Recently Council suggested that P&Cs consider bringing their AGMs forward to the end of the calendar year, rather than hold them at the beginning of the new school year. This was to help with a hand-over and a more active start to the year. If your P&C is considering this, you may also need to change your financial year. Associations must hold their AGM within 5 months of the end of their financial year. Therefore, if your financial year is based on the calendar year, you cannot hold your AGM towards the end of the year. In this case, you would have to change your financial year to the standard financial year (July-June) so that the AGM can then be held between July and November.

Council is currently preparing a submission to the ACT budgeting process. This is our chance to formally ask that money be allocated to important school-related projects. If you have any ideas that you would like included in our submission, please send them to Council's Policy Officer as soon as possible.

Council's Canteen Working Group will meeting at 7pm on Thursday October 30 at the Centre for Teaching and Learning (51 Fremantle Drive, Stirling). Anyone with an interest in canteens is welcome to come and ask questions, discuss issues and share expertise.

Majura Primary school is looking for a Canteen Manager to run their school canteen.

P&Cs running canteens may be interested to know that the Healthy Kids Association has a positions vacant page for canteen staff on which ACT schools can place advertisements.The cost is $35 for members of the Association (all public school canteens run by P&Cs were made members by Council earlier this year) for a minimum of 2 weeks. Contact Healthy Kids for more information.

Council is also happy to advise of positions vacant on our canteen support page, free of charge.

Earlier this month the Federal Government announced that funding to top-up state preschool hours to 15 a week would continue for 2015. Without this federal funding, the ACT Government says it could only afford to provide 12 hours a week for four year-olds. Council would like to know what you think about this. How important to parents are the additional three hours a week? Please drop us a quick email to let us know what you think, or put it on the agenda for your next P&C meeting and tell us (through your delegate at our next meeting or via email) what parents at your school say.

Difficulties with insufficient places at some ACT preschools was raised at this week's Council meeting. If your school is having a problem with limited places and parents being sent instead to neighbouring schools, please contact Council so that we can discover the extent of the issue.

The Public Education Foundation in partnership with the ACT Education and Training Directorate, has a range of scholarships available to ACT public school students for 2015. These include opportunities for students from refugee/ asylum seeker backgrounds, students interested in studying Italian, students with a physical disability, those interested in science, as well as students looking to pursue a career in trades or technology (and more). The value of the scholarships range from $1,000 - $10,000 and applications close on Friday 3 October.

Parents Victoria is hosting a free, four day, online conference for parents across Australia from October 17 - 30. It will focus on Reporting, Homework, BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and Access and there will be plenty of opportunity for discussions and debate, and participants can raise other issues. Find out more here or register.

Nominations are now open for the 2014 ACT Chief Minister’s Inclusion Awards, which recognise individuals, organisations and businesses that are inclusive of people with disability. (Last year’s winner of the Award for Excellence was Council!) See here for more information, including a nomination form which must be received by Friday October 10.

Poverty and severe hardship affect more than a million Australians and more than a billion people around the world. During Anti-Poverty Week (October 12 - 18), a series of events will help to strengthen public understanding of the causes and consequences of poverty and give people a chance to do something about  poverty. Last year, more than 400 activities were run by individuals, communities and organisations during the Week. This year, why not organise an event or fundraiser, or take part in one?

Facebook user? Twitter fan? Follow Council on Facebook or Twitter (@ParentVoiceACT) for updates and news of interest to parents and P&C Associations (use the quick links below).

If your P&C has a social media presence, please link up with us to make information sharing easier.