It has been great to get to many places around Queensland in these first weeks of term and meet you. We’ve had LCC Forums in Mackay, Townsville, Emerald, Cairns, Gympie, Brisbane North, Brisbane South, Kingaroy, Ipswich, Sunshine Coast, Barcaldine and Toowoomba. Others are also planned and we will be in contact when there is an LCC Forum in your district.
Thanks so much to those who have been able to come in person or have phoned in to a Forum. We appreciate the hours of all our LCC volunteers and respect the amount of work you all put in to support your Chaplaincy Service.
Our four Regional Managers, Sue Hanlon (C&N Qld), Kerry Evans (Sunshine Coast Wide Bay), Jeff Howard (Brisbane) and Melina Windolf (Southern Qld) along with our 17 Field Development Managers have been busy meeting LCC chairs, Principals and chaplains. It has been a very positive start and we look forward to continuing to serve you all and provide the support you need.
For LCC chairs and treasurers there will continue to be local training offered in ‘How to run meetings’, ‘how to raise funds needed’, ‘budget and financial support’ and all the things needed to run a service. We’d love to hear from you about particular topics you want us to cover.
Chaplains will have opportunity to meet in clusters or via phone hook-ups for their coaching and training. Many clusters have already been organised across QLD where chaplains will meet for coaching, peer sharing and support.
At each Forum, there has been a lot of excitement as attendees received their copy of the new School Chaplaincy Snapshot 2015 that SU
QLD released last week.
Throughout 2014 we have collected information on the activities and impact of our chaplains and are pleased to share our findings with you. This well presented brochure has data for LCC chairs, P&Cs and Principals on everything from the qualifications of chaplains to average age (41) through to the impact on students. Data was collected from 2 surveys in partnership with McCrindle Research and the chaplain annual reviews. You can download this very useful report at www.suqld.org.au/snapshot . We will have hard copies for you available from your chaplain and FDM (Field Development Manager). Our plan is to visit Principal Clusters and present the report as well.
I look forward to meeting you as I visit around the state. As always, feel free to email any questions or concerns to support@suqld.org.au.
Have a great term!
Jenni Dobbin
Director of Field Operations