new and wider concept of membership.

Appropriately located in Melbourne, the birthplace of  PASCAL, with voluntary administrative support in Melbourne and thus associated with two founding PASCAL members, the University of RMIT and the Region of Victoria, the Association will have a strong Australian membership base and perhaps character. It will also enjoy strong Asian region anchorage. The Association is being supported and encouraged by Pascal’s Australian-Asian Centre at RMIT as part of its continuing contribution to PASCAL.

Membership is open to all who are interested and support the values and purposes of PASCAL, wherever they live, individually or as public, civil society or private organisations. The interim founding executive group and steering panel will be superseded by officers and a committee to be elected by all registered members later in the year. All existing members of PASCAL are of course automatically eligible and most welcome to join. This can be done by notifying Mary Serafim with a copy to Acting Joint Chair Dorothy Lucardie of their interest: [email protected] and [email protected].

I am confident that PASCAL colleagues worldwide will welcome this development as a grassroots ‘supporters’ club’ that will widen the membership base and add to the energy that can be put into the purposes and work of PASCAL. There can be no disputing the importance of what PASCAL stands for, or the urgency of enhancing its profile and influence. 

More information will be provided on this website presently. Meanwhile if you are interested to know more please write to myself ([email protected]) as acting interim joint secretary, or to Dorothy Lucardie who shares the position of Interim Chair with long-standing Australian Board member and leading Australian regional development colleague economist Professor Steve Garlick.

Chris Duke
30 July, 2015