Hamilton Parents Centre Incorporated

Hamilton Parents Centre Incorporated MINUTES for the 55th Annual General Meeting

Parents Place, 87 Boundary Road, Hamilton Wednesday 13th June 2012 7.30pm

Welcome

Present: David Swain, Vicki Hurly, Shari Rutene, Vrena Joyce, Jenny Summers, Melanie Brown, Jannat Maqbool, Claire Devitt, Wendy Flintoff-Baker, Katy Ritchie.

Apologies: Jamie Heaslip, Natalie Swart, Sonja Gardiner, Gemma Hirst.

Move that these apologies be accepted. Moved: Jenny Summers Seconded: Melanie Brown Carried

Minutes of the 54th Annual General Meeting 2011: The minutes of the last Annual General Meeting have been circulated. There are no amendments. Moved: Jenny Summers Seconded: Vrena Joyce Carried

Matters arising from the Minutes: No matters arising

Annual Reports:

President’s report NOTE: HPC ran without a President for the 2011/2012 year, it was co-ordinated by Vrena Joyce.

We have gained some wonderful new people on our committee in the past year who show great enthusiasm providing their time and skills to provide a valuable service to our Centre.

Our membership has remained at around 180 member families; most of our members now join to access our toy library and join in on our twice weekly Minirocker sessions. We are getting regular arrivals at the toy library, signing up at one-two per week on average.

We have had another busy year with the annual Teddy Bears Picnic fundraiser, and the Mums and Tums Fashion show to celebrate 60 years of PCNZ. This year we faced difficult decisions and after many discussions and efforts to retain CBE and Parenting Classes for Newborns we decided that we could no longer offer these services. This decision was not taken lightly and took over 18 months to finally cancel after it became apparent that continuing was irresponsible when most of our families are with us for our other successful services. Financially, CBE and Parenting Courses were a burden to the centre.

1 Our Mini Rockers classes continue to be busy and a popular reason for new members to join up. Friday classes resumed from Term 4 2011 after a break of two full terms. The toy library continues to be our main pulling service for new members and continues to be busy with members steady over the past couple of years. We ran two successful Baby Talk (signing for hearing babies) workshops in November and May. We hope to run this course every 6 months with the support of Plunket, SPACE, and Sport Waikato who advertise this course for us.

At the end of June we will attend the local Parenting Expo – Bumps, Bubs and Beyond. This, along with the Mums and Tums fashion show held in May should help to lift our profile in the community and has been our major marketing effort this year. It has coincided with celebrations for PCNZ 60th year. The Mums and Tums night was an enjoyable evening, supported by the Mayor of Hamilton Julie Hardaker. We hope that the upcoming Parenting Expo will be used as a basis for marketing our Centre to potential new members and volunteers.

I am enjoying my role as Centre-Coordinator and will continue in this role after AGM. This role can be challenging at times and I’d like to thank all on committee for your support for me in this role. I’d especially like to thank Wendy, who last year was to resign from committee, yet at this AGM she is still with us. She has been a godsend and huge support to us all. Her knowledge of Centre protocols and advice is invaluable. She is now the regional co-ordinator for Thames/Waikato and I know that she will do a fantastic job supporting all centres in our region. All while maintaining the treasurer’s role until we can find a dedicated replacement. Thank you Wendy.

I am grateful to everyone who has worked on this committee in the last year and appreciate all your efforts. We have great volunteers who will keep Hamilton Parents Centre running into the future.

Vrena Joyce presented her report and asks that it be received. Seconded: Wendy Flintoff-Baker Carried

Childbirth Education (CBE) Report

At the end of 2011 we ran our final CBE course. The numbers reduced to a level that was not sustainable. Each course was costing the Centre between $600 and $800. It had been a very long time since a course paid for itself. Most courses in 2011 ran with 4 or 5 couples. We had to cancel one course after just the one couple were confirmed. Each course for the rest of 2011 was touch and go with a lot of last minute stress right up until the week before.

Cat Taylor facilitated all of the courses for 2011. She was very obliging, helpful and a fantastic facilitator.

We had many forthcoming hosts this year which has been fantastic. The trainee midwives are required to sit-in on Childbirth Education classes as part of their training so we had been utilising them as hosts. We also had Belle Woods from Baby on the Move hosting many courses.

2 The decision to cancel CBE was made late in 2011 and the course just before Christmas was our last.

Vrena Joyce presented her report and asks that it be received. Seconded: Vicki Hurly Carried

Parent Education Report

Parenting 101 was cancelled at the end of 2011 once we decided to cancel CBE. We were getting even fewer enrolments for this course with many new parents going to SPACE or Plunket courses. These courses were free or cost significantly less than our parenting course. This was a six week course with the following sessions: Feeding and Sleeping, CPR, Infant Health, Massage and Development, Movement, and Munching.

Finding a consistent host was difficult, with hosting largely done by the committee. This is difficult as most of our committee are working mothers with various full and part time responsibilities. This added to our decision to cancel courses.

I would like to thank Madeline Kirk (Sport Waikato), Cherie Julian (Porse), Maureen Speedy (Waikato Family Centre) and Kaylene Henderson for their continued support.

Nicci continued to organise these courses until the birth of her third child. After which she finally stood down from committee after dedicated service. After this I ran the courses until they were finally cancelled at the end of 2011.

We are hoping that in the coming year we will begin to run Magic Moments and Conscious Parenting courses under the facilitation of Wendy Flintoff-Baker. We ran a course for committee and friends of committee and those who attended found it very useful. We are advertising it on a ‘registration of interest’ basis and have had several enquiries. Hopefully this can begin in the coming months. We are hoping to apply for grants in order keep costs down for families who desperately need this help in our community.

Vrena Joyce presented her report and asks that it be received. Seconded: Katy Ritchie Carried

Teddy Bears Picnic Report

The 17th annual Barnardos Teddy Bears Picnic was held on Sunday 19th February at the Hamilton Gardens. The weather was once again fantastic with numbers attending remaining steady, and an improvement on 2011 year though not as wonderful as the record breaking 2010 year.

Barnardos remained our naming sponsor and Westpac were once again on board as a major financial sponsor. Other sponsors included Richard Baker Electrical Ltd and Classic Hits. Many local businesses supported the day contributing to the fabulous spot prizes, free giveaways and

3 the gate prizes. I’d like to mention the efforts made by Bernadette Riddler (a member of our centre but not on committee) who assisted in gaining sponsorship and spot prizes. Also Catherine Murray (former committee member) who with three month old twins assisted in so many ways despite the lack of sleep that newborn twins must surely bring. It was a difficult year with a last minute decision from a key committee member to resign with only weeks to go towards the picnic. I would like to thank everyone for stepping up, and covering the gaps to make it such a successful fundraiser. I especially need to thank Wendy Flintoff-Baker for the huge amount of additional work she did to help here with marketing, entertainment, organisation of spot prizes and more.

Entertainment on the stage throughout the day included The Funky Monkeys, Mr Roberelli, Drury Lane Dance School, Vardon School Jump Jam and Zappolina the Magician. Jenni Brown from Classic Hits was the MC for the day. We are desperate to find a replacement for the Funky Monkeys. This year their fee ate into more than half the entertainment budget. Without them and with a suitable replacement the opportunity to raise more funds from this great event is huge.

I can’t thank the people who have helped make this fantastic family event an on-going success enough. It is hard work, but when it all comes together on the day, well worth it! Here’s to a successful and enjoyable planning for the 2013 picnic.

Vrena Joyce presented her report and asks that it be received. Seconded: Jannat Maqbool Carried

Financial/Treasurers Report

As at the 31st March 2012 the main bank account held $7549.89. The term deposit continues to run and as at the end of March it was $10332.55.

Our annual major fundraiser the Teddy Bears Picnic, which is held each February, to support our centre’s day to day running made $8070.32. Grants we have received this financial year have been $1200.00 from the Lotteries Community Development, $1000.00 from WEL Energy Trust and $655.00 through PCNZ for administration costs.

From a financial perspective a profit and loss analysis for our centre from 1st April 2011 to the 31st March 2012 shows a loss of -$2334.36. So in light of this the decision to cease our CBE courses has been a very good one. The last financial year saw a loss of -$3284.81 in this area alone. We could not continue to run our centre with this happening so I commend the committee in making this very difficult decision. This means we can refocus our fundraising and our centre planning on what our membership and community needs. It gives us some opportunities to change what we have historically provided, this I see as very positive. Some of our longer running services continue to thrive, our Toy Library and Mini Rockers music classes continue to be very strong and are still the main reasons we continue to retain our members for longer than most other Parents Centres.

I would like to thank the committee for its continuing support and for all the hard work that goes into your commitment to Hamilton Parents Centre. Vrena, our Centre Co-ordinator you

4 have led us with such grace, you lead by example and do an amazing job. The committee has some new faces which are great to see, I wish you all well for the coming year. I look forward to my 8th year on committee and seeing Hamilton Parents Centre grow and change.

The financial records are due to be audited this year and are currently being processed by Robertson Fulton Accountants. Therefore the financial report is to be presented at a separate Special General Meeting in the near future.

Wendy Flintoff-Baker presented her report and asks that it be received Seconded: Melanie Brown Carried

Toy Library Report

Thank you for another wonderful year with Hamilton Parents Centre and the Toy Library. Our membership at the Toy Library is currently sitting at 135. Membership has been down slightly on previous years; however we have a core group of members who are regular fortnightly users. I see new members joining and members renewing at a rate of 2 -3 per week. Saturdays continue to be our busiest sessions. Some Saturdays it is very hard to fit everyone into the small space.

Thank you for the support of the Committee and especially Jannat for filling in for me on a few absences.

Due to the current smaller membership I am able to manage the running of the Toy Library on Thursdays and Saturdays on my own, Saturdays can be difficult but if it has been a busy session I am able to catch up on the quieter sessions. There is always more I would like to do but struggle to fit in.

We are very lucky to now have a contact for a plastic welder. They have repaired 3 large toys at no cost to us preserving the life of the toys for at least a few more years! Our other toy mender has left so I will be advertising in the next newsletter for a replacement.

Updating toys and adding to our range is essential in drawing new members and retaining existing members. I believe a larger budget is needed in order to achieve the desired toy levels. A lot of our toys are reaching the end of their lives but I feel reluctant to move them on.

Thank you to the committee for the support for the toy library, myself and my family.

Claire Devitt presented her report and asks that it be received. Seconded: Melanie Brown Carried

Newsletter Report

5 I took over the editorship of the newsletter in late 2011 from Catherine Weston. Catherine had done a great job in improving the layout and look of the newsletter. My goal was to increase advertising revenue as well as add more content. We kept the regular features, but added more articles to balance the increase in advertising. In my first issue, April/May, the advertising revenue increased to $565 from $135 in the December/January issue. For the next issue, Jamie Smith took over the advertising responsibility and we brought in $792.50. This puts us well and truly into the black, making the newsletter profitable. I have enjoyed writing articles and doing the layout of the newsletter, but will be handing over the editorship to Jamie for the next issue. I am moving to Singapore with my family shortly so have to say goodbye to everyone at Hamilton Parents Centre. I would like to thank Vrena, Wendy, Jenny, Claire, Catherine, Katy and Jamie for all their help and support with the newsletter. I couldn’t have done it without you. Melanie Brown presented her report and asks that it be received. Seconded: Jannat Maqbool Carried

Election of Officers:

Office of Patron/Patroness: David Swain to continue in the role of Patron. Moved: Jenny Summers Seconder: Melanie Brown Carried

Office of Centre Co-ordinator: Vrena Joyce to continue in this role. Moved: Wendy Flintoff-Baker Seconder: Melanie Brown Carried

Office of Secretary: Jenny Summers to continue in this role. Moved: Melanie Brown Seconder: Vrena Joyce Carried

Office of Treasurer: Wendy Flintoff-Baker to continue in this role until a replacement is found. Moved: Vrena Joyce Seconder: Melanie Brown Carried

Committee Members: The following people have indicated they are willing to stand again.

Claire Devitt Vicki Hurly Jannat Maqbool Katy Ritchie Jamie Heaslip

Further nominations:

6 Gemma Hirst Natalie Swart Moved: Jannat Maqbool Seconder: Melanie Brown Carried

Office of Honorary Auditor: Robertson Fulton Ltd Situated at: 960 Victoria Street, Hamilton Postal Address: PO Box 9137, Hamilton Phone: 839 1341

Office of Legal Liaison: Katy Ritchie

Other Business

The following object is to be added to Centre rules in accordance with Parents Centres New Zealand Inc. rules

3.12 Increased knowledge and understanding of their fertility is crucial in helping individuals and couples to achieve or to avoid pregnancy. Moved: Jenny Summers Seconded: Melanie Brown Carried

Meeting closed: 8.35pm