Stepping down
Jan Baker-Finch will end her time as General Secretary for Australia at the Australian Anthroposophical Society’s AGM in May 2020.
General Secretaries are appointed through an election process in Australia, and the time in office is limited to two three-year terms. I took on the role jointly with my colleague, friend and mentor Peter Glasby in 2011. We worked together until Peter’s death at the end of 2013. In May 2020, I will have completed two further terms, so the time has come for me to step down.
I have truly appreciated the opportunity to meet many people whose inspiring work both locally and internationally has given me the courage and enthusiasm needed to continue striving to build an effective and interconnected community of anthroposophical initiatives in Australia, that are actually contributing towards the health of the whole community.
Working as a part-time volunteer General Secretary has limitations and in order to increase the reach and vitality of the Society’s activities a shift towards a form of shared leadership is, in my view, now necessary. Facilitator Herbert Wolpert is leading a series of workshops with Society representatives aimed at bringing about such a change in the best and most widely embraced way.
Late in 2018 I co-founded Pacifica College of Eurythmy near Brisbane. I am already very much occupied with establishing it as part of what we envisage will one day be a sustainable, versatile, well-funded and well-resourced hub of art and social endeavours. Retirement does not feature anywhere in my future plans!