2009 Conference

[Kathie and Jack Rifle]

Kia ora koutou

The 2009 FSA Conference is not too far away now and we are keen to have your input as members into the content of the hui. If you have any specific thoughts about particular things you'd like seen on the programme or the agenda, then please do let us know. All of your ideas will be considered and we'd appreciate all the feedback we can get.

Please inform your birth families about conference, invite them to come along, and if there are any ideas/discussion topics, etc that they would like included, I'd love to have those ideas. Also invite your families - it would be really great to have a forum of adoptive grandparents, aunties and uncles.

I look forward to hearing your ideas and feedback.

Love to all. Arohanui


Kathie Rifle
Chairperson

[Kathie and Jack Rifle]

Some excellent ideas there Geri. Please keep them rolling everyone.

Love, Kathie

Geri & Dion Hosking said:

Hi there Kathie,

One suggestion which was made for last time by the Fesolais I think, but which we did not get to cover, was some sort of workshop or discussion on "when and how to tell the kids they're adopted".

Also, I am personally really interested in ideas for ways to document my children's lives in special ways so they feel really positive about their adoptions. I'd love to see other peoples' lifebooks, scrapbooks, albums, special mementos they've created for their children - possibly some people could bring these sorts of things along for us to look at during free time?

Also, we will probably not be adopting again, but we would have found it really helpful to see other couples' profiles before writing our own, so we could get ideas on what to write, presentation, etc. Maybe some of us could bring profiles along if they are happy to share them?

Also, I have a DVD sent to me by FSA in the USA, of the Annual Conference 2006 which has some talks and panel discussions on it. I have not watched it, but I will try to look at it tomorrow if you like, and see if there might be anything on there which would be of value for us to watch.

Thanks Kathie for getting the ball rolling, you're so onto-it! Let me know if you need me to do anything.

Look forward to seeing you all in September -
Geri

[Kathie and Jack Rifle]

Kia ora ano whanau

The conference is nearly upon us. Please RSVP as soon as possible so that we can confirm numbers for catering, don't forget to include your tamariki in your numbers. Feel free to email me directly if you wish on [e-mail], or you can just send a message to my profile here. You can also RSVP on the event page of this site, but it does not allow you to specify numbers attending.

The programme looks something like this:

Opening
Chairperson's address
Whakawhanaungatanga/Morning Tea
LDS Family Services Update
Workshops
Guest Speaker Address
Lunch
Workshops
Children's Presentation
Closing
Photos

I have also put out a call that if anyone has a small tv and playstation they are happy to make available for our older tamariki, please let me know (no shooting or fighting games please).

I look forward to seeing you all soon.

Na, Kathie