The cov­er of our CRANAplus Mag­a­zine (pic­tured right) in June 2010 (Issue 78) says it all with mem­ber­ship offi­cer Helen Phipps show­ing how thrilled she was with the suc­cess of the organisation’s mem­ber­ship dri­ve. Less than a year after she took on the role, num­bers had swelled from 470 to 900.

Now, in 2024, there are around 2,100 mem­bers. And Helen’s mantra is still the same: to sup­port our mem­bers and give the per­son­al touch when­ev­er she can.

“I still get sat­is­fac­tion when I watch the mem­ber­ship grow,” Helen says. ​“It’s all about build­ing rela­tion­ships with new and exist­ing mem­bers, and reach­ing out to past members.

“When I start­ed 15 years ago, one of the first tasks for me and my then Man­ag­er Anne-Marie Borchers, who advised me to apply for the job, was to ring every sin­gle past mem­ber of CRANA. Back then, all the names, going back to 1980, were on a hard copy spreadsheet. 

“And even now, with every sub­scrip­tion that expires, I retain con­tact. It’s the per­son­al touch.

“Tech­nol­o­gy is a won­der­ful thing, stream­lin­ing many ser­vices, but the temp­ta­tion can be to lose that per­son­al touch.

“I email every past mem­ber, and it’s not a blan­ket email, each one focus­es on each person.”

Much of Helen’s work­ing day will see her on the oth­er end of the phone or send­ing emails, help­ing mem­bers access the CRANAplus cours­es, answer­ing ques­tions and pro­vid­ing infor­ma­tion about schol­ar­ships and dis­counts and the Bush Sup­port Line.

“CRANAplus is out there doing impor­tant things, con­stant­ly improv­ing and open­ing avenues to help remote health work­ers not to feel so iso­lat­ed,” says Helen. 

“I appre­ci­ate that com­mu­ni­ca­tion is a bar­ri­er in the out­back and if that means I have to phone some­one back, make spe­cif­ic arrange­ments to get infor­ma­tion to a mem­ber, then I will.”

Cel­e­brat­ing 15 years in the job ear­li­er this year, Helen shared a few sto­ries of the ear­ly days with her South Aus­tralian col­leagues: a num­ber of them about the rough con­di­tions in the first SA office, an old house on South Road in the sub­urb of Mile End, oth­ers about their colour­ful neighbours.

Orig­i­nal­ly brought in as the recep­tion­ist, Helen soon took on the Mem­ber­ship Offi­cer role when that part of the organ­i­sa­tion moved from Alice Springs. Her office was in the old kitchen at the back, next to a for­mer sleep­out, being used to store the edu­ca­tion equip­ment for the face-to-face workshops.

In one ear­ly-days sto­ry, Helen recalls a knock at the back door. ​“There was this gen­tle­man with a lot of gold chains around his neck and slicked-back hair. ​‘Can I help you?’, I asked. He looked me up and down and said. ​‘I don’t know.’ And the pen­ny dropped. I sug­gest­ed he knock at the door of the next build­ing: that was the local broth­el.” Those neigh­bours pro­vid­ed quite a few stories.

Helen has seen the organ­i­sa­tion grow over the years, not only in mem­ber­ships, but also the scope of ser­vices and its ris­ing sta­tus as a major voice in Can­ber­ra for remote health work­ers. The prin­ci­pal rea­sons for exist­ing are still the same today for CRANAplus: edu­ca­tion, advo­ca­cy and support.

The expan­sion of the edu­ca­tion arm has seen two moves to new premis­es to cater for the stor­age needs for the props and equip­ment, first to Dud­ley Park, then to the cur­rent premis­es at Wing­field in the north­ern suburbs.

Helen’s role has also expand­ed and she’s is also in charge of schol­ar­ship admin­is­tra­tion and around 60 cor­po­rate mem­bers and affil­i­ate partners.

“We get 60 new mem­bers each month, new remote health work­ers, peo­ple want­i­ng to do a course, com­ing to the con­fer­ence, grad­u­ate stu­dents who apply for schol­ar­ships. Of course there are peo­ple who move out of remote work as well. But many like to keep in touch with what’s hap­pen­ing, no mat­ter where they now work or have retired.

“I always want­ed to be a nurse from the time I was five,” Helen says. ​“It’s fun­ny where life takes you.

“When I left school, I was too young to go into nurs­ing so I took on office work.” By the time she did get an offer to start nurs­ing train­ing, Helen decid­ed to stick with a steady job and a week­ly pay packet.

“I don’t regret that deci­sion,” says Helen. 

“I did a good job wher­ev­er I worked. I worked in finan­cial insti­tu­tions, as a teller, a cashier. Most jobs didn’t last much longer than two years.

“But when I got the oppor­tu­ni­ty to come to CRANAplus in 2009, it felt right. Here was an organ­i­sa­tion that wasn’t just about mak­ing mon­ey, an organ­i­sa­tion that treat­ed its staff well. I soon learned the extent of the work that CRANAplus does, and I was a part of that. I loved it then. And I love it now.

“And when I see what nurs­es do, you know, I don’t think I could have done it any­way. I am so glad I am here. I am help­ing peo­ple, but in a dif­fer­ent way, help­ing peo­ple deal with admin and IT.

“In my mind I think how I would feel if I need­ed advice or sup­port. I give them my time. In remote areas, the phones often don’t work, so, for exam­ple, if they need me to ring them back, I understand.”

Think­ing about retiring? 

“I used to say I wouldn’t think about retir­ing until I was 75,” says Helen. ​“I’m now 74. I think I have to rethink that num­ber,” she laughs.

“I will keep on work­ing while I am still healthy.”