Sharing, Learning and Growing with PCPC at the Annual General Meeting!
Make sure to save the date October 8, 2009 on your calendars for the PCPC Annual General Meeting… watch for more information in the upcoming months!
Motivation and Passion in Life with Kids:
How to Have It, Maintain It and Share It! With Mary Stuart
Every day is a new day! Keeping up the joy and enthusiasm for life’s most important job — guiding children — can be challenging! Come prepared to rekindle the passion and be rejuvenated again in your role as Educator and Parent!
Location: Mitchell Field Community Centre (89 Church Avenue — at Yonge and Finch)
( * For those of you who attended our AGM last year, and for those of you who will be attending for your first time, PCPC wants you to know, that we have secured a room that has better acoustics than last!)
- Registration: 7:15pm
- AGM: 7:30pm
As a non-profit, co-operative charity, we need you, our members, to approve the audit and elect the Officers for 2009/2010.
Information Corner and Going Green! — A combined effort!
Top 50 Waste Reduction Tips for Business – What Can Your Centre Do?
(These tips are based on a list originally developed by the Eco-Efficiency Centre at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia; Adapted for use in Ontario with permission)
- Know you waste – understanding what your wastes are and how much waste your centre is generating will help you develop the most cost effective, waste reduction program
- Keep up-to-date with existing provincial and municipal legislation concerning solid waste management; you must ensure that all banned materials are being diverted from your garbage
- Contact the Ontario Waste Materials Exchange to buy, sell or give away business wastes (http://www.owe.org/)
- Educate everyone in the Centre about your waste management system; employees and families need to know what is expected of them – include information on solid waste management and policies, and provide hands-on training in orientation session with new staff; reinforce the message regularly
- High staff turnover? It is particularly important to provide extensive amounts of education and training to employees; the key is to make separation easier, by simplifying separation procedures as much as possible
- If you have customers and suppliers that access your waste containers, you may need to educate them on recycling and composting to reduce contamination (this may simply be posting information for these groups near the bins)
- Consider arranging tours for families/staff to composting or recycling plants; this may trigger everyone to be more interested in your programs
- Pass on any waste diversion cost savings (recycling means you spend less on garbage disposal!) to your staff as an incentive for them to recycle; the money could fund a staff social event, or be donated to a charity chosen by your employees, or consider instigating a reward program for outstanding employees who make extra efforts in ‘greening’ your workplace
- Reward individual employees for ‘contaminant-free’ recyclables/organics; offer incentives such as small gift certificates to good performers
- Create contests to maintain interest in the program
- Designate an environmental champion to do regular checks on the systems’ effectiveness and family/employee compliance
- Provide everyone at the centre with updated information on how programs are succeeding (using graphics, like a thermometer, to chart progress is effective); tracking success is important to keeping everyone interested and to marketing your efforts
- Place recycle bins in convenient locations so families/staff will use them instead of garbage containers
- Some professionals recommend getting rid of many regular waste containers to encourage recycling and separation
- Label and/or colour-code bins appropriately; list the specific materials that can (and cannot) go into the bins
- Make sure containers are appropriately sized; bins that are too small or too large can create problems
- Don’t overlook organics/compostable materials; even in small organizations, you need a plan to keep lunchroom and landscaping waste out of the garbage stream; at a minimum, implement a ‘Take-It-Home’ policy for your organics
- Don’t forget that soiled boxboard, cardboard, newspaper and paper can also be added to your green bin if they are not too dirty for recycling.
- Keep waste materials (such as plastics and cardboard) clean to increase recyclables
- Purchase stationary with a high-recycled content and other office supplies with recycled and/or recycled content
- Buy solar-powered calculators, refillable pens, pencils and tape dispensers, and reusable calendars
- Purchase lunchroom condiments such as coffee, sugar and cream in bulk and dispense in reusable containers
- Purchase remanufactured cartridges
- Send spent photocopier, fax and printer cartridges, and printer ribbons for remanufacturing; some companies will arrange free pick up on an ‘as needed’ basis if you are purchasing a replacement cartridge; some stores now accept some types/brands of used cartridges at their retail outlets – check with office supply and retail stores as to the availability of these programs
- Email or circulate memos rather than copying for everyone
- Encourage staff not to print out emails unless necessary
- Set photocopiers and printers for automatic two-sided copies
- Check to see if fax machines, photocopiers, and printers are programmed so they do not produce unwanted header or report sheets
- Edit work-in-progress reports on a computer before printing it out on paper
- Use both sides of the paper for reports
- Encourage single spacing of documents; reduce font sizes and margin sizes wherever possible
- Write on the reverse side of sheets for scrap or general use
- Use fax tags (small, horizontal ‘post-its’) instead of fax cover pages
- Reuse large and/or padded envelopes for mailings
- Reuse cardboard boxes for outgoing shipments; produce a ‘We Reuse’ label to place on boxes – most customers will appreciate your efforts to reduce waste
- Use white board with erasable markers instead of paper flip charts
- Avoid over-production of marketing and publicity materials by reviewing distribution lists and regularly updating databases
- Establish a reuse centre in the office where employees can pick up unwanted binders, stationary supplies, etc. for use at home
- Put up a free, for sale, or wanted bulletin board at work
- Sell/give away old office equipment to employees or donate it to reuse centres or charitable organizations
- Donate used but still usable computers and other technology for refurbishing and distribution to schools, libraries and non-profit organizations
- Another option for used computers? Contact local e-waste recyclers for proper disposal
- Give away old copies of journals, newspapers and magazines to interested organizations or families/staff
- Have some in-house discussion about whether families/staff is willing to share journals, newspapers and magazines instead of ordering multiple copies
- Use linen towel dispensers or hand dryers instead of paper; if you use paper, make sure it has a high recycled content and that it goes into the green bin/organics stream
- Discourage the use of straws, paper napkins and disposable plastic stir sticks in the lunchroom; if you have to purchase disposables, try wooden stir sticks and paper napkins made from 100% recyclable wood fibres and compost them after use
- Encourage families/employees to bring drinks, soups, sandwiches, etc. in reusable or refillable containers
- Provide reusable mugs, reusable utensils and ceramic or china mugs, glasses, plates and bowls for families/employees
- Dispose of surplus/waste paints responsibly through appropriate hazardous waste channels or paint recycling facilities in your area
- Interest in battery recycling? Make recycling of re-chargeable and button cells a priority, and then consider programs for other types of disposable batteries’ contact battery retailers, or the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation for options
Day Nurseries Act: A Ministry Checklist!
NEW and Now Available Online to PCPC members!
- Does your Centre have questions or concerns about which policies, procedures and written documents that they must retain or have posted?
- Does your Centre need a copy of Regulation 262 of the Day Nurseries Act?
This new and informative tipsheet is now available to PCPC members by following the link (www.pcpcontario.org/day-nurseries-act-ministry-checklist)
Get People Talking About You!
How to Increase Enrolment in a Competitive Market…
To build and keep your enrolment when the competition is breathing down your neck, you must do two things:
- First, you must be brutally honest — about your Centre, your services and the current needs of your target markets
- Second, you must be open — to what your parent’s want and need, and to changing the way you market and provide your childcare services
How to Develop a Publicity Plan…
Set goals and objectives for enrolment and especially for revenue. Do some background analysis on your target market:
- Develop an outline of who’s most likely to use your facility
- Write down the characteristics of your current families, including where they live
- In general, who may use your services compared to who isn’t using them. Why? Would it make sense to review your facilities, equipment and programs?
- How many openings do you expect — that gives you an idea of how many enrolment opportunities you have
Investigation…
- Investigate your market — knowledge is power. Who exactly is your competition? Is it public schools, home care or the big new Centre down the street? Decide who currently your three stiffest competitors are — then decide who is most likely to be the biggest threat to your enrolment one year from now — you may find that even your competition is changing with time
- Investigate each current competitor to determine what they do that is similar and different from the way you do it. Go visit your competitors with this goal in mind
- That is, to find three things they do as well as you do, three things they do better and three things they don’t do as well — maybe their building is new, but you have stronger parent involvement or better teacher tenure. Note your findings. Invite them to visit you — remember, be open. Who knows? Maybe you’ll develop a professional relationship that can serve you both well in terms of referrals of staff and children
- Investigate what is important to your parents — do this with a brief written survey, a telephone survey or focus groups. Ask not only about their level of satisfaction with your Centre, staff and programs, but about their expectation as well — do they perceive that you will meet their changing needs better than your competitors can?
- Once you have good information about your customers and competition, carefully analyze just how you are promoting your services to your prospects, customers and referral sources. What image or perception are you creating in the minds of your parents and prospects? In what ways are you presenting or marketing your image? The image, or positioning, can affect parent’s decisions to enrol and remain in a Centre
- What mix of marketing techniques are you using to attract new customers? Do you have a brochure that makes you sound unique and inviting, or does it look and read like brochures your prospects will pick up from your competitors? Do you use newspaper ads, flyers, newsletters or coupons to market your Centre? List everything you are currently using
- Are your enrolment building skills as sharp as they should be to help parents make a good buying decision and to get them to act on your recommendation? Do you follow up with inquiring prospects? Does your competition follow up?
- What are you doing to keep your currently enrolled parents happy? Be honest. What are you doing to create value? Are they getting more than they expected? You want them to be more than just satisfied. You want them to be enthusiastic about your Centre and its services. That enthusiasm will translate into loyalty and word of mouth referrals, your most cost-effective advertising
- Also investigate your industry. What are the changes taking place in childcare? How does it affect you? Join your local and national childcare associations. Go to the meetings, read their newsletters, get involved as a professional colleague
- The sooner you investigate your competition, the better equipped you will be to keep your Centre full despite their presence. And if you are proactive in this investigation, rather than reactive, you will already have the knowledge you need to make good decisions when the competition heats up
Differentiate Your Centre from Your Competitors…
- The more you learn about your competitors in comparison to your own services, the easier it will be to differentiate yourself from them
- List differentiating factors between you and your competitors. These are not judgements — they are differences you should be promoting in your marketing efforts and discussing with your prospects and parents if you want to compete and win
- Don’t forget enrolment building skills as a competitive differentiation. Telephone skills, in particular, can make a decisive impression on new parents who are your enrolment prospects. Be sure to state some differentiating factors during inquiry calls. Simply point out differentiating features in a benefit statement. Never criticize your competitors by name to a prospect or customer — this is called ‘slinging mud’ and it will only damage your own image in the end
- Include your staff in the actions you have taken to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Make them aware of your parent’s desires and how they can help you meet them, even in the face of stiff competition. Train them to become your partners in communicating to parents the unique features of your Centre that set you apart
- As you work to become a master at competitive marketing, keep your attitude up and climbing. Your level of success at increasing enrolment in a competitive environment is directly proportional to the altitude of your attitude. Think about it. If you believe your competition is out to get you, they will — but if you believe that you can overcome them and still fill your Centre, you fill — either way you’re right!
Some Ideas on Strategy…
Now that you know who you’re marketing to and what you have to offer them, develop some strategies to reach those people.
- Ensure you’re offering services to meet your target market and the community’s needs
- Communicate the benefits of a parent participating co-operative (if applicable); try a brochure or develop a presentation for registration nights
- Offer flexible fee arrangements for parents with more than one child attending, or for low-income families
- Keep a list of former members with younger children; contact them yearly to keep them informed of the Centre
- Provide as much flexibility in parent duties as possible (if applicable)
- Make sure the present membership knows the registration dates; involve everyone in the publicity blitz
- Have a Centre logo, a newsletter and a sign near your location
- Develop a pre-registration packet that includes previous issues of your newsletter and your council’s, an article such as ‘Why a Co-operative?’ or ‘What is Non-Profit?’ and information specific to your Centre
- Use local newspapers, newsletters, television and radio stations for community announcements
- Create your registration poster on bright paper and put it in all of the obvious and not so obvious locations — keep it up-to-date
- Develop an information package for local businesses; participate in local activities
- Follow up on all inquiries as soon as you can with a telephone call
- Consider piggy-backing a fundraising or community-oriented event to publicize as well as fundraise; maybe you’ll find some of your target market; maybe the local media will want some information on your organization and what you’re up to (have a package prepared!)
A good publicity plan includes an overall goal, a year planner, examples of past activities and a budget!
The Co-operators and PCPC members:
Thank you to all the member centres who have sent in the requested renewal questionnaire packages to The Co-operators. We do know that many centres are closed during the summer and the returns in spite of this have been fantastic!
Watch for your yearly insurance renewal forms which should be at your centre around September 23, 2009. The Co-operators insurance renewal date for liability and Director’s and Officers insurance is due October 15, 2009.
Childlife.ca!
3 KINDS OF TEACHERS/PARENTS/BOARDS
- Make things Happen
- Let Things Happen
- Ask what happened
According to a 2001 Gallop Poll, less than 30% of American workers are fully engaged at work. Some 55% are not engaged and another 19% are actively disengaged!
Striving for quality and excellence in early childhood requires leadership — parents, teachers and board members — who are enthusiastic about creating stimulating environments where children will learn and grow and become who they were meant to become.
What are you going to do differently this year to keep up the joy of childhood and passion for learning in your classrooms and homes?
Children are messages we deliver to a future we will never see…
What message are you delivering?
Mary Stuart, E.C.E.D.H.
Early Childhood Specialist
Director
childlife …inspire their best!
justask@childlife.ca
www.childlife.ca
What’s happening in….your Centre? your Community? your Province? your Country? your World?
September 7th is Labour Day! Labour Day has been celebrated on the first Monday in September in Canada since the 1880’s. Many Canadians simply regard Labour Day as the Monday of the last long weekend of summer. Some celebrations may include picnics, fireworks displays, water activities and public art events — contact your local community for information regarding celebrations and events available in your area!
Fundraising Ideas — Remember that all of these fundraising ideas, and many more can be found in the Governance Series Workshops (Members’ Only Section) of the PCPC website www.pcpcontario.org
Centre Clothing: Although this type of fundraiser will not make your Centre rich, it will generate a little bit of money.
It’s nice for the children to have clothing with your Centre’s logo on it for trips and outside activities, and it also helps to identify your parents in a group.
Every time someone sees your logo and/or colours, it is advertising for the Centre at no additional cost to you!
Get to know potential funders!
The Gordon Tait Family Foundation
Address: 30-2355 Fifth Line West, Mississauga, Ontario, L5K 2M8
Contact: Gordon L. Tait, President
Telephone/Fax: (905) 855-0234 (telephone); (905) 822-3006 (fax)
Funding Interest: Children
Granting Region: Toronto Area
The Harold A. Kopas Charitable Foundation
Address: 30 St. Clair Avenue West, Suite 1111, Toronto, Ontario, M4V 1M2
Contact: Donald B. Kopas, President
Funding Interest: Child Development; Children
Granting Region: Ontario
Grant Information: Applications must include details of what the request is for, background information on the charity, and financial statements
The Harry and Max Korolnek Family Foundation
Address: c/o Consolidated Bottle Co., P.O. Box 369, Station D, Toronto, Ontario, M6P 3J9
Contact: Max Korolnek, President
Telephone/Fax: (416) 656-7777 (telephone); (416) 656-6394 (fax)
Funding Interest: Children; Disabled Children
Granting Region: Ontario
Did you know? (fun facts and quotes)
Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing!
Going Green!
Climate Change Can Be Funny!
- According to the UK’s Guardian Unlimited, the methane gas produced by cows is responsible for 4% of greenhouse gas emissions. So scientists from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart have invented a pill that combined with a special diet and regulated feeding, will reduce a cow’s stomach gas!
- Ever noticed that UPS drivers always seem to turn right? OK, so you haven’t, but it true: In 2006, UPS’s new package-flow software allowed it to cut 28.5 million miles from its already carefully crafted routes. The company identified traffic lights where drivers waited to turn left as huge wastes of gas and time for the fleet. By reconfiguring routes and eliminating the left turns, UPS saved 3 million gallons of fuel and 31,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide last year. (Also of note: Back in the 1930s, UPS used electric cars to deliver packages in Manhattan!)
Who’s Green?
This new section of the PCPC electronic newsletter will provide you, your Centre and the families who use your services with the contact information for organizations that care about the environment and it shows in the products and services that they offer!
Planet Bean
Address: 259 Grange Road East, Unit 2, Guelph, Ontario, N1E 6R5
Telephone/Fax: (877) 758-2326 (telephone); (519) 837-4297 (fax)
Email/Website: info@planetbeancoffee.com (email); http://www.planetbeancoffee.com (website)
General Information: Planet Bean coffee is fair trade and organic! Fair Trade Certification ensures that farmers are paid a fair price for their goods, those goods are not made using child labour, and environmental sustainability is maintained!
Planet Bean also offers a great fundraiser! They provide order forms and samples (you can adjust for your customers). You collect orders, send them to Planet Bean and they ship the order within two weeks… it’s that easy!
Printed from www.pcpcontario.org © PCPC 2005-2011.
