New beginnings...
Friday, 10 June 2011 22:19
As the incoming President I would like to take this opportunity to thank Denise Wood for her years of service as Committee member, Vice President, President, and contributor to “Outside the Square”, the middle section of this journal. Denise has kindly offered to continue to contribute to this popular section of Gifted. This is my first message as President of the Association. For those who do not know me, I have been a Member on and off for years, gaining a great deal of comfort and information from my membership as a mother of four gifted children. More recently I have held the roles of Treasurer and Vice President, and it is an honour to now be President at this fork in the road for the Association. The AGM gathering at Jasper Road Public School, Baulkham Hills, on the 4th June was small but enthusiastic. At the meeting I outlined the financial problems and hard decisions ahead of us as an Association due to a number of reasons, include falling membership, change of staff and Committee Members with all the problems this can create, and lack of radical action to remedy the problem .
Fortunately, the newly elected Committee Members are very skilled, proactive and dedicated. There were also offers of help and advice from the AGM audience, and we are following up on these. The Association is now moving rather quickly to restructure, returning to earlier times when it was run by volunteers. I am therefore apologising ahead of possible delays in responding to your enquiries, and ask for your patience while these changes occur. I am also asking you, dear Member, whether you are able to provide support in manning the office, doing accounts, responding to enquiries, fundraising, IT, editing, or any other skills you can contribute. If you feel you have something to contribute, please contact either me or any other Committee member via the 'Contacts'email link on our website.
We are also looking for valuable feedback from our members. We hear about what you do not like, and this feedback will now be used in planning how we will adjust our service delivery, so please keep those comments coming. For example, we have heard that Gifted was not delivered to you, or that you have tried to contact the Association and no one returned your call. We are now working towards Gifted becoming an electronic journal that will be accessible to all members, thus ensuring that you will get your copy in a timely manner, and simultaneously save on printing and postage costs. However, we also need to find out how the Association has helped you and your family so that we can ensure that we do not throw out the baby with the bathwater. We are therefore planning to survey our Members. The survey will be available on the website, and we ask you to contribute to the future of the Association by providing this feedback.
Finally, just prior to the AGM Cate Clark tendered her resignation as Editor of Gifted after 11 years, and while we will miss Cate, we wish her luck with her future endeavours.
Mimi Wellisch
Just in...
Did you know?
| "I learnt so much about gifted children, backed up by very interesting research
which gave me a better understanding of the needs of gifted children and how
best we can nurture their strengths, skills and habits." An educator attending a NSWAGTC seminar. |
NSWAGTC Blogs
The blogs appearing on the NSWAGTC site are designed to provide colour, news and subjective views about the many issues and concerns facing gifted children and their parents, care-givers and educators. Some of the blogs are associated with formal roles of the NSWAGTC, such as the President and the Webmaster. These allow the persons filling these roles to note to members any current news and changes. Other NSWAGTC blogs are written by individuals with experience of gifted children from one or more perspectives - for example Cate's Blog is from the viewpoint of a primary school teacher and parent of gifted children. These blogs are written solely by the person identified and represent his or her views, rather than necessarily those of the NSWAGTC. Comments are invited We invite comments on our blog entries, by both financial members and registered users (free). Click here to register. Comments may be reviewed and those considered inappropriate will be deleted. New blogs? We would also be delighted to consider applications from potential bloggers provided that the applicant accepts that this will be subject to a review process and may well be declined for any number of reasons which may not be shared with the applicant. Applications, which should include a resume and a vision for the potential blog, and suggestions for new blogs, can be sent in the first instance to the webmaster. |
