NEWSLETTER: Dandenong campus (August 2005)

The 'let us know' list

1. If any of your contact details have changed, please let us know.
2. If you are planning to have contact with your student outside of SAIL hours you must let us know first and complete the contact request form.
3. If you intend to bring a friend to SAIL please direct them to the website first and direct them to apply online or just let us know beforehand.
4. Let us know if you are going to miss a Saturday by email, phone or the "Can't Come Sheet"- now also online here!
5. Please check and read your emails each week- if possible, Friday is best!
6. Please let us know before you speak publicly or publish an article about SAIL.

Ongoing offers

1. Photocopying- for any SAIL related photocopying, simply mark the pages from the books you want copied and give the book to Matthew, Jackie, Matt or the library crew on Saturday- it will be ready for you the following week!

2. If you would like to post an ad or some other information relating to SAIL or another not-for-profit venture in which you are involved, please email it to SAIL@africanoz.com to be included in the next newsletter.

3. The Tutor Resources section of the website is available at all times to provide tutors with ideas, games, work-sheets and support. We strongly suggest that if you are experiencing difficulties of any kind when working with your student, you post a request for advice on the SAIL Panel of Experts Bulletin Board (accessible from the Tutor Resources section). Tutor Resources can be accessed from here!


Please read this newsletter in the following week, it gives updates on SAIL past, present and future!

This week we definitely have the biggest library announcement since Librarian Leonee came on board! The St James Parish have kindly offered to allocate some space to SAIL in the hall foyer for the purpose of building a library, and, while we will supply the materials, Des the carpenter will build the library for us. Yes, the Dandenong SAIL Program will finally have our very own official library facilities, with walls and shelves and books and a safe place to store all our tutoring materials and folders!!! This is an amazingly generous offer of support from the church, so please stand-by and watch the development of our very own library space over the next few months, which will undoubtedly become the heart and hub of Dandy SAIL.

In the meanwhile, remember that you can find a heap of good reading in the SAIL library and Librarian extraordinaire Leonnee has been busily cataloging picture books, novels, non-fiction and other reference materials for you to make use of for lesson activities. Please feel free to peruse the library and borrow anything you need for your sessions with student SAILors, and ask Leonee about the ‘dot’ system, and for any reading recommendations for your students.

AMES have kindly offered free training to SAIL Senior volunteers. It is accredited and has proven very valuable to many SAILors over the years. It will take place in the city on Thursday nights starting 4 August 6-8.30pm for six consecutive Thursdays. Contact Kathy Earp, SPP/VTEP Coordinator on 9926 4633 or email: earpk@ames.net.au for more information.

Another diary reminder that 3rd September is expected to be another festive day of celebration for SAIL’s fourth birthday! We hope you will join us for an extended SAIL until 1:30pm. For the biggest tutor bash ever (in the strictly non-violent, Gandhi-esque way) please lock into your diaries the evening of the 27th August at 82 Perry St, Collingwood! This will be a cross-campus celebration and it would be great to have as many Dandy tutors along as possible.

Following the superb attendance at the last tutor talk, we have another Week 5 talk. This one will be about bullying and ways to address this issue at SAIL. Bullying is an issue that can affect your students through their day to day life, particularly at school, and this presentation will help you to understand and support your students through it. As always, the tutor talk will be from 1:00 – 2:00, and we hope that you will be able to make the time to attend.
To mark the end of another 5 week cycle, this Saturday we will celebrate the theme “Emergency Services” with a visit from the Country Fire Authority (CFA). There will be a presentation by the fire men and women, and an interpreter will be available. As this group activity will take up most of the SAIL session, there is no need for tutors to prepare a whole SAIL session.

This is a request for an item that would assist the program immensely: our youngest SAILor, the newborn Matthew, is in need of the means for his safe transportation to and from SAIL. If anyone is able to beg or borrow (but not steal) a baby capsule that is suitable for traveling in a car for the next few months please let Jackie, Matthew or Bronwyn know.

It has been a big cycle for SAIL About with SAILors heading in all different directions for all kinds of events.
Two groups of chirpy SAILors were lucky enough to attend the latest season of Circus Oz. Over 60 SAILors received complimentary tickets. Five SAILors went to see Temptation and another five went to Kiss Me Kate; the musical; the new Sale of the Century being filmed which came complete with cheesy photos with Livinia Nixon! Courtesy of the AFL, 25 SAILors also went to the G for the Sunday football.

Upcoming SAIL About events include another visit to see Rove Live, another circus visit to Circus Royale and trips to the Poly Woodside and Kiss Me Kate at the Arts Centre. It is all happening!!! If you want a piece of the action, please email sail@africanoz.com to register your interest in taking other SAILors! Similarly, if you are aware of any upcoming events that you believe SAILors might be interested in attending, please let us know so we can get our fantastic SAIL About letter writing team on the job!

Can we tempt you with some tickets to Temptation (pronounced "Sale of the Century")? We have five freebies available for Tuesday 20th September 12pm in Richmond. If you and some SAILor buddies would be interested, please email sail@africanoz.com

Footy fanatics
Free tickets are available to any SAILor for the footy on Saturday 6 or 7 August- Bulldogs v Weagles or Carlton v Port Adelaide, both at the MCG. The tickets are only available for a short time so please email soon if you are wanting to snatch them!

In the first week of July we had 30 SAILors from Dandenong and Footscray campuses head down the coast to Cottage by the Sea for the second SAIL camp for 2005. Thanks to a sublime team of SAIL volunteers, the camp was an immense success highlighted by close encounters with animals, the sea and a very long, especially scary water slide! The next camp will be a whole campus camp for Altona to go tree planting in the Wimmera.

This is the first newsletter in SAIL history to be sent out without a substantial total trivia section. How trivial is that!