Newsletter Aug-Sept 2012 - Parents Centres New Zealand Inc

attending the November course. The February
course was cancelled due to a large number of late
cancellations that limited the course value to the
remaining attendees. Remaining attendees were
moved to the May 2012 course.
Magic Moments funding was secured from ASB
Community Trust allowing us to run these courses.
A membership agreement with Seedlings Education
Ltd has also contributed to boosting the Magic
Moments course bookings.
We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Debbie Booth
and Brenda Dargaville for coordinating these
courses and to Eileen Joy for offering such a challenging
and invigorating experience. Thank for also
to Victoria Halford for hosting the May course and
Helen Lin and Miranda Young for hosting the November
course.
We will continue to monitor the viability of offering
Conscious Parenting courses as funding must be
secured on an annual basis to meet the high cost
of running these courses.
Venues
Once again Auckland Council has enabled us to use
two great facilities for our courses: Athol Syms Hall
as our primary venue and Onehunga Community
Centre for Practical Parenting sessions and various
courses that have had a clash with dates booked at
Athol Syms. We also used the Ellerslie War Memorial
Hall for one night of Magic Moments.
Auckland Council’s recognition of our status as a
community group eligible for a 50% discount on
hire fees is much appreciated. We are enjoying using
newly refurbished venues.
We owe thanks to Tracey Turner, our Venue Supplies
Coordinator, for making sure both venues
were well stocked for classes and to Debbie Booth,
our acting Venue Bookings Officer, for making the
annual bookings and accommodating (often last
minute) booking changes.
Financial Notes
General
Our Treasurer, Debbie Booth, continues to do an
exceptional job keeping our accounts up to date
and our expenditure on track throughout the year.
We are indeed very grateful for the hard work this
entails.
Thank you to our auditors, Alistair Gauld and Jane
Huang of Harts Chartered Accountants, for reviewing
our annual accounts.
Grants
We struggled to obtain grants in the
2011/12 year and are very grateful to these organisations
who provided support through grants:
• First Sovereign Trust for $5,212.39 for Preparing
for Birth books, Baby Food & Beyond books and
a data projector.
• Lotteries Commission (via a PCNZ application
on our behalf) for $1,200 towards administration
costs.
• COGS for $3,000 towards 2012 venue hire costs.
• Lion Foundation for $1,540.09 for printing 5000
course brochures, 200 Centre information brochures
and 750 folders for 2012 course packs.
• New Zealand Post for 300 Community Post
envelopes to be used for membership correspondence.
And we thank Debbie Booth and Ondrea Robinson,
our Grants Coordinators, for all your hard work in
coordinating and submitting grant applications in
2011/12.
Donations Received
Thank you to PCNZ partners including Kimberley
Clark (Huggies), Watties, Ocean Spray and Hasbro
for their generous donations of sample packs and
age appropriate toys that are made available for
course participants.
Thank you also to Birds and Bees New Zealand for
their generous donation of $360.00, allowing us to
purchase additional course resources.
We are grateful to the members who were unable
to attend the course they paid for and chose to donate
the fee to CAPC in lieu of a refund.
Donations Given
CAPC gave no donations in 2011/12.
Services to Members
Coffee Groups
We formed 15 coffee groups in the 2011/12 year.
Thanks to the volunteer hosts who established
these groups and to Stephanie Sidoruk, our Coffee
Group Coordinator, for coordinating new people
who joined existing coffee groups. These groups
provide great support for new parents and are one
of the key attractions for people to choose to attend
a Parents Centre Childbirth Education class.
Newsletters and Printed Material
Six newsletters were published in 2011/12. Thank
you to Catherine Watson, our Newsletter Editor,
for producing our bi-monthly newsletter “Parent
Talk”. A great deal of work goes into its creation
and it is something our members really look forward
to receiving. Catherine continues
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CENTRAL AUCKLAND PARENTS CENTRE