|
Address from Grace McDonald, New World President 2009 - 2012
August 20th 2009
To begin with I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge
the amazing work of our former President, Patricia Hayes Murray.
We were all so fortunate to have Patricia take us through
the past three years leading up to the International Conference
in Cork. During this time Patricia did a great job of promoting
IFDCO at every opportunity that came her way. She was very
proactive, attending conferences and seminars connected to
Child Care both locally, nationally and internationally and
made sure that people knew what IFDCO was all about. Patricia
was supported in her role by Child Minding Ireland and a team
of local staff and colleagues who were able to assist her
with the many tasks that a President is required to deal with.
Without this help I am sure that the workload could have become
much more of a challenge, so all of these people deserve to
be acknowledged also.
The Conference at the University College Cork was a great
success on many levels. The venue was the perfect setting
for our purposes. The historic ambience and the beautiful
environment helped us all to concentrate on the very interesting
Keynote speakers and the great variety of workshops that were
offered to delegates. The content of the Conference covered
a truly international perspective.
The delegate accommodation was mainly in the student residential
halls and B&Bs. These were all within a short walking
distance to the University and gave everyone their daily exercise
this surely couldn't have been a bad thing.
The social events including the theatre night in Dublin, the
visit to the amazing An Cosan, the Rock of Cashel, Blarney
Castle and Cobh were all very enjoyable. The Opening ceremony
and the Gala Dinner were very special events for people visiting
Ireland. I'm sure that everyone enjoyed every aspect of these
planned events. Whilst International Conferences are designed
to provide some formal aspects, I believe that the informality
of the Cork conference made it all very relaxed and enjoyable.
I congratulate Patricia and her team for producing a wonderful
Conference in such a beautiful country. It will be long remembered
and take a lot to equal.
I should introduce myself to the people who I haven't had
the pleasure of meeting as yet.
My name is Grace McDonald and I have worked as a Senior Co-ordinator
for the past thirty three years. My role is Manager of Bramble
Bay Family Day Care, a service that covers sixteen suburbs
on the north side of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. We have
eight staff consisting of four Co-ordinators, a Playgroup
Facilitator, a Toy Librarian and two Administration staff.
We work with fifty Care Providers and two hundred and eighty
children and their families.
During the years that I have worked with this service I have
gained a Diploma in Childcare and Education, became a Quality
Assurance Validator with the National Childcare Accreditation
Council, completed a University Degree, Bachelor of Children's
Services (as a very mature aged student), was awarded a Half
Scholarship to attend a Conference and Study Tour of Children's
Services in Las Vagas USA (Deferred) and became the Australian
Representative to IFDCO at the Conference in Sacramento in
1999. a position I have held for ten years. I try to keep
current with professional development courses and attend local,
national and international Conferences when I can. I have
attended IFDCO Conferences and Study Tours in Sacramento USA,
Glasgow Scotland, Wellington New Zealand, Orlando Florida
and Cork Ireland.
It may appear that I devote a lot of my time and energy to
work which fortunately I enjoy very much. I seem to be committed
to the theory of life long learning and believe that we can
never learn enough or too much about children and their families.
I am currently considering enrolling in a Masters degree,
Masters of Learning and Development (Early Childhood) if I'm
prepared to sacrifice my leisure time, a big decision to make.
However, I do have another life as well. I have three children
and seven beautiful grandchildren, five little princesses
and two young princes aged between four years and sixteen
years. They all live on the Sunshine Coast a beautiful part
of Queensland about an hour from Brisbane, where the weather
is 'beautiful one day, perfect the next'
The next IFDCO Conference is being planned for Brisbane in
July 2012 in conjunction with the Australian National Family
Day Care Conference. We will all be doing our best to make
this a Conference to remember and encourage you all to start
a savings plan to attend.
One of my work colleagues Cathy Castelli is now the Australian
Representative to IFDCO as well as the Australian Treasurer.
Cathy can help with membership fees and other payments as
required.
Please feel free to contact me on amazingrace2@bigpond.com.au
if there is anything that I might be able to help you with.
Best wishes to everyone
Grace McDonald
President IFDCO 2009-2012
|
Patricia Murray, BA., Dip. Ed., along with a small group
of Childminders in Ireland, founded the national organisation
for Childminding, which has now developed into Childminding
Ireland
Patricia operated as a Childminder for twenty years, delivered
training in childcare and developed training courses for the
sector. In 1993, she published Choosing Childcare, A guide
for parents, in 2000 The Childminding Handbook and in 2004,
the Tutor Manual and Participants Workbook for the Quality
Awareness Programme for Childminders.
As the Chief Executive of Childminding Ireland, and as a
member of the National Co-ordinating Childcare Committee and
as President 2006 - 2009 of the International Family Day Care
Organisation, Patricia continues to contribute to the development
of the Childminding sector in Ireland and internationally.
She is married to John Murray, FRICS, a chartered surveyor
for forty years, has three grown children and one grandson,
pictured reading him a story.
Discount OEM Software Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007
e-mail: pmurray@childminding.ie
Blanche Steeples
International Treasurer to IFDCO
I was born and have lived in Nottingham, England (Robin Hood
country) all my life.
In May this year I will have been married for 37 years, luckily
to the same person, and have three grown up children, Helene,
Mark and David. To finish of the immediate family, we
also have two dogs (Bonnie and Molly) and one cat (Sunday).
My child care life started in 1974 when Mark was 18 months
old and I was asked to look after the child of a friend -
then found out I had to be registered to work with other people’s
children, got registered, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Between the years of 1986 and 1996, I was on the National
Executive Committee of the National Childminding Association,
and at various times held the office of Regional Representative
for the East Midlands, National Treasurer and National Vice-chair.
I have also been a member of IFDCO (UK) since its start in
1988.
IFDCO (UK) has now merged with the International Organisation,
mainly due to lack of new members.
I am working at present, as a children’s nanny and have
been with my “current family” for 19 years. I
am due to “Hang up my Nappies” in June/July next
year. During this 30 year period, I have cared for (only)
18 children and have never been out of work, except for one
pregnancy break, I think this is a record of which I can be
proud. I also work, (mostly in the evenings) as a youth worker
and am very involved with empowering young people and encouraging
them to make their voices heard and ensuring that they have
a say on issues which are of concern to themselves and their
peers.
For indoor hobbies, I enjoy doing counted cross stitch work
and reading. Outdoor, I enjoy walking and cycling.
I have started to find the time to complete some long distance
walks in Britain and have completed the West Highland Way
(96 miles), the Coast to Coast (195 miles), the Dales Way
(108 miles) and the Two Moors Way (100 miles). This Easter
I walked the Cleveland Way (110 miles). I support two local
sports teams, Nottingham Forest, football and the Nottingham
Panthers, ice hockey.
As your new Treasurer, I have started to send out reminders
for renewing membership, mostly by e-mail. If I have
no e-mail address for you then look out for the postman. I
look forward to carrying out the duties of International Treasurer
and will do my best not to make too many “mistakes”.
e-mail: blanche7@btinternet.com
|
|
Irene Kyle
Irene J. Kyle, Ph.D., brings to her work a multi-disciplinary
background in child development and family studies, combined
with extensive social policy experience and direct practice
in child care and family support programs. Her doctoral research
(1999) studied how Ontario home child care providers think
about and experience their work of caring for other people's
children. She was Senior Policy Analyst responsible for strategic
planning for child care with the Ontario Ministry of Community
and Social Services from 1982-1987. Dr. Kyle has also been
Executive Director of Canadian Mothercraft Society, and Cradleship
Creche, two early childhood development programs in Toronto.
She was a founding Board member of the Canadian Association
of Family Resource Programs and served on the Board from 1987
to 1992. She also worked with the Centre for Child Care Excellence,
Family Day Care Services, Toronto, helping to develop a system
for accrediting care providers. Dr. Kyle has published a number
of articles related to social policy, child care, family support
programs, and community development. In November 2005, she
was invited to present her research on quality to The Economics
of Quality Childminding Conference in Dublin, sponsored by
Childminding Ireland. She returned to Ireland in September
2006 to address the Waterford County Childcare Committee's
conference on Developing an Integrated Rural Child Care Service.
|
Kay Jackson
I was a family day care provider for 18 Years and involved
as a volunteer with the Scottish Childminding Association
for over 10 years. I was Convener of the Board of Directors
for 3 years and Vice President for 4 years. My duties involved
leadership and strategic planning as part of a team who have
led the organization through many developments and changes
over the years.
I was also employed as Project Leader for a project, which
rolled out the new National Care Standards in Early Education
and Childcare to all childcare providers in Scotland. I have
been Chair of IFDCO for 5 years and was Conference Convener
for 3 years also. I have attended international conferences
in Sweden, Sacramento, Glasgow and New Zealand and strongly
believe in the important vision that IFDCO has for the future.
I work as an independent Early Years Consultant and keep very
busy!
My commitment to IFDCO is a result of the passion I have
for Early Childhood Services. I have a firm belief in the
vision of the Organization to reach out to providers and parents
worldwide. I was elected to lead IFDCO to become a strong
Organization and am committed to achieving this during my
term of office.
e-mail: kayjackson@ifdco.com
|
