Childbirth & Parenting Education Association (CPEA)
www.cpeatoowoomba.org.au
Annual General Meeting Report May 2006
Transcript Launch Coffee Mornings February 2006
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING CPEA FRIDAY 12 MAY 2006
In the last 12 months since May 2005, the Association has experienced membership growth and enormous change. Since 1972, the Association has been providing parenting services for the people of Toowoomba and the surrounding areas. I am pleased to report that the future looks bright for the Association and the opportunity and services that we provide will continue to expand over the next 12 months.
In May 2005, the Association had 67 members (16 life members and 51 members). In comparison, in March 2006 the Association had 99 members (18 life members and 81 members). This is a growth of 67.67 % over a 12 month period. To reflect the additional services that are now available to members, membership fees were increased to $20.00 in October 2005. Members can also pay for a two-year subscription for $35.00 and committee members can rejoin the organisation for $10.00 per year. The Association now provides credit card facilities for membership payments. Upon receiving membership to the Association, new members receive:
The committee also approved gift membership whereby a person can buy a membership for a friend or relative. The new member receives all of the above-mentioned benefits plus a personalized card stating who purchased the gift membership for them.
The major rationalisation for increasing membership fees was the introduction of three new services, namely the Resource Directory, the website and social groups. The Resource Directory is available to members only and is a comprehensive book that lists all local services that pertain to parenting of young children. The directory includes medical services, complimentary health services, social activities, physical activities and community groups. The Resource Directory has received widespread positive feedback and is an invaluable resource for parents within the Toowoomba and surrounding areas.
The website has been up and running since July 2005 and has recently been upgraded. The website includes a wealth of information about the Association including: contacts for guest speakers, Nearly New Sale information and upcoming events in the Toowoomba area. The website offers people who live out of town access to information about the Association and is also a valuable resource for parents of young children who are relocating to Toowoomba.
Finally, the newest service to be provided to members is “CPEA in the Neighbourhood”. The program provides opportunities for parents to form social groups who meet on a regular basis. The get-togethers provide an opportunity for parents and children to meet and share stories and experiences. This service is something new for Toowoomba – a purely social group that is not linked to an antenatal group or an organised playgroup. The Association will endeavour to match up the needs of parents with similar aged children or who live in the same neighbourhood area. The Association has realised for sometime that there was a great need for this service in the Toowoomba area and it is only due to the enthusiasm of the committee that this new service can be introduced.
In addition to introducing new services, previously provided services (postal course, coffee mornings and Nearly New Sale) have been improved to meet customer demands.
The postal course has been renamed Preparing for Childbirth – Home Information Pack to more accurately reflect the true nature of the information provided and to give potential customers a better indication of what information they will be receiving. The Information Pack has been updated with all new videos, brochures and information sheets published by RANZCOG (Royal Australia & New Zealand College of Gynaecologists). In accordance with the improvements to the Information Pack, the cost has increased to between $45.00 and $55.00 (dependent upon how many videos are ordered).
The second service to be improved is the Mums, Bubs & Toddlers Coffee Mornings. The number of coffee mornings has increased from 17 to 21 for a 12-month period. The coffee mornings now regularly receive between 15 – 35 people attending. A comprehensive list of guest speakers has been organised covering a broad range of subjects from breastfeeding, water safety to yoga and relaxation during pregnancy. A thankyou must be extended to all guest speakers who freely give of their time and present valuable information. Additionally, the Association is indebted to Grand Central Centre Management who provide the Jacaranda Room free for charge. Due to the increase of participants, each coffee morning now has two co-ordinators.
The Nearly New Sale has also experienced several changes over the last 12 months. The September 2005 sale was the last sale to be held at Rumours International. The September sale had 105 registered sellers, 14 collection points and 451 shoppers. The financial records for the September sale will be included in the Treasurer’s report.
The March 2006 sale was held at the Church of Christ, Hume Street. The March sale had 160 registered sellers (increase of 65% to Sept 2005); 15 collection point and 703 shoppers (increase of 64% to Sept 2005). The March 2006 sale saw the introduction of credit card facilities that proved to be very popular with shoppers. Further financial details will be provided in the Treasurer’s report.
A sub-committee will be formed to organise all future Nearly New Sales. The sub-committee will consist of President, Secretary, Treasurer, Nearly New Sale Co-Ordinator and any other interested volunteers. The sub-committee will meet every second month leading up to the next Nearly New Sale. The next sale will be held on Saturday 9th September 2006.
In addition to the Nearly New Sale, the Association organised another major event for 2006. The calendar of events for the CPEA was launched in February 2006 with the Governor of Queensland, Ms Quentin Bryce. The launch was very successful with 150 people invited and various media outlets covering the event – Win News; The Chronicle newspaper; radio – ABC and 4GR and Highlife magazine. The launch increased the profile of the Association within the local community and with various other groups involved with parenting and childbirth such as the Maternity Coalition; CEA – Brisbane; Young Women’s Place and Toowoomba City Council.
The next 12 months will be an exciting time for the Association with several major projects already on the agenda: (1) relocation of the library and (2) grant submissions for additional resources. In addition to new projects, all existing services will continue to be provided and improved upon.
The Association could not continue to exist without the enormous effort that is contributed by volunteers. The committee members are all volunteers that give freely of their time. The committee meets regularly and is made up of committed and enthusiastic women who believe in the mission of the CPEA. Thanks must also go to those people who help with the Nearly New Sale. For an event as big as this to be successful, it requires many hands. I feel privileged to be involved in a community organisation that is professional, dedicated and serving an important need within the community.
May 2006
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Transcript of Quentin Bryce AC, 24th Governor of Queensland, speech at the official launch of CPEA 2006 coffee mornings.
Emilio, three years old, has been doing lots of jumps. He must have done a hundred of them. ‘Daddy, Daddy, look! How do you like this jump? ‘Look!’ he says every time, ‘It’s a new jump!’ He is very proud of his jumps.
As for me, I like the first three or four. But after a while I get bored. There, in the middle of the playground, I let my mind wander, inattentive.
My little boy tugs at my sleeve, ‘Look, do you like this jump? Watch me!’
By now there is a touch of irritation in his voice, almost a threat. 'It’s a new jump!’
How much time left? I wonder. Two more hours, and then I can have some peace and quiet.
‘Daaaaaaddy’…now his voice is almost trembling with exasperation…I watch.
And at last I understand, it really is a new jump. The hundredth jump is as important as the first and deserves the same attention.
Emilio gives this new jump all he has got. It is a jump with a turn, followed by a kind of ballet. For him it is a marvellous creation. He has just finished painting ‘The Last Supper’, discovering the New World, formulating the Theory of Relativity.
How can I possibly drift off? It is an unforgivable lapse.
I remember him as a newborn lying quiet and attentive, his attention free of judgement or expectation. He fixes on nothing in particular. He is simply attentive. He is in the present. I want to be like that too. Without presence, there is no relationship.
[Piero Ferrucci, The Gifts of Parenting, pp 1-2]
Thank you for so warmly welcoming me this morning. I am delighted to be here to celebrate the launch of your 2006 program.
My opening story belongs to psychologist and author, Piero Ferrucci, who, before having his two children, confessed to secretly criticising parents for their awkward and inadequate handling of their offspring.
Who, some years later, wavered more humbly and less certainly, having, like every parent, fallen flat on his face many times, been stung, squeezed out, wounded, turned inside out, never let off the hook.
My friends, the issues surrounding how we care for our parents, and our children, before and after birth; our behaviour as parents, as carers, as significant adults in their lives; the reasons; the consequences; the generational patterns, are diverse, complex, and continually shifting as society and families change.
The human infant enters this world with an undeniable, inexplicable, and astounding resilience.
Still, in 2006, a two-month-old can be retrieved from a black plastic bag floating in a lake in south-eastern Brazil, and soon after declared, perfectly healthy.
And a child can exist on a daily diet of Cocoa Pops and five rounds of white bread with jam from the age of four, and grow into a healthy, tall, fit teenager nicknamed by his Suffolk classmates, “Jam Boy”.
Nevertheless, a parent’s burden of responsibility is great — from the moment they desperately strain mostly untrained eyes to make sense and joy of their tiny cinematic alien, shimmering on the ultrasound screen.
Indeed, it’s been suggested recently that parents are suffering a crisis of confidence in their child-rearing skills.
[Miranda Devine, SMH, p15, 28.4.05]
In parents’ struggle to squeeze what they can out of diminishing non-work time to actively care for their children, they are warned of becoming anxious hyperparents:
• trying to plan and structure every aspect of their children’s development;
• avoiding discipline for fear of damaging their self-esteem and losing their love;
• bubble-wrapping them from every conceivable risk, rendering them incapable of fending for themselves;
• and failing to simply let them play, dream, laze, chill out.
We would, no doubt, all agree that there is some merit in the reproach, but parenting is not easy, straightforward, black and white.
Nor, it seems, has it ever been. The readers of the leading English childcare magazine, Nursery World, were, in the 20s and 30s, being told that:
• the cure for fussy eating was to starve the child until the wicked boy is transformed into a likeable young person who appreciates mealtimes;
• and the solution to an 18-month-old baby’s crying at night was to smack it until, after three weeks of punishment, it would provide undisturbed nights of rest.
Yet, today, we think of this advice as outrageous, despicable, criminal.
Ladies and gentlemen, parenting is as joyous and rewarding as it is demanding, constant, and confusing. For a job that is done by billions, the position description remains unwritten.
It is often difficult, as parents, to slow down, set adult worries aside, fight fear and fatigue, dig deep for patience and humour, and trust our own instincts.
With falling fertility rates, smaller families, and less involvement by the extended family, parents can find themselves quite alone; lacking support; companionship; even basic, practical knowledge about pregnancy, birth, and caring for their infants and children.
Now that I’m a grandmother, I find myself thinking more and more about the issues affecting families in formation — their happiness, their self-esteem, their wellbeing, their confidence in their own abilities, their hope and optimism about the future — now so commonly eroded by conflict, violence, drug and alcohol abuse, depression and mental illness, financial hardship.
In caring for our children, society must support and encourage the efforts of our parents.
Where Australians have, in the last decade, turned their attentions inwards — to their own pleasures and problems, to their own backyards — we must now find a way to take responsibility, together, for the care and raising of our children.
Members, staff, volunteers, and supporters of Toowoomba CPEA, you are a critical part of the circle of care.
Your coffee mornings and ante-natal classes, your library resources and Family Matters magazine, your strong sense of community and inclusiveness: offer parents vital information, professional advice, gentle support, and confidence in their parenthood journeys; and embrace children with unqualified acceptance, encouragement, and compassion.
My friends, I praise and thank you for your outstanding contribution to the health and happiness of our children, our parents, and our society.
It is now my great pleasure to launch your 2006 Mums, Bubs and Toddlers Coffee Morning Program.
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last updated 13-may-06