In honouring and paying tribute to Noel, Lorraine Martin AO, Past WCEI National President, founder of the WCEI Queensland Chapter, and former Queensland President, would like to share a few words and express her reflections.
« I was very honoured when Noel Waite visited Brisbane in 1986 and chose me to open a Queensland Chapter of WCEI. She told me I should find the leading businesswomen in Queensland to become members, which I did. Quite a few of these inaugural members are still members today, almost 40 years later.
I remember very well sitting around Noel’s kitchen table in Melbourne for the first meeting of WCEI on 30th April,1986. In those days, we had only three States, Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria. Noel convened our first AGM on 23rd November,1989. In those days, members had to fly interstate to attend meetings as there were no video conferencing platforms, like today. I regularly attended meetings in Melbourne, as Noel stayed on for 5 years as the inaugural Australian President. She was given the title “Founder President”. Sometimes, we met in Sydney or Brisbane and Noel was able to meet members from those States.
Noel asked me to take over from her as the second Australian President when she stood down in 1991. I regarded this as a very responsible mission because we were still in the foundation stage of establishing Australia. Noel told me it was time to include the rest of Australia as branches of WCEI. This meant Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, and we needed to restart New South Wales. Rita Scolaro, a leading real estate agent, was recruited to head up Western Australia. Through an introduction from one of our Queensland members, Valmai Pidgeon, I met Joy Nugent from South Australia. Joy ran a very busy Nursing Agency, but she managed to find the time to head up South Australia. I was introduced to the Manager of the State Bank of Tasmania and he, through his client list, found an appropriate group of women to commence Tasmania. Now, the hard one, was restarting New South Wales, because the current members had departed to form Chief Executive Women. I was a board member of Austrade, at the time and I asked for their help. They found Lesley Bryden to recommence operations in Sydney.
Noel was a staunch supporter of these activities, and she was present at all the inaugural launches needed to complete Australia. She made magnificent addresses, welcomed all new members, and explained the benefits of FCEM. Noel was a tower of strength to me during my term as Australian President (1991-1993). It was a difficult time, establishing new branches and a very time consuming and costly exercise with airfares, accommodation, etc. all borne by us personally.
Noel, Brenda Rossman, Janet Conrad, and I attended many FCEM conferences across the world and proudly represented WCEI (Australia). We had a great time together meeting the various delegates from the different countries, and I have the most wonderful memories of those very glamorous events.«
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