Hi there Natasha, I stumbled across this thread looking for something else and thought I would add some thoughts. We recently dissolved our PAFA (Parents & Friends Affiliation) in mutual agreeance with the PAFA executive committee (parents), as there was very little engagement and attendance at PAFA meetings and no interest in anyone new taking on the executive roles in 2024. We think one of the main reasons was due to parents being time-poor and perhaps there being a certain perception of PAFA amongst other parents.
This year we restructured the PAFA model to have three key pillars:
1. Friends of CAC” (CAC = Coomera Anglican College) – Community: Volunteers, Events, Parent Year Level Coordinators
2. CAC Connect – Parent Voice – replaced our structured PAFA meetings with an informal “town hall” style meeting that allows parents to have a direct dialogue with our SLT on key issues (we also invite our parents to submit topics for discussion) – this still allows our parents to feel heard. We do light catering and drinks as well for these events.
3. CAC Marketing – our team has absorbed all the event management/logistics of the PAFA events portfolio. We wanted to keep the events as is, as they were successful in engaging our parents/friendraising. This is beneficial from an event policy/procedure perspective.
We had our first CAC connect this term and our attendance was 5 times more than previous PAFA meetings.
We also are working hard at cultivating strong connections with our parent volunteers and making sure that when we put out an EOI for volunteer support, we make sure we make them feel appreciated and not obligated to do the hard yards – whatever they can donate by way of time/talent is all we ask.
It’s still early days but based on the parent feedback so far it’s been positive.
it did take a carefully crafted comms plan in late 2023 to ensure that the messaging and concept was well received and the College was portrayed positively.
All of our events this year won’t be about fundraising, as we now have a foundation, they are focussed solely on keeping our College community engaged and connected.
Hope this helps!
