News, Reviews & Resources   ||   Issue 96 February 2013 Dear Reader, Welcome to the first issue of Starlink for 2013, after its annual break in Janu

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News, Reviews & Resources   ||   Issue 96 February 2013

2013NewYear

Dear Reader,

Welcome to the first issue of Starlink for 2013, after its annual break in January.  We hope the year has begun smoothly for you!

Apart from the various bits and pieces we've included for you this month, we've also updated the Events Calendar on our website.

It's time-consuming - locating what's on and adding events to the calendar - so we don't yet have very many entered beyond the end of March. But do drop in to see the wide range of happenings we've found for the coming month.

We hope you enjoy reading this issue and, as always, we'd love to hear from you. 

Cheers
Sue & Chris
BJ Seminars International

Essence of Appreciative Inquiry

essenceofai

Registration is open for our four upcoming workshops, The Essence of Appreciative Inquiry:
* Canberra: 3 & 4 April
* Brisbane: 10 & 11 April
* Melbourne: 18 & 19 April
* Sydney: 1 & 2 May

You can find more information on our website, read what previous participants have said and also register for one of the workshops if you wish. If you have any questions or experience a problem with the online registration process, please contact us and we can address the issue.

Social Enterprise Awards

socialenterprise

The Social Enterprise Awards are the only national awards for Australian social enterprise. Applications will open on their website at 10.00 am on 25 February and close on 21 March at 5.00 pm.

Launched in 2012, the Awards are run by Social Traders in partnership with Foresters Community Finance and will be awarded annually with the inaugural awards to be presented in June 2013. The aim of the Awards is to increase awareness of the role and diversity of social enterprises in Australia by creating a long term, high profile event.

In 2013 there will be five awards; four awards for social enterprises and one for the businesses that support them.
* Social Enterprise of the Year (less than 20 workers)
* Social Enterprise of the Year (21 or more workers)
* Youth-Led Social Enterprise of the Year
* Social Enterprise Innovation Award
* Social Procurement Social Enterprise Supporter of the Year

Staying Healthy

ch55 cover art

Staying Healthy: Preventing infectious diseases in early childhood education and care services (5th Edition) is now available for download, or for ordering in hard copy.

It provides educators and other staff working in education and care services with simple and effective methods for minimising the spread of disease. It contains more ‘how to’ advice on procedures and discussing exclusion periods with parents.

The advice is presented in six parts:
* concepts of infection control
* monitoring illness in children
* procedures
* issues for employers, educators and other staff
* fact sheets on diseases common to education and care services
* forms, useful contacts and websites.

Each section is colour-coded so you can quickly find the information you need.

University of Wollongong's "Positive Residence"

koololong

A new approach for student residences is happening at the University of Wollongong. A 'world first', Kooloolong Village is a residence planned and run entirely based on the science of positive psychology and positive organisations. It is due to be completed at the end of March, and training has already taken place for staff and student leaders who will be available to support students' social and psychological needs. Ongoing support is being provided by the Australian Institute of Business Wellbeing.

Out and About on the Web

LLEAP

Leading Learning in Education and Philanthropy

 
fdc

Family Day Care Australia

 
dern

Digital Education Research Network

 
KidsMatter

KidsMatter Early Childhood Evaluation

Teach This

teachthis

The Teach This website has an excellent collection of pre-school and primary resources for parents, teachers and schools, based on the Australian National curriculum. Resources include classroom materials across various subject areas, book covers, classroom posters, themed packages, special needs resources and more. It's a commercial site but the subscription fees are reasonable with twelve- month subscriptions ranging from $29.95 AUD for the basic parents' option to $647 AUD for the most comprehensive school-wide subscription.

A Little Inspiration

inspiration

Firstly, here's an inspiring article from Robyn Scott: What will be your legacy?: What are you going to be remembered for? Will people talk about the relationships you had with friends and family? The once-a-year dish everyone looked forward to? The impact you made on a company and its employees? How is a legacy created and cultivated, and what can you do to build your own legacy? These are all huge questions with small and critical answers. Here's the story of my legacy, and a few pointers on how to build yours.

Neurosurgeon, Allan Hamilton, writes a very moving story of his experience when diagnosed with cancer. As he says: the C-word was the loudest sound I have ever heard. I became completely deaf. I could see my surgeon’s lips were moving but, to this day, I couldn’t tell you what he said after those two syllables.

Allan's story is one of resilience in the face of this experience, of inner change and of hope. Read 7 Ways to Make Happiness Last and we think you'll be as inspired as we were!

What do you think of this one? Watch this video where a 'flash mob' of musicians, in an unemployment office in Spain, perform Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles. Ok .. ok .. so we know music isn't some kind of magic wand to repair social ills. It presumably didn't transform issues of social justice or reduce the level of unemployment in Madrid that day. But for a few moments it brought sunshine and smiles into the room. And surely there's something worthwhile about doing that.

Finally ... why not take 10 minutes out of your day to do absolutely nothing! Listen to Mindfulness expert Andy Puddicombe, as he talks about the transformative power of doing just that. We need to take time out so we don't miss out on what is really important to us.

Performance Management Fundamentals

perfmanfund

We have been invited by the Tonkin Corporation to deliver a one day workshop on performance, management, emphasising strength-focused approaches.

From Tonkin's flyer: In this one day intensive course, you will identify your current strengths and challenges in performance management, and develop the essential skills for encouraging and maintaining high performance across your organisation. You will learn how to align staff and departmental goals to the overall objectives of your organisation, maximise the utilisation of staff and increase employee engagement.

More information is on Tonkin Corporation's website, or you can download the brochure.

From Our Blog

Dates for Your Diary

diary

Visit our Events Calendar to find details of conferences, workshops, training opportunities, exhibitions and special days to celebrate!

Within the next month, you'll find several different conferences providing exciting opportunties to learn and network. As well as others we've heard about, we have added our own workshops (mentioned above) of course. And if you are aware of any other conferences or workshops that we could add to the calendar, please contact us and let us know!

There are also a number of special celebration or awareness-raising days coming up. Along with those with which we were already familiar, such as International Women's Day, Ride2School Day and various "clean up" days, we've come across some new ones.

We admit we smiled at the quirkiness of World Naked Bike Ride Day and very much liked the idea of World Poetry Day. And we're delighted to learn that the UN, in June 2012, declared 20 March each year as an International Day of Happiness!

For dates and details of all these and more, check out our Events Calendar for February and March.

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