Gold Coast Branch President's Report 2010-2011

Gold Coast Branch President’s Report 2011

By Michelle Ronksley-Pavia

September 2011

This past twelve months have seen us all working very hard on the Gold Coast Branch committee to foster understanding in the regional community about gifted children, their needs and education.

 I would firstly like to thank our great committee:

 ·        Carol Barnes our Vice-President and hardworking parent support group co-ordinator, for her dedication, inspiration and commitment to parents and teachers of the region. Our parent support group has continued to grow over the last twelve months, thanks to the dedication and leadership of Carol Barnes. 

• ·        Jen Hamley our relatively new Treasurer, for volunteering to take over from our “retiring” treasurer Lisa Hooper. Jen has thrown herself eagerly into the role and continues to be a valued member of our Gold Coast team. Thank you to Lisa for her work in the role over the previous eight months or so – we all loved her baked cakes and goodies for the parent support groups.

• ·        I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to our longest serving member of our committee, Lilli-Anne Anderson – Lilli-Anne continues to support our activities and has done so for well over six years now!

• ·        Lesley Sutherland – for her support and teacher/parent information sessions as well as for the use of a terrific venue at A.B. Paterson College.

• ·        Ian Pieper - our dedicated Minutes taker.

• ·        Geraldine Townend who has helped support, nurture and conduct our many workshops and events.

• ·        Anita Blay – for her dedication and support.

 I would also like to thank our venues; without whom we would not be able to put on our activities and operate as we do: The Southport Prep School; AB Paterson College; Biggera Waters State School and Griffith University - for enabling our use of their facilities for workshops, our monthly committee meetings and our end of year show. I would particularly like to thank QLD Academy for Health Sciences (QAHS), Southport, Leanne Nixon & staff - they look after us very well! The QAHS librarians do a great job, our resource library will hopefully be available for official borrowing as soon as we iron out our borrowing arrangements!

 We have had an extremely busy year since our last AGM as can be seen by these workshops and events:

 November 27^th 2010 – Biggera Waters State School with workshops on “Touching Science” and “Music, Circus and Drums”. Our PSG guest speaker was Kate Alcorn, an Education Queensland guidance officer on the Gold Coast

 November 27^th 2010- Our end of year “Great Big Science Show” – this was a huge success with over 200 attendees. What a great time we all had with Science on the Go’s fascinating and hands-on science show. Our BBQ afterwards was enjoyed by all.

 February 26^th at A. B. Patterson – for the children we held a couple of mysterious workshops conducted by specialist gifted teachers from A. B. Patterson College; along with our parent support group and teacher information seminar presented by Lesley Sutherland about   “Gifted Students on the Spectrum”.

 May 28^th at QAHS for workshops on “Optical Illusions” and “Read Like You Mean It”. Our PSG guest speaker was Kathy Mackey who spoke on education initiatives through the Queensland Academies.

 July 16^th at The Southport Prep School we had “Clay Sculpture” and our  “Magical Mystery Tour” workshops. We were lucky enough to have two knowledgeable guest speakers for our PSG and teacher information session. Geraldine Townend who spoke on “Gifted With Other Possibilities” and Eldon Pascoe who spoke about “How Does Your Child Learn Best?”

 August 27th - saw us return to QAHS for “Bamboozling Bewildering Bafflers” and “Wonders of the World”. Lesley Sutherland stepped in at the eleventh hour, when Carol Barnes was under the weather, to kindly conduct our PSG on her experiences in Prague at the World Gifted Conference.

 September 14^th -  Our guest speaker and 9^th AGM evening at Griffith University, Southport. Our guest speaker Professor  Donna  Pendergast  from  Griffith University,  talking  about  the  planned gifted hub at Griffith and future initiatives in gifted education.

 October 29th^th – at Griffith University for workshops on “Daylight Astronomy” and “Conspiracy Theories” and PSG with Carol Barnes.

 We have also recently started our long-planned pilot research project in conjunction with Griffith University  into mentoring and gifted children. Once the study concludes we are hoping that the children who took part will be able to present their projects to an audience at the end of the year. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Susie Garvis from Griffith Uni. for this opportunity to pursue a plan I have had for our branch for the last several years.

 There has been an inordinate amount of work going on behind the scenes at our branch to answer emails, co-ordinate payments for workshops; update the website and our web pages as well as our regular committee meetings. It is in no way possible to run a branch like ours, without the support of our members and guests who attend our events, their contributions and feedback are what keep us going. Thank you for the positive comments and wonderful responses to our workshops this year - also a huge thank you to our enthusiastic and passionate workshop presenters and guest speakers.

 We have a great committee, great group of people who are a pleasure to work with and whom I have forged some great friendships with, thank you to everyone who has contributed to a great year for our Gold Coast Branch.

 I look forward to another great year, thank you all for your support.

 Michelle Ronksley-Pavia

President QAGTC Gold Coast Branch

September 2011