The impassioned plea for greater participation, for leadership and sharing roles, for training on committee mechanics is heart-felt – and could be on the hearts and minds of many parent volunteers in any similar committee in 2011.

There are a lot of references to places, groups, associations, colleges, and important people; substantially reflecting the growth of the national and international interest in the Canberra model of suburban Pre-School Play Centres.

CH

• New Australians”
• Expansion
• Waiting lists
• Fund-raising
• Child Welfare
• Scholarships for High-school aged girls to study Child Care
• Mobile Units
• Bringing alignment between the Play centre holidays and the Public School Holidays

It was a busy year for the Society, the opening of two new centres and actively planning for two more. Whilst fund-raising was a focus, it did not appear to have been a wildly successful year.

So I have opened a Google Docs account and have started to upload the Annual Reports for the Canberra Preschool Society [formerly the Canberra Nursery Kindergarten Society].

Using internet interactive mediums to store and make accessible digital copies of the original documents, may prove to be useful, faster than manually retyping them into this blog.

I will use the”catergory” and “tags” to identify common themes – seeking to build an historical profile of the preschooler parent’s voice in the provision of the care and education of their young children in Canberra.

Maybe it is a short cut – maybe it is actually going to prove smarter.

Here goes …

Preschool / Primary links; Preschool teacher qualifications; IBM computers; stressed parents; stressed teachers; 4200 preschoolers, 260 teaching (level 1 teachers each partnered with an unqualified, but usually highly experienced Teaching Assistant) staff and 2 executive level-2 teachers and one Departmental Administration Assistant;  Regional School Support Office closures feature in 1994.

One whole meeting was spent pooling fundraising ideas and the results are now available for you too! Maybe a visit into to the past may help parent associations and committees of the present – here are nearly 70 Fundraising ideas – can any one add to them?

1. Fete early in year, profits this year’s children and parents get together to meet.
2. Discounts on preschool fees which are paid early – everyone struggling.
3. Get fundraising money from people outside your preschool community.
4. Mostly few people do work – need fundraiser to involve outside people. Ask for donation — they can only say no.
5. Be aware of food drives – chocolate, pizza drives, pizza promotions.
6. Fees quoted snnually makes a conscious note of high fees: a polite letter comparing fees to beer etc. — positive letters.
7. 4 year olds dance party.
8. Kids disco.
9. Focus on kids, kids want to come so parents will.
10. Ask your primary school to allow you to have a stall at their fete.
11. A bikeathon – close off car park and have sausage sizzle.
12. Mystery bottle stall.
13. School banking at preschool.
14. Family portraits package — not very successful.
15. Garage sale.
16. Run your own trash and treasure with craft stall.
17. Promotion is important.
18. Ask for a donation from everyone in the local area.
19. Party plan night works well – cash and extra goods for raffle.
20. Bulb drive — Teslarse Victoria
21. Seed drive.
22. Life be in it.
23. Cancer Council — sun awareness items drive — sun hats, sunglasses, t—shirts, etc.
24. Fudge for fundraising drive.
25. Cadburys — smarties drive.
26. Oral-B toothbrush drive.
27. Be positive about everything.
28. Wine and cheese night — approach local bottle shop – parents donate cheese — $5 admission.
29. Bush dance — $250 band, $60 arralumla woolshed + cost of blow heater – $10 family admission. • Sausage sizzle — approach local butchers.
30. Bridge lessons — donated by bridge club.
31. Toothbrushes (cartoon characters) — Oral—B company donation.
32. Raffles (e.g. mothers day) — approach local businesses.
33. Wrapping paper/card sales.
34. Auction — goods and services.
35. Toy party.
36. Fashion parade.
37. Pie/lamington drives – contact ‘House of Fundraising’ Fysliwick for contacts.
38. Walkathon/rideathon.
39. Obstacleathon — (or bikeathon) — combined with sausage sizzle – sponsors — price per lap. Uses existing play equipment. Parents who work can participate on weekend. Both classes also get to meet. Raises a couple of hundred dollars.
40. Easter egg raffle — 50 cents/ticket — donations of prizes. Easter bun drive — bulk price from bakers.
41. Sloppy joes — with preschool motif — also market to playgroup. Fabric warehouse $l5, profit $3.00) $40-50 for screen – reuseable year after year.
42. Chocolate drive — 50 boxes $800 profit.
43. Mother’s day presents. Parent donates small present max $3 value). Children select and buy one for $2 and wrap it.
44. Home sales groups Learners World etc.) combined with coffee night money from door and commission on sales.
45. Wine tasting and sales — The Great Barossa Club Barossa Wine Club – contact Cohn Shipway 292 4582 Charge $3.00/hear — 18% of sales to preschool
46. Discount on voluntary contributions e.g. $35 per term — $100 if all paid by end of first term. Gets money in faster — avoids last term drop off.
47. Sausage sizzles (at Jamison Trash & Treasure, Rodney’s Nursery etc.) — gets money from general public.
48. Garage sale – including sausage sizzle similar to fete but only “White Elephant Sale”
49. Pizza and video night – with cheap child minding for preschoolers and siblings – brave volunteers needed
50. Plate painting expensive — best done at end of year when they can draw
51. School photographs — approx $10 per pack – profit $3. • Hot dog stand at primary school fete.
52. Other stall at primary school fete.
53. Weston — the best last year was an obstacle course the 50 children were sponsored for completing the course raised $900 held on a preschool day
54. NECEC — Come and play at preschool night for the whole family – have a book stall or toy stall plus raffle – popular because whole family can join in and dads and older siblings enjoy using the computer.
55. Lyons – joining in primary school fete last year had an election cake stall
56. South Curtin — Trash and treasure day where families brought trash and treasure and preschool charged for each stall – held at the preschool on a weekend.
57. Let parents know that it is OK to make a financial donation, because it is hard when parents are working and don’t have time – set up a box so people can donate at any time, e.g. for the cake stall they buy an imaginary cake.
58. Pearce — t—shirt drive, sweatshirt drive Gooses T—Shirts Aust Pty Ltd, 14 Sydenham Road, Brookvale NSW 2100, (phone 02 905 0966, fax 02 938 5269)
59. Party plan drive.
60. Fashion parade – preschool becomes house, parents model, small door charge + percentage of profits on sales.
61. Everyday Kolor glue paint Someone has to decant paint into small bottles profit $9 per kit Local agent: Doug McCurdy — phone 299 2785. Lyons and Hughes did it last year.
62. Weston – toothbrush/toothpaste drive – approach companies for wholesale/free sample deals.
63. Lyons — all the children did a drawing of themselves, then one of the parents arranged for the drawings to be printed on a teatowel — a great Christmas gift.
64. Minister for Chocolates and other Fundraising Programs in Evatt superb chocolate, good for fundraising.
65. Chocolate and pie drives — keep simple — limit choice (to make it easier to sort).
66. Pie drives — Melrose Primary use VIP Pies (very good), Pearce Preschool use Aussie Bake very goody, NECEC use Better Made from Wagga (very good) • Bus trips — e.g. to Sydney warehouses.
67. Toy Warehouse night.
68. Raffles — send home a small book of tickets and have them returned by a set date.
69. Agency fees — negotiate with bus lines and accommodation for an agency fee — people deal directly with the organisation and if they say they are from XXX preschool the preschool gets a fee.

Can hardly wait to see what happened next!

CH

I have added some new information under the 1945-1949 pages. You now have access to the 1945 Annual Report and the transcribed text of the very first first volume of the “Canberra Parents Bulletin“.

I have worked out a better way of communicating to others – about the things that get added to this blog site. I think that is should not only be a place to store and provide access to historical documents but to also provides a place to discuss them.

I will try and be a bit more courageous with my impressions of the text that I transcribe here.

Common themes of the latest offerings would be: the Canberra Mothercraft Society, Ainslie, Reid and Griffith, Men, Administrators, Ministers, The Ministry of the Interior (sometimes referred to the Ministry for the Interior), volunteering, committees, women, children, shopping, negotiation, collaboration, concern, pre-school child, Lady Gowrie, Nursery School, Kindergarten Training, Council, Miss Gladys Pendred, Play Centres, playgrounds, books, dances, vegetable gardens and fundraising.

Aside from specific references to individuals or departments or organisations many of these things would occur in any newsletter for any school or early childhood program. Interestingly the terms “collaboration” and “committee” and “voluntary” occur frequently.

Men had specific roles to play: “carpentering” and “planning”

CH

The “Canberra Nursery Kindergarten Association”, was established to:

“promote a knowledge and understanding of the preschool child and to further the establishment of a public kindergarten in Canberra”.

Chronicling how it began – will come from a series of  “histories” written by various people.

Original documents, where possible, will either be transcribed or converted to pdf and made available.

Images, where available, will be included with any descriptions.

Assistance in piecing it together will be welcomed. If you have anything to add – including memories, pictures or other documents – please do.

CH