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After 2 years on executive, I am finishing up with our school’s Parents & Citizens group.

I’ve learnt that my favourite people have 3 qualities:

• passionate
• have a “get things done” attitude
• want to build and contribute to community

I have learnt that the P&C community is full of these sort of people!

My time was rewarding, particularly in regards to improving communication. It wasn’t all smooth sailing. The biggest challenges include shrinking volunteering and growing rules.

Win - Communication

The reason I went from “help at a BBQ” to “go to meetings” was that the school’s and P&C’s communication was highly frustrating me. Trying to get people to help cook sausages was a painful ordeal.

My first role was as Communications Person, which was given to me after I set up a WhatsApp community for parents. Alongside refreshing the P&C website, we have 250 people receiving a weekly Sunday night “What’s on” message.

The first question people ask is “are there fights? or spam?” - and yes, we have had issues but it has been a tiny amount (about 1 a year, perhaps). We have had vastly many more positive stories.

My favourite was a generous family who invited their whole kindy class to a backyard movie night.

Challenge - Shrinking number and hours of volunteers

Our school had decreasing student numbers.

When compared to 5 or 10 years ago, our P&C just cannot deliver the same quantity and quality of activities. Expectations needed to be lowered, and that took time.

Challenge - Increased rules

I almost used the word “red tape” here, but I want to avoid the negative connotation. In my experience, the majority of new rules are warranted.

Parents compare to their own free-flowing school days, but don’t appreciate the huge strides the DoE has made in child safety, teacher work/life balance and school amenities. All this progress comes with red tape, to protect and consolidate the gains.

Regrets

Not many - and no “regrets that I did something”, more “regret that we didn’t have enough time/energy/people to do…”.

I had plans for custom t-shirts. We have multiple artists and designers in the community, and lots of local t-shirt printers. I’ve seen other schools create amazing designs repping their local area, and I know it would have been successful in our area.

But - not enough time, not enough energy.

Fin

Overall, it was a rewarding experience. I’ve made wonderful lasting friendships, all founded in our local neighbourhood.

And I believe I’ve been able to teach my kids the value of contributing to our community.

My favourite ever P&C moment was at a cake stall at a football match. I had lost sight of my kids and was wondering where they were. Upon turning around, I saw that they were behind the counter helping.

Thank you FPS P&C 🙇

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