Last Board meeting of the year, Dec 2009

Pictured with Maurita is Ann Beachyhead, our Financial Director, who is the power- behind- the- throne: nothing gets past her! We are so pleased that we have her sound and very sage guidance in all things financial.

We have had much to celebrate, and lots to work on going forward. it is non-stop. We all enjoyed a shorter break over Christmas than normal, (the World cup altering our vacation schedule this year). We are looking forward to a year of consolidation, as well as growth. We have our four centres, and we are piloting a small project at St Agnes Junior school in Woodstock with the help of Ginette, one of our longest-standing volunteers. We are starting small, and hoping that we can grow the centre just as we did with Observatory all those years ago. Our Outreach programme will receive a lot of time and attention this year. (See below).

We have made some internal structural changes: Carrie Mashek will become Operations Manager, working very closely with Sally James, our remedial specialist. This will free Kathryn Torres to become fully entrenched in her new role as Director of Outreach. We have become increasingly aware of how many schools would like to have the Shine programme. Maurita, Kathryn and a small team are sitting down at the end of this month to look at practical ways to ensure that as many schools as possible can gain access to the Shine model. At the end of 2009, the team presented to 56 remedial teachers at the Molteno Road premises. This was a small start towards possibly working more closely with the local Government.

In addition to Outreach, the team will be, as normal, concentrating on fundraising, an on-going concern!

Two new team members have joined us: Thandi who we will be training as a link at Observatory Junior School, and Trudi who be helping to run Prestwich. We welcome them to the team,and we look forward to giving you more news on their progress within the team! You will all meet them in due course.

We very much look forward to seeing as many new volunteers as possible over the dates 22nd and 23rd of January. As usual, Elizabeth Nadlir Nir will be presenting a very thorough and detailed account of the early stages of literacy hour to all our new volunteers. Could we encourage anyone who is on the team who has not completed a session with Elizabeth to do so, or, if you are wanting a refresher, so not hesitate to contact Carrie to be put on the list of attendees. Welcome back to Shine; I have missed you all!