The opportunity to serve the Barbados Association of Administrative Professionals (BAAP) as President the second time around is an honour.

I have benefitted tremendously from being a member and at this juncture, when the organization is entering into its 50th year, it is humbling to be at the helm once again.

Standing on the shoulders of giants and many outstanding forerunners, motivates me to make a contribution to the continued growth and sustainability of this august body.

Priority is given to hearing from members and our supporters. On the heels of a successful breakfast seminar in April 2023, we recognized the appetite for more relevant workshops for office professionals. The voices were heard and on 8 November 2023 a Mental Health Breakfast Seminar was successfully executed at the Radisson Aquatica Hotel.

Over the past four years several of our dedicated members have retired and during the COVID 19 season we were unable to attract new members. These circumstances negatively impacted our revenues. Therefore, the decision to close our Secretariat at the BIDC building was inevitable, it happened at the end of November 2023.

This Association has served Barbados well over the past 49 years, we built excellent relations with many corporate entities. We want to continue that legacy so for the next 18 months we will seek to rebuild business relationships to ensure that the BAAP brand is present in more of the leading organizations. Our strategy will be to utilize the experience of our retired professionals to negotiate on behalf of BAAP. We look forward to welcoming at least 10 new members.

Some of our existing members are highly skilled and talented in areas outside of administration, it is our hope to engage them in sharing their resources with their BAAP colleagues to enrich and strengthen the membership capacity.

Change is inevitable – we can no longer transact business the way it was done 10 years ago. Cognizant of conflicting priorities, we must engage our members to get their fullest participation in the BAAP By-law revision process. Meeting dates and times as well as our annual general meeting will be under the microscope.

We have a bright and exciting future ahead and we all have a part to play in Administrative Professionals Sustaining Excellence.

President Janet Sealy

BAAP 2023 - 2024