Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
etc to go in August newsletter. Another thing we have noted that we need to get out to
families and parent groups is we get a lot of return to sender from the newsletter, so we are
looking at a way to update our database.
CATHERINE TROWBRIDGE
Family Kits Co-ordinator
In Catherines absence, Kate spoke. She is doing a wonderful job. Kit numbers are looking
good. Getting information to audiologists so more families register.
Had lovely notes from families saying thank you to getting that information.
KIRSTIN JOHNSON-COOMBS
Fundraising
Continually looking at avenues for fundraising if anyone has ideas, please feel free to pass
them on to Kirstin.
She will also be taking over the services role so as has been said before, please remind your
parents about the services we can help with, i.e. assistive devices, tutor fees, etc.
ELECTION OF OFFICERS
We did not receive any nominations from any of the parents groups before the 31st of May.
If you have people in your parents groups who would like to come on board, please do come
and talk to us. We want more parents from all parents groups to hear their voices. We really
would like a few more people to back us up we are working pretty thin at the moment.
We can do that better if we have more people to back us up.
Kate Whale
Zis Lurajud
Margaret Cooper
Kelly
Andrea
Jill Taylor
Janet Baillie
Catherine Trowbrdige
Kirstin Johnson-Coombs
President
Honorary Vice President
Honorary Vice President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Committee member
Committee member
Committee member Co-opted
GENERAL BUSINESS
Bank link:
It is a wonderful system that helps get everything sorted, between accountant and treasurer.
Internet banking:
Sometimes takes a while to get one cheque signed with people scattered around the country.
More to do with paying of accounts Internet Banking.
Please take back to your parents groups whether it will work for us, working better, the
internet banking just paying invoices.
No-body uses cheques anymore, NZ Post are slow with their mail. It doesnt work well
anymore, we want to get our group up to date.
Any feedback from parents group and suggestions would be appreciated. If they do it
similarly or another way we would like to hear about it.
Brad Coombs: Mentioned the constitution could look at being updated from normal mail, to
internet banking.
Do you have a debit/visa card for flights online, it makes life so much easier.
Brent Burcher: What we do have is a Warehouse Stationery BIZ card for all our office needs.
We have an AIR NZ Travel Card, which we book our flights. We dont have counter
signatories for these things, we can purely go online and pay that card, so dont need to send
cheques around.
With business banking systems, there are very strict rules in place regarding more than one
person being signatories. More secure than signing cheques
Website
Justin Fraquhar: Is there a place for documentation, a decent constitution, contact other
people for advice, etc. We could put this under parent resources NZFDC to look at.
Brad Coombs first impression of website was there wasnt a clear path of what it is about,
and what the local contacts are about. Maybe a plan of where to go, etc.
Brad Coombs more than happy to share an active blog through Facebook for parents.
Issue with free browser in a live feed because that would cost a bit of money but a good
suggestion.
We want an interactive part on the website but it needs to be montiored, does get quite
abused. If we get more people on the Executive Committee perhaps that could be a portfolio
role.
Clarity for Execucutive committee/Nomination process
Justin: Process-what is the process to go through to get on the Executive Committee?
1. Parent group to nominate parent from their group (on NZFDC noimnation form, and a
member group affliated to NZFDC)
2. Parent group to submit the signed noimation form to NZFDC by the date stated for
closing nominations.
3. Pending final nominations from parent groups it may require voting at the agm or if 8
or less a motion to move and second.
To go back to parents group where there is conversation and then contact President and
discussion-NZFDC. The person can be co-opted onto NZFDC only for a year for a specfic
purpose. Then at the next AGM if you want to stay on you can be nominated by your parent
group
If you know of anyone that wants to be co-opted please contact Kate Whale.
Smoke Alarms
Jill asked Justin how the smoke alarms are going in Otago. Alan spoke to us last year.
No update as yet, he still thinks he has some there but not sure of numbers.
Justin doesnt know how he is getting on.
Justin are you able to go back to your group and get an update and let us know?
We would like to help out.
Meeting Closed
10.44am
Next Meeting
_______________________________
Chairpersons signature
____28th June, 2015_______________
Date
practice in early intervention for Deaf and hearing impaired children, and to
meet other families in the same situation as our own in other countries.
While the information in the series of lectures was wonderful, the thing that I got
the most benefit from was the parent workshop on the first day of the
conference. To be able to talk to other parents from around the world (and there
were more than 30 countries represented at the conference), to see how their
countries work around Deaf education, to hear their challenges and successes, to
find out how their parent groups run and to just be able to talk about our own
experiences was beyond amazing. It also made me feel incredibly lucky that not
only are we able to access services for our children, but that we are currently at
an amazing point in time where our government are actually listening to the
needs of families and doing something about that. We are one of the few
countries in that position at the moment, and we MUST make the most of this.
While comparatively our services are very good, there is so much more we can
be doing to ensure our children succeed.
The contacts I have made at this conference will allow us to keep in touch with
developments in the rest of the world, and to be an active part in the global
community of parents of Deaf and hearing impaired children. We need not be
isolated, despite our geographical position. We can and will be a part of changes
throughout the world.
I would love to talk to anyone who wants to hear more about the FCEI
conference; Im still buzzing with amazing ideas, so be warned, getting me
started will be far easier than zipping me up!
So where to from here?
My goals for NZFDC for the next year are to ensure that those families in areas
without active parent groups have the opportunity to get together with other
families, and with the help of the NZFDC perhaps get their local group up and
running again. We would love to see every family in NZ have the support that a
parent group brings, as well as the ability for their children to get together with
other Deaf or hearing impaired kids.
I would also love to see more families applying for our Tutor Fees Assistance,
Assistive Devices, Scholarships and Excellence Awards. As we all know,
sometimes a little can go a long way, and the NZFDC have these wonderful
grants for our kids, so please! Make the most of them. The Excellence Awards are
a wonderful way of acknowledging the extra hard work that our kids put in to not
only keep up with their hearing peers, but to excel in their own way. We would
love to see the stories of our amazing children succeeding in whatever they put
their minds to, and to be able to hold these kids up as role models for the
younger children who may feel like success is just too hard.
If you have any questions about any of the financial assistance that we can offer,
please dont hesitate to contact us, or have a look on our website.
My final goal is both for you all as parents, and for the professionals in the room,
be they representatives from the Ministry of Education or teachers working right
at the grass roots level.
I am sick and tired of hearing my sons progress as labeled on par with hearing
children.
Just because he is Deaf does not mean that he cant excel in whatever he puts
his mind to. It doesnt mean that he wont become a world leader in his field, or
be a professional sportsman and represent his country, or be The Worlds Best
Dad (in many, many years, thank you very much!).
I dont want my sons goals capped at what other hearing children his age can
do. I dont want to see him constantly compared to them. I want to see the goals
for him reflect how unique he is, and how there is no limit to his potential. I think
many people tend to forget that Deaf and hearing impaired children are amazing,
unique, creative individuals, with a perspective that the majority of the world
dont have. They are far more than a kid who cant hear. We need to learn from
them, open our minds to a new view of the world, then help them to reach for
the stars.
COMMUNITY LIAISON
This year, like most others, has been a busy one for Secretary/Community Liaison role. As
this role is more about being a central focal point for information, whether it is coming in or
going out, hence why the name change. We have a separate Minute taker for our meetings.
There has been a marked increase in correspondence electronically via email from standard
post. No trotting down to the local Post Box to mail items. With some 20 emails a day
coming through the Deaf Children email address, there has been no shortage of reading and
correspondence to attend to.
The Post Box has been moved successfully from Christchurch to Wellington. With two
members available to clear it, along with my role here, it was seen as the logical place for it.
I have also covered the 0800 Mobile phone for when Kate our President, has been away.
Having the Community Liaison and Website/Facebook Page Roles together makes good
sense with communication.
www.facebook.com/nzfdc
October 2013 saw the launch of our new updated Website. It had been a long time coming
with assistance from Tony Rule (expert techie) and Kate Whale. Sourcing some free
software and cloud documentation we have created a website we are quite proud of. Many
a late night and call to Tony about something not going as it should has been a challenge for
my non-technological brain! What a learning curve certainly gives you confidence.
The challenge as with all websites, is to keep it easy to read and up to date. Registrations
coming through have been steady and some helpful link sites have been added with
suggestions from different members of the Deaf Community. We have endeavoured to be
more up to date with the Minutes from our meetings when approved are, loaded as soon as
practicable. We know that there are members out there who are keen to see what we are
working on.
Facebook Page has also been regularly updated this year on articles of interest, affecting
our children and other relevant community and adult information. Deaf Aotearoa has been
an inspiration of information lots of contacts with local events occurring. We have had
interest from Attitude TV, NZSL in Action Awards and CaptioningNZ to place links also.
Any events or items of interest please forward to me and happy to place on Facebook page.
If there is an item you are keen to learn more about, chances are someone else is too so let
us know and we are happy to put up items to assist families on our Website. We are
currently working on Tips pages to go up on the Website. Tips for surviving IEPs is due
out soon.
I would like to thank all the Executive Committee for their support and help over this past
year. We have a keen group of people who all are lovely to work with and has been a
pleasure getting to know them and to help them. It is not always easy to find the time to
devote to NZFDC at times on top of family, work and friends, however I feel it is important
and have enjoyed it. It is good to see some of the progress we are making and hope we will
continue to do so.
I hope that the next 12 months are not quite so busy but as productive. Andrea Craig