New organizing co-ordinator positions filled.

Three new organising co-ordinator positions within NZNO, approved by the board of directors Last year, have been filled. Auckland-based organiser Carol Gilmour is the new co-ordinator organiser for the Northern region; Palmerston North-based organiser Lawrence O'Halloran is the Central region organiser co-ordinator, and long-time Christchurch organiser Chris Wilson has been appointed to the role for the Southern region.

The two-year role was created to assist better management of organiser workloads; better integration of organising and other NZNO roles and functions, and more direct support for individual and team development.

Organising services manager Laila Harre said the role also offered organisers an opportunity to develop their leadership and co-ordination skills. The three co-ordinator organisers had a two-day training workshop in Wellington late last year with Harre, and industrial advisers Glenda Alexander and Cee Payne-Harker.

The Northern region now has a full-time educator based in Auckland. Andrea Kelleher, who has worked in mental health services in Auckland since 1995, was appointed to the position late last year and took up her position this month. Originally from Doncaster, England, she was a union delegate there and has 19 years' experience in mental health nursing as a clinician, co-ordinator and researcher. She has also been a Public Service Association delegate. Two new organisers, Paul McGee and Joanne Wrigley, began work at the Hamilton office this month. Both will take part in the Council of Trade Unions' organiser traineeship. McGee replaces Gwenda Brodie, who worked on a temporary basis for NZNO last year. An anaesthetic technician, he was an NZNO site convenor at Tauranga Hospital Wrigley, who has experience in women's and student activism, replaces Shane Vugler, who resigned late Last year. A mother of four, Wrigley was a former president of the Waikato Students' Union and has been actively involved in Whanau Awhina--Women's Refuge.

Harre paid tribute to Vugler's work advocating the Northern Districts Multi-Employer Collective Agreement (MECA) and building activism in aged-care sites.

He is returning to the Service and Food Workers' Union, where he will head up a campaign for a national hospital MECA, incorporating both public and private employers.