eVALBEC July 2007
This is the electronic newsletter of VALBEC, the Victorian Adult Literacy and Basic Education Council, and is sent to about 850 practitioners on the first of each month (other than January). It is also available in the ‘News’ section of our web site http://www.valbec.org.au
Disclaimer: The activities, goods and services mentioned in eVALBEC are not endorsed by VALBEC in any way. People should make their own judgment about the suitability of each item.
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IN THIS ISSUE OF e-VALBEC:
1. Annual General Meeting June 21 – New Committee
2. Fine Print
Open forum on the new CGEA
Beside the Whiteboard
3. Fine Print Editorial Group
4. ACAL Conference in New Zealand – Early Bird Offer
Pre-conference day
5. ACAL Literacy Live Forum Wednesday, July 11, 2007
6. Team Leader – Literacy & Numeracy
7. Applied Learning & Employability: Developing Transferable Skills – NMIT Conference, July
8. Subscribe to eVALBEC?
9. Unsubscribe?
10. Contact VALBEC
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1. Annual General Meeting June 21 – New Committee
Thank you to those who attended the meeting and the Twilight Forum. The reporting part of the evening went smoothly and the Annual Report for 2006 can be viewed http://www.valbec.org.au/05/govern.html
The Elections for the new committee proceeded smoothly with all positions filled and three new general members nominating. The Committee for 2007/ 2008 are
Co-Presidents Lynne Matheson and Ann Haynes; Secretary Jeannie Turnbull; Treasurer, John Radalj; General Committee - Teresa Cusack, Pauline O'Maley, Dianne Parslow, Gail Pratley, Kerrin Pryor, Corinna Ridley, Yvonne Russell and Debbie  Soccio
We welcome the new people to the committee as well as those that are taking on new roles.
Unfortunately the technology did not perform well across the Tasman Sea and our guest speaker Marica Sevelj had difficulty accessing the Literacy Live room as did the facilitator, Michael Coghlan in Adelaide. We had an interesting time in discussions with a woman in Donvale and another in Queensland and hope to make use of this forum again soon. See below for a chance to take part in a Literacy Live forum with Marica.
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2. Fine Print
Open forum on the new CGEA
Writers wanted !!! We are continuing to devote the Open Forum section to the implementation of the new CGEA (GEAF)
Write and tell us how your centre is going with either planning for introduction of the new course or else your experiences of implementation. We hope to share experiences and advice for others and practitioners are in the best position to write so send in between 100 – 250 words to karenmanwaring@bigpond.com before July 14
Beside the Whiteboard
Where are they now? In this popular section of Fine Print a practitioner is interviewed about his/her experiences working in the ALBE field. As part of our lead up to the VALBEC 30 year anniversary we have decided to devote Beside the Whiteboard to a reflection on where people have gone in their careers and lives since they were featured in Fine Print. So we would like to contact the four people featured in Beside the Whiteboard in 1997 and find out where are they now?
Merilyn Chrisp – Mt Martha Community Contact Inc.
Nick Oliver – AMEP, Canberra Institute of TAFE
Nada Cunningham – NMIT Work Education Unit
Thelma Rose – Volunteer ALBE co-ordinator and tutor, Tatura.
Contact info@valbec.org.au  with information by July 14
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3. Fine Print Editorial Group
This group will meet next on Wednesday August 15th 4.30 – 5.30 pm at Carlton Neighbourhood Learning Centre; 20 Princes St Carlton North.
Are you interested in joining this group? The consistently high standard and relevant content of Fine Print is maintained through the input of members. Contact Sarah Deasey 93477072 or Debbie Soccio 99198545 for more information.
Fine Print is the quarterly journal of VALBEC and is provided as part of the membership subscription. You can view Fine Print online as far back as 1998 in PDF documents by visiting
http://www.valbec.org.au/05/fineprint/fp_arch.html
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4. ACAL Conference in New Zealand – Early Bird Offer
Early bird registration closes on August 1. You can save for the International Adult Literacy Conference 2007
Auckland, 25 June 2007 – take advantage of the great early bird special of $NZ425 for the two day conference by registering on or before 1 August 2007. That’s even less in Australian dollars!*
Over forty interactive workshops have been planned with a mix of presenters from Australia, New Zealand and further afield.
Pre-conference day
The Pre-conference day on 27 September, with the theme of From Research to Practice, is also offering an exciting lineup including Professor John Hattie (Auckland University) and Alison Sutton (Critical Insight, NZ) who will be sharing the findings of an extensive review of the options for adult literacy assessment in New Zealand. The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (Australia) will also be presenting a joint workshop with Louise Wignall looking at the Australian experience with integrated literacy.
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5. ACAL Literacy Live Forum Wednesday, July 11, 2007
(A technical glitch prevented this from being our Twilight Forum)
Our guest speaker will be Marica Sevelj and she'll join us from New Zealand via the ACAL virtual meeting room. She’ll talk about social networking and in particular about blogs. Marica currently works at Open Polytechnic in NZ in a role as an elearning tutor but has done lots of work in numeracy with adult learners in NZ. She was also a New Zealand Flexible Learning Leader and is now moving into blogging and digital stories.
More details at http://www.valbec.org.au
Copy and paste Marica Sevelj into Google and see the range of activities with which she’s involved.
If you’d like to take part from the comfort of your own computer visit http://www.acal.edu.au for details
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6. Team Leader – Literacy & Numeracy
The Access Department at Swinburne is seeking an Adult Program Coordinator SE1.1.  
Pre-requisites include experience in TAFE, LLNP Programme, new CGEA curriculum.
Apply online at http://www.swinburne.edu.au/jobs  by Mon 9 July 2007
Position Number: 26166
Queries:  Merrilyn Beaumont (03) 9214 5591 or mbeaumont@swin.edu.au
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7. Applied Learning & Employability: Developing Transferable Skills – NMIT Conference, July
NMIT’s Faculty of Further Education is pleased to announce its annual conference to be held on Friday 13 July 2007 at NMIT Epping Campus.  The theme for this conference is Applied Learning & Employability: Developing Transferable Skills.
This conference would suit teachers, program co-ordinators, researchers, writers, policy makers and analysts working in the fields of Culturally and Linguistic Diverse Community (CALD) education, adult literacy and numeracy teaching and learning, Indigenous, youth education who are interested in this professional development program.  It would also be appropriate for managers with similar client groups in TAFE and ACE. Registrations close 4pm Tuesday 10th July.
For more details, please visit http://www.nmit.vic.edu.au/faculties/furthered/conferences/2007/default.html
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8. Subscribe to eVALBEC?
Click this link <mailto:info@valbec.org.au?subject=eVALBEC_Subscribe> and we’ll put you on the list to receive this monthly enewsletter.
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10. Contact VALBEC
eVALBEC is the monthly electronic newsletter of (VALBEC) the Victorian Adult Literacy  and Basic Education Council.
E-mail: info@valbec.org.au
Web: http://www.valbec.org.au
Postal: Box 861 Springvale South VIC 3172
Ph: 03 9546 6892
Fax: 03 9546 0421