A tribute to a former 2RPH Board member

Wed, 15 May 2019

2RPH pays tribute to former Board member, Neroli Colvin. 

By 2RPH Chair, Di Collins.

It is with great sadness that we have learned of the death of Neroli Colvin, 2RPH Board member from March 2016-September 2017.

From the moment Neroli joined the Board she was fascinated by the work and potential of 2RPH and chose to focus her energies in helping shape the strategic direction the station would take over the next few years.

Her strong journalistic background, in editing and financial journalism, with the Australian Financial Review and the Sydney Morning Herald, along with her experience as an SBS trainer, proved immensely valuable to 2RPH.

Equally valuable were her research skills honed as part of her PhD studies in regional multiculturism with the University of Western Sydney. These skills came to the fore as Neroli designed and delivered the first 2RPH volunteer and listener surveys. The surveys were greatly welcomed by volunteers and listeners alike and provided key information for the new broadcasts and engagement programs that have followed. The surveys now serve as a benchmark against which further surveys will be measured, refined and form the basis for a follow-up volunteer survey later this year.

Adding to her contribution, as a member of the Strategy Committee, were her efforts to arrange and introduce the hugely popular training sessions for volunteer readers and recorders. These in-house sessions were a first for 2RPH and proved that a demand existed from readers, and listeners, to have voices that were natural, warm and professional. Ongoing training workshops for all on-air voices are now incorporated into the 2RPH diary and will be complemented with monitoring and self-evaluation.

Neroli’s move to Bathurst with her partner in 2017 didn’t stop Neroli’s ongoing involvement in Board matters. However ill health did, and later in September that year she reluctantly resigned from the Board.

Medical issues continued throughout 2018 and it is only now that we have learned Neroli passed away last November. An obituary in the Sydney Morning Herald revealed but a glimpse of her talent and qualities. Neroli’s time on the 2RPH Board was comparatively short but her contribution was notable and will endure for some time to come.

Our thoughts and condolences are extended to her partner, Jock Cheetham, and her family.

Vale Neroli.