Robert Kenelly entered university life as a staff developer at Australian National University in 1990. He has been a passionate advocate for the society since he joined it at the first HERDSA conference in Canberra in 1991. In 1996 Robert worked with two colleagues to develop one of the early multi university senior leadership programs at Little Bay in Sydney. He was a co-pioneer of the national gathering of university general staff developers (NGOSDS) which met annually through the nineties, mirroring the HERDSA conferences. It also encouraged the development of NSW and ACT regional networks. Robert became a pioneer HERDSA Fellow in Christchurch in 2003 and has become one of the scheme’s most passionate advocates since that time. He has encouraged a more collaborative reflective focus on the fellowships and when he had completed his six years on the HERDSA Executive, Robert was seconded to the Executive for a further nine months to support the incoming Fellowship committee. In 2007 Robert re-formed the HERDSA Branch of the ACT with Jackie Walkington and has actively encouraged its growth since that time. A particular contribution from the ACT branch has been his development with Coralie MacCormack , of TATAL: Talking about Teaching and Learning. This new mode of collaborative, reflective practice, commenced in September 2008 and was introduced to HERDSA conferences in 2011 and there are now seven small, functioning TATALs including two in Western Australia.