FORPS President Report

If 2023 is the Year of the Rabbit, then 2022 was certainly the Year of the BBQ at Rosanna Primary School.

The beginning of the year saw us trying to navigate life coming out on the other side of the pandemic. We began the year by holding out AGM online with our committee members remining largely the same as the previous year. We penciled in the events we were hoping to run for the year but knowing that COVID could easily disrupt plans because of its unpredictable nature.

The Welcome Family Picnic was the first event on the FORPS calendar, with our new OSCH provider, TheirCare, generously contributing $400 towards the cost of running the BBQ (take note – BBQ event #1). All families loved the experience and opportunity to get together as a community, whilst the students enjoyed painting on Rosanna’s longest mural.

Our famous Easter raffle was held at the end of Term 1, with Jackie taking over the coordination of this event. This included distributing raffle tickets, collecting and sorting donations and the wrapping of the prizes. We ended up having over 30 hampers and raised $2,500.

The Mother’s Day stall was held in early May, with green thumbs Jackie and Kate putting together some lovely seed packs and succulents to add to the range of items available for purchase. This ended up being a bit of a life saver, as 3 out of 6 boxes of products we ordered arrived the day after the Mother’s Day stall….

The Victoria state election was also held in May, which meant BBQ #2 for the FORPS team. We also included a cake stall as part of the day, which was a great success and raised lots of money.

COVID started to raise its ugly head again as we entered the cooler months, but fortunately we were still able to hold the school disco in Chandler Hall.

This is the number 1 event on the student’s social calendar, which has been rescheduled about 5 times over the past couple of years. Chandler Hall became a place of singing and dancing (by both the students and the adult volunteers) as everyone showed off their best moves on the dance floor.

With an RPS Trivia Night not being held since 2018, this adult only event was attended by some of the communities’ biggest bogans. And who better to host a bogan trivia night, but RPS’s very own Kath and Kim. This was a great night filled with lots of fun and laughter, with a silent auction and some additional games adding to the night. An amazing $5,500 was raised on the night!

Our Father’s Day stall was held in September, with some lucky dads and loved ones receiving some amazing gifts purchased by the students.

September saw FORPS organising and coordinating yet another BBQ event (BBQ #3) with the biggest one of all – Bunnings. This turned out to be a very successful day, raising over $2,100.

As we were on a roll after the Bunnings BBQ, we thought it would be a great idea to host another BBQ event (BBQ #4) on Federal Election Day. Apart from the cake stall, which we found was very popular in May, we also included a plant stall. Although we received some fantastic plant donations, this wasn’t as popular as we had hoped.

As we were drawing closer to the end of the year, it was time to start thinking and discussing the possibility of holding a school fair in 2023. Due to family and work commitments, the current FORPS members felt that they would not be able to commit to being part of the main Fair committee. Rather than taking the idea off the table, a Fair planning meeting was held in November to try and gauge the interest from the school community. An amazing number of people turned up to the meeting and all main Coordinator roles, which we felt were essential to planning and coordinating the fair, were filled. We are looking forward to the fair which is going to be held on Saturday 18th November.

Well, what better way to end the year with our final event being the Christmas picnic (BBQ #5). The weather was amazing, and all families enjoyed being able to relax on the green oval and celebrate a relatively normal year.

FORPS had a fantastic year in terms of fundraising, with over $21,000 being raised for the year. This would have to be the most FORPS has raised in a non-fair year for a very long year. These funds have contributed towards the purchase of and installation of football goals on the green oval.

Unfortunately, 2022 saw us saying goodbye to Tzin, who had been part of FORPS for several years, and who held many roles over this time including secretary, fair marketing coordinator and our school council representative for FORPS.

2022 also sees Kellie hanging up her apron and putting down her tongs, as she retires from her position as the FORPS BBQ champion.

Kellie has been an amazing sausage queen (😉) and we’re hoping to find someone who can replace her and take on the role of coordinating our BBQ events.

I would like to thank everyone who generously volunteers their time to help with FORPS. Without your hard work and dedication, we would not be able to put on these events for our wonderful school community. I want to make a special mention to Maegan for all her hard work doing all our communications, whether it be sending out emails to the FORPS team, doing the meeting minutes or the weekly newsletter and Compass posts. Also, a big thankyou to Emma for being the catering coordinator and making sure the special morning/afternoon teas that are held are filled with lots of yummy goodies. Thanks to Jackie for taking on the sickbay role this year and to Bron for her ongoing contribution of sorting out the lost property.

Lastly, I would like to say a huge thankyou to Jeff, Lynda, Ally and Kim for all their assistance and support. Your time and effort is greatly appreciated.

Kym Sinclair

FORPS president

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