Please let us here at Council know who your 2016 P&C Office Bearers are so we can contact you during the year to help you with your role. Don't wait for our annual Office Bearers' form to arrive in the mail, though. It won't come! This year we've moved the form online. So simply fill it in here.

Check our P&C To Do list for other essential tasks at this time of year.

Council's FREE workshops to help P&C office bearers are on again. Contact our office to RSVP for any of these. (More details here on all the workshops.)

Effective P&C workshop
Thursday March 31, 6:30 - 9pm (Centre for Teaching & Learning, Stirling)
Repeated Saturday April 2 - 4:30pm (100 Maitland St Hackett)
Covering ways to improve how your association works, recruiting volunteers, fundraising and the P&C as an employer, this workshop is for new P&C members and continuing officers alike. The workshop is divided into five 30-minute modules and you can attend for individual modules if you wish.

Treasurers' & Insurance workshop
Thursday April 7, 7:00 - 9:30pm (Centre for Teaching & Learning, Stirling).
Information on P&C finances, record keeping, reports & audits, taxation, staff employment and more, plus a detailed look at the insurance package available for P&C associations through Council and how to complete the paperwork.

Nutrition Australia's Nutrition Support Service offers a range of services for canteens, including menu assessments, tarining and over the phone advice on canteen friendly recipes, food safety and more. They also have a great range of healthy recipes on their newly updated website.

If you were unable to make it to Council's last general meeting ( February 23) you can find a summary of the meeting on our website, including the presentation given at the meeting on BYOD options by Harvey Norman's Education Manager.

Council has a working group of parents and carers interested in the issues facing the education of our gifted & talented students in the ACT. The working group mostly operates by email and only when specific issues or concerns arise. Anyone interested in this topic is welcome to join the group. Simply contact us with your name, school and email address.

Over the next three years Council will be working with a group of organisations (including ACT Health, the Education Directorate, YMCA of Canberra, Healthy Kids Association and Nutrition Australia) to help ACT schools provide viable healthy canteen services for students and their families. This builds on the support already available to schools under ACT Health's Fresh Tastes program. Soon there will be some new and exciting opportunities for schools and P&Cs to be involved. Keep an eye out for more information in future bulletins!

 
Generation Next have developed a new resource to help parents and teachers understand and address young people's mental health concerns. The Generation Next Youtube Channel provides the latest strategies and information in youth mental health anywhere, anytime including useful tips to better support the young people in your life. Topics include racism, eating disorders, computer use, anxiety and sexual abuse. Content can also count towards PD points for school staff.
 
This free, quality resource has been added to the growing list of resources for parents on the Council website.

Nominations for the 2016 ACT Volunteer of the Year Awards are now open. The awards are a great way to publicly acknowledge and thank volunteers who make a difference to your community. Nominations close Wednesday March 23.

• Executive meeting, March 8, 7pm.
• General meeting, March 22, 6:45 for 7pm start. Ends 9:30pm. 51 Fremantle Drive, Stirling. Guest speaker will look at fundraising. All welcome.
• Effective P&C Workshop, March 31 and April 2 - see item on training above
• Treasurers' Workshop, April 7 - see item on training above