Directors Diary

Hello Families and welcome to the mid-year newsletter.  Such a busy six months behind us already and the next few months already filling up fast, with lots on the horizon. 

The centre has had a rather bumpy start to the year, with our unfortunate flood in February taking us all by surprise.  The after effects of the flood are in fact still being felt and we are continuing to work with Council to address some of the longer-term concerns regarding maintenance issues that were pushed to the forefront by the flood event.

The current committee of management have been working very hard to ensure that the centre is in the best position possible to guarantee that the building is being adequately maintained and this has meant many extra meetings with the City of Port Phillip, with the Property and Assets team as well as the maintenance department.

Our flood subcommittee have given many additional hours in both submissions and other written correspondence as well as in person and online meetings.  A recent walk through by Council representatives, as well as Lachlan Johnson, General Manager, Operations and Infrastructure has highlighted that the centre needs additional works, including painting of the building inside and out, as well as other additional maintenance support in the grounds.  Some issues that have been long outstanding, were rectified within a week and others are scheduled for the coming days and weeks.  We hope that the council injecting some of the maintenance levy that the centre pays quarterly back into the centre, will give us the freshen up we most definitely need (and deserve!)

We have been slowly replacing damaged equipment (from the flood) over the last few months and are waiting on new couches for the children as well as new tables and chairs, which are being manufactured over the coming weeks.  Most of the existing tables and chairs need to be refurbished rather than replaced, so this too is scheduled for August and September.  

We are very lucky to have a very supportive and engaged centre community.  We have always been very buoyed whenever we put out the request for help, whether that be knowledge and expertise, or physical skills and abilities, someone has always offered to give us what we need, or source it for us.   We often get far more responses to our requests for help, than we need and for this we are forever grateful.  Special thanks go to the many mums and grandma’s who have made tablecloths for the centre. We have lovely display tablecloths all using donated materials.  We have had lots of assistance from Max Soukhomlinov (dad to Max in K3) who is helping us organize new security camera’s, updating our old system.  What should have been simple has turned out not to be and we thank Max for continuing to support us, while it all gets sorted out.  We also wish to thank Leah Betts, (mum to Grace in Preschool) for her centre wide donation of beautiful Cachia pyjama’s for PJ day.  It was a really fun day and we all looked and felt wonderful.

I’m sure you all know that as a community-based service we cannot operate without a committee of management. Many of our current committee have supported the centre through 2020 to now and again this year, a number of these long-standing committee members will end their time with us.  In November we say goodbye to our President, Vice President, secretary and staff liaison officer, so we have important roles to fill. Our gratitude goes to all committee, for their support, guidance and willingness to add another obligation to already burgeoning workloads, it is most appreciated and commendable.  The centre cannot operate without an engaged and enthusiastic committee willing to support their local community, and the job they do is vital to our ongoing success.

If you are interested in supporting us from 2025 please let us know now, so that we can give you some induction prior to the November AGM.  We welcome all who wish to volunteer, however we do need to recruit someone in accounting or finance to work with our current treasurer, Prue, as well as allied health professionals, someone in HR for the staff liaison role and anyone with a legal background.  Please let admin know of your interest and we will link you up with a current committee member.

Special acknowledgment goes to Jen one of our preschool teachers, who has taken on a special project this year, 2024 Road Safety Education Inquiry Project   This has meant attendance at 9 training sessions as well as daily sessions with the children.  The children invited the Council to meet them on 23^rd June so that the children could show them how difficult it is to cross the road to get to the beach without a zebra crossing.   They also showed council the issues with our carpark without a designated walking path.  Jen has put in enormous work so far, and the project culminates with a presentation of the project in late November.  This is a fabulous example of (little) people power at work.

I hope all families enjoy reading their mid-year summative assessments.  I read and sign each one and I am always so pleased at the wonderful learning and achievement, which is documented for you all.   I am in awe of what has been accomplished and look forward to seeing what is planned for the coming six months come to fruition. 

Bernadette Dower