After previous terms serving Ballarat and Victorian Genealogical Societies, Graeme has held the office of president for the past six years. In that time he has overseen major initiatives such as the digitisation of 25 years of Ballarat newspapers by the National Library of Australia for Trove. He has written successful submissions for additional funds and has documented projects meticulously. The current one he is heading is Home Front Ballarat WW1. Other paperwork on which he thrives is his ownership of the process to amend the constitution of the Society in line with government mandates and the judicious liaison with library management to revise the memorandum of understanding with the City of Ballarat.
Graeme's term of office has seen the rapid advance of technology with the redesign of the award-winning BDGS website, an increase in the use of social media and the growth of paid research enquiries which provides the Society with a steady income mainly from e-commerce. Volunteers have continued to produce indexes and the most recent production on USB is an innovative technological development. These electronic publications also generate income from sales. As a not-for-profit organisation with Deductible Grant Recipient (DGR) status the Society benefits from GST exemptions. Wise expenditure on new library computers and new research laptops and related paraphernalia help to improve efficiency and the service we provide to members and non-member family historians.
These initiatives, awards and publications have added kudos to the good name of the Society and have attracted sizeable donations in cash and kind to further our aims. Any volunteer organisation such as ours would have good reason to be very proud of these achievements under Graeme's leadership. 
